Abstract
ABSTRACTThe aim of the current study was to longitudinally investigate the bi-directional relationship between moral disengagement and bullying perpetration in a sample of 1,354 students from 108 elementary classes in 69 public schools. Students participated in the study both at Time 1 (fourth grade) and around one year later at Time 2 (fifth grade). Structural equation model analyses showed that bullying perpetration at Time 1 predicted moral disengagement at Time 2, when controlling for moral disengagement stability over time. In addition, we found that moral disengagement at Time 1 also predicted bullying perpetration at Time 2, when controlling for bullying perpetration at Time 1. These findings suggest that teachers, school staff, and professionals should consider interventions that address moral disengagement when working with children involved in bullying.
Highlights
Bullying, usually defined as repeated aggression directed at individuals who are less powerful (Jimerson, Swearer, & Espelage, 2010; Olweus, 1993), is a pervasive problem in schools throughout the world (Chester et al, 2015; Lian et al, 2018; Tanrikulu, 2018)
The aim of the current study is to examine whether moral disengagement can predict children’s bullying perpetration, and whether children’s bullying perpetration can predict moral disengagement over a period of one year
Moral disengagement at Time 1 was positively correlated with bullying perpetration at Time 2 (r = .21), and bullying perpetration at Time 1 was positively correlated with moral disengagement in at Time 2 (r = .37)
Summary
Usually defined as repeated aggression directed at individuals who are less powerful (Jimerson, Swearer, & Espelage, 2010; Olweus, 1993), is a pervasive problem in schools throughout the world (Chester et al, 2015; Lian et al, 2018; Tanrikulu, 2018). Deactivated and moral self-sanctions can be disengaged, which in turn promotes or facilitates behaviors that harm others without feelings of remorse or guilt. Children who initially bully others may gradually disengage self-sanctions for such behavior, which allows them to maintain bullying perpetration with fewer and fewer feelings of guilt and remorse. These children may continue to disengage from self-sanctions for bullying perpetration, which in turn allows them to increase their bullying behavior in the future. In this sense, moral disengagement predicts bullying perpetration over time. The directionality between moral disengagement and bullying perpetration remains unclear due to limited longitudinal research investigating this relationship (Gini, Pozzoli, & Hymel, 2014; Killer et al, 2019)
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