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School bullying and the mechanisms of moral disengagement
Author(s) -
Thornberg Robert,
Jungert Tomas
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
aggressive behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.223
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1098-2337
pISSN - 0096-140X
DOI - 10.1002/ab.21509
Subject(s) - attribution , moral disengagement , psychology , disengagement theory , poison control , developmental psychology , social psychology , human factors and ergonomics , suicide prevention , injury prevention , moral development , moral responsibility , medicine , medical emergency , gerontology , philosophy , epistemology
The aim of the present study was to examine to what degree different mechanisms of moral disengagement were related to age, gender, bullying, and defending among school children. Three hundred and seventy‐two Swedish children ranging in age from 10 to 14 years completed a questionnaire. Findings revealed that boys expressed significantly higher levels of moral justification, euphemistic labeling, diffusion of responsibility, distorting consequences, and victim attribution, as compared with girls. Whereas boys bullied others significantly more often than girls, age was unrelated to bullying. Moral justification and victim attribution were the only dimensions of moral disengagement that significantly related to bullying. Furthermore, younger children and girls were more likely to defend victims. Diffusion of responsibility and victim attribution were significantly and negatively related to defending, while the other dimensions of moral disengagement were unrelated to defending. Aggr. Behav. 40:99–108, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.