Moral Disengagement and Risk Prototypes in the Context of Adolescent Cyberbullying: Findings From Two Countries

LAZURAS, Lambros, BRIGHI, Antonella, BARKOUKIS, Vassilis, GUARINI, Annalisa, TSORBATZOUDIS, Haralambos and GENTA, Maria Luisa (2019). Moral Disengagement and Risk Prototypes in the Context of Adolescent Cyberbullying: Findings From Two Countries. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, p. 1823.

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Abstract

Cyberbullying is associated with a wide range of mental health difficulties and behavioral problems in adolescents and research is needed to better understand psychological correlates of this behavior. The present study used a novel model that incorporated Social Cognitive Theory and the prototype/willingness model to identify the correlates of behavioral willingness to engage in cyberbullying in two countries. Adolescent students were randomly selected from secondary schools in Italy (n = 1710) and Greece (n = 355), and completed anonymous measures of moral disengagement, descriptive norms, risk prototype evaluations and behavioral willingness to engage in cyberbullying. Hierarchical linear regression analyses showed that willingness to engage in cyberbullying was associated with moral disengagement, prototype evaluations and descriptive social norms in Italy, and with gender, moral disengagement and descriptive social norms in Greece. Regression-based multiple mediation modeling further showed that the association between moral disengagement and cyberbullying willingness was mediated by prototype evaluations in Italy and by descriptive norms in Greece. The implications of our findings are discussed in the context of self-regulating cyberbullying perpetration in adolescents and informing school-based policies and interventions to prevent cyberbullying behavior.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	** From Frontiers via Jisc Publications Router ** Licence for this article: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ **Journal IDs: eissn 1664-1078 **History: published_online 08-08-2019; accepted 23-07-2019; collection 2019; submitted 19-12-2018
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Psychology, cyberbullying, moral disengagement, prototype/willingness model, adolescents, willingness
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01823
Page Range:	p. 1823
SWORD Depositor:	Helen Garner
Depositing User:	Helen Garner
Date Deposited:	22 Aug 2019 15:36
Last Modified:	18 Mar 2021 03:37
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/25041

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