Cyberbullying after being cyber-victimized among Chinese children: The role of moral disengagement and normative beliefs about aggression

Globally, the Internet has become an integral part of many people’s lives, especially young people, who are the main Internet users. In Hong Kong, which is a technologically developed region, 99.8% of children and adolescents regularly access the Internet. While frequent Internet access creates alternative ways of accessing information, the downside of this easy access is online misbehavior, such as cyberbullying, that is a relatively newer form of bullying that threatens the social and behavioural development of children. Although the negative outcomes of cyberbullying have been well documented, there is a lack of research on how cyberbullying develops and of its underlying developmental mechanisms, particularly among children in primary schools. Despite a positive association between cyber-victimization and cyberbullying has been uncovered recently, its underlying mediating mechanisms are still unclear. While individual values, such as moral disengagement (MD) and normative beliefs about aggression (NOBAG), were found to predict cyberbullying, their mediating role in the cyber-victimization and cyberbullying link is largely unexplored.

To address these research gaps, we conducted a cross-sectional study among 1,252 Grade Four students (56.8% males; mean age = 9.38) from 16 primary schools in Hong Kong, China. Using a structural equation model, we found that both MD and NOBAG served as the mediators in the association between cyber-victimization and cyberbullying. Cyber-victimization was strongly related to MD and NOBAG, which further increased cyberbullying involvement. We also found that while there were no gender differences in the mediating effects of MD and NOBAG in the association between cyber-victimization and cyberbullying, high levels of MD and NOBAG were more strongly related to cyberbullying in females than males.

The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of cyberbullying development in children and it also assessed the cross-cultural generalizability of existing Western theories and research findings. Moreover, the findings could direct both future research and intervention programs aimed at protecting children in the cyber world by enhancing the education of moral values and normative beliefs about aggression to reduce the likelihood of cyberbullying.