The Effect Of Parental Control On Cyberbullying Of Junior High School Students: The Role Of Moral Disengagement And Self-control

Nowadays, the internet has become an indispensable part of the individual's daily life, especially for the adolescent. The characteristics of the internet, such as out of time and space, provide a relatively convenient interpersonal environment for people to communicate each other , and has a positive impact on individual's interpersonal and psychological social adaptation. But there are also some deviation behaviors on the internet, especially for young individuals, whose physical and mental development is not yet mature, will be more prone to some inappropriate behaviors in the process of using the internet, cyberbullying is one of the most common deviation acts. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the cyberbullying behavior of junior high school students.In this study, we used Parental control questionnaires, moral disengagement questionnaires, self-control questionnaires and cyberbullying questionnaires to investigate the impact of internet usage, parental rearing patterns and individual characteristics on students in grade 7 and grade 8 of a middle school in Wuhan. A total of 588 questionnaires were distributed, of which 538 were valid questionnaires. The main conclusions were as follows:(1) The incidence of cyberbullying in junior high school students is 49.6%, nearly half of students have some form of cyberbullying behavior.(2 ) The gender difference of cyberbullying behavior in junior high school students are significant, and boys' cyberbullying behavior is significantly lower than girls'.(3) The grade difference of cyberbullying behavior in junior high school students are significant, and cyberbullying in eighth grade students significantly more than the seventh grade students.(4 ) Parental psychological control was significantly positive correlated with cyberbullying behavior, which can significantly predict the cyberbullying behavior of junior high school students; parental behavior control was significantly negative correlated with cyberbullying behavior, which can significantly predict the cyberbullying behavior of junior high school students.(5 ) The moral disengagement of junior high school students is significantly positively correlated with cyberbullying, the higher the level of moral disengagement was, the more cyberbullying would be.(6 ) Parental behavioral control was negatively correlated with moral disengagement, which can significantly predict the level of junior high school students'moral disengagement; parental psychological control was positively correlated with disengagement, which can significantly predict the level of junior high school students'moral disengagement.(7) Moral disengagement mediated the relationship between the two kinds of parental control and cyberbullying.(8 ) Self-control regulated the relationship between moral disengagement and cyberbullying behavior of junior high school students.