Suchergebnisse

Studies on cyberbullying recognize that peer group pressure can activate certain moral disengagement mechanisms that promote the perpetration of aggressive behaviors online. The objectives of this research were to analyze the association of peer group pressure with cyberaggression and to test the mediation effect of different moral disengagement strategies. The total sample was 1,487 schoolchildren (48.1% girls; M = 13.46, SD = 1.07) aged 11 to 17, who were surveyed using self-reports. Descriptive and mediation analyses were performed using the PROCESS macro. The results indicated that there was a direct, significant relationship between peer pressure and cyberaggression. The moral disengagement strategies that showed an indirect effect on the relationship between peer pressure and cyberaggression were minimizing of responsibility, distortion of consequences, and dehumanization. Here, we discuss how the cognitive processes originated by peer pressure may be related to the perpetration of immoral behaviors online.

Previous studies have shown that there is overlap between victimization and the perpetration of bullying, and social and motivational variables are known to mediate this relationship. However, the effects of different moral disengagement strategies have not been studied, despite the fact that they exert a major influence on aggressive behavior. This hypothesis and the moderating role of gender were tested through a longitudinal study ( N = 2,066) administered in three waves at 6-month intervals. The results indicated that cognitive restructuring influenced the association between victimization and subsequent bullying. In high victimization scores, boys had higher scores in bullying perpetration compared to girls. The conclusion underlines the importance of the role of morals and ethics in peer relations and in the cycle of violence.

The influence of the family in children's involvement in bullying and cyberbullying has been well documented. However, previous research into this relationship seems to have overlooked recent social changes, which have affected the family context. The aim of this study is to put forward a categorization of the current educational management of Spanish parents and examine how this is linked to their children's involvement in bullying and cyberbullying. To achieve this, 2060 schoolchildren from the South of Spain (47.9% girls with mean age = 14.34) answered four questionnaires including the Scale for the Assessment of the Parenting Styles of Adolescents' Mothers and Fathers, the Discipline Dimensions Inventory, the European Bullying Intervention Project Questionnaire, and the European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire. The Cluster Analysis results revealed a typology containing six styles: permissive, authoritarian, strict, normative democratic, indulgent democratic, and punitive democratic. Lower levels of victimization and aggression in bullying and cyberbullying were found to be linked to the indulgent democratic or normative democratic styles and higher levels to the authoritarian and strict styles. The value of parents' educational practices and how they are combined in general styles, since these are elements that can predispose or prevent adolescent's involvement in bullying and cyberbullying, is discussed.