The Relationship Between Adolescents' Belief In A Just World And Cyberbullying: The Mediating Role Of Moral Disengagement

Cyberbullying is a kind of behavior that an individual or group uses electronic means to cause harm to other individuals or groups purposely and repetitively,the virtual nature of the Internet makes it difficult for adolescents to cope and protect their rights,therefore,the harm of cyberbullying is extremely extensive and difficult to control.Belief in a just world is a belief in value,that is,believing that the world in which you live is fair,it can maintain an individual's sense of justice and mental health.And moral disengagement is an individual reinterprets their behavior to make the consequences less harmful thus shirk responsibility by moral disengagement,it has an important impact on cyberbullying.The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of adolescents' belief in a just world on cyberbullying and the mechanism of moral disengagement.Use Belief in a Just World Scale complied by Dalbert(1999)and revised by Su Zhiqiang et al.(2012),Cyberbullying Scale complied by Erdur et al.(2007)and Moral Disengagement questionnaire complied by Bandura et al.(1996),revised by Wang Xingchao and Yang Jiping(2010)to test 960(age 13-17,female 62.81%)students in Anhui Province.SPSS 24.0 was used for statistical analysis of the data.The conclusion of the study showed that:(1)The situation of adolescents' cyberbullying is less in general,and there are significant differences in demographic variables such as gender and origins,but no significant differences in grades and onechild or not.(2)The general situation of adolescents' belief in a just world is above the medium level,there are significant differences in grades,but no significant differences in gender,origins and one-child or not.(3)The level of adolescents' moral disengagement is below the medium level in general,there are significant differences in gender,but no significant differences in grades,origins and one-child or not.(4)There are significant correlations between adolescents' cyberbullying,belief in a just world and moral disengagement.Cyberbullying has a significant negative correlation with the belief in a just world and a significant positive correlation with moral disengagement.Cyberbullied behavior has a significant negative correlation with belief in a just world and a significant positive correlation with moral disengagement.(5)Moral disengagement plays mediating role between cyberbullying and belief in a just world.That is,belief in a just world not only directly affect cyberbullying but also indirectly affect cyberbullying through moral diaengagement.Based on the above conclusion,this study considered that: Schools and parents should strengthen the effective education and supervision of adolescents,fully recognize the negative impact of cybullying on them;school and family education should effectively change the educational concept and provide a fair education for every teenager;schools should fully play the positive effect of online education and pay more attention to the moral education of adolescents.