Moral Disengagement as an Explanatory Factor of the Polyivictimization of Bullying and Cyberbullying

Abstract

Background: The present study’s objectives were to: (1) Identify and analyze the prevalence of poly-victims, and (2) determine how the levels of moral disengagement and the various defence mechanisms that victims use to explain abusive behavior might function as predictors of poly-bullying. Methods: The sample consisted of 1328 participants of from 9 to 14 years old. The instruments used were two questionnaires. One allows the prevalence of bullying and cyberbullying victims to be identified and analyzed. The other analyses the level of moral disengagement and the defence mechanisms to which the victims resort. Results: The results showed there to be a continuity of the role of victim in off-line and on-line contexts, turning those who are subject to these situations into poly-victims. The moral disengagement of these victims was found basically to be centered at two levels—a locus of behavior, and a locus of outcomes. Conclusions: Exposure to abuse that is continuous, of different types, and coming from different contexts must be perceived as a public health problem given the lack of effective tools to combat the situations of helplessness that the polyvictims experience.

Relationship between Amount, Type, Enjoyment of Physical Activity and Physical Education Performance with Cyberbullying in Adolescents

“…In this sense, it has been empirically confirmed that, on many occasions, the new technologies are not used safely, which has favoured the appearance of unfavourable behaviour [ 4 ], among which cyberbullying stands out [ 5 ]. Cyberbullying constitutes a growing scientific interest [ 6 ], mainly due to the generalisation of this phenomenon among the youngest population in a massive way [ 7 ] being usually accompanied by the existence of bullying [ 8 , 9 ]. For this reason, cyberbullying is a social concern, which is present in all educational institutions [ 10 ] and, therefore, increasing knowledge about this new form of harassment seems to be fundamental in order to establish adequate and specific prevention strategies for each context.…”

Influence of Personality Traits and Its Interaction with the Phenomenon of Bullying: Multi-Centre Descriptive Study

“…It indirectly causes at least 200 deaths every year [2]. Though social awareness is growing, recent years have seen a greater number of cases diagnosed [3].…”

Cyberbullying among Adolescents: Psychometric Properties of the CYB-AGS Cyber-Aggressor Scale

“…In this regard, some authors suggest that cyberbullying has more negative and adverse consequences for the victim than traditional bullying [27,28]. Of course, these detrimental effects are much more traumatic for the adolescent when he or she is subjected to a situation of poly-bullying victimization [29,30], which involves being a victim of both traditional bullying and cyberbullying [31][32][33] In fact, many authors show that there is a considerable overlap between traditional bullying and cyberbullying [4,24,25,34,35].…”