The Relationship Between Empathy And Bystander Behavior In Cyberbullying Among Junior High School Students: The Mediating Role Of Moral Evasion

With the development of information and technology and the popularity of the Internet,Cyberbullying has become a new form of bullying.It refers to aggressive behaviors in which a person or group hurts or threatens others intentionally through information and communication technologies.The role of cyberbullying is not only direct bullies and victims,but also a lot of bystanders.Bystanders respond to cyberbullying in roughly three different ways:assisting or reinforcing the bully,supporting or defending the bullied and remaining an outsider.At present,domestic research is at the initial stage.foriegn research shows that empathy and moral disengagement have important influence on bystanders' behavior in cyberbullying,but lack of discussion on its mechanism.The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the junior middle school students' empathy and the behavior of bystanders in cyberbullying,and whether moral disengagement has a mediating role between the two.A total of 735 junior middle school students were selected and anonymous questionnaires were written,bystanders' behavior questionnaire in the cyberbullying,the cyberbullying experience and be bullied experience questionnaire,the interpersonal reactivity index,the moral disengagement scale,barratt impulsiveness scale(BIS ? 11),the positive and negative affect scale.The results showed that:(1)There were significant gender differences in promoting bullying behaviors,boys were significantly more than girls;there were no significant gender differences in the helping the bullied behaviors and outside behaviors.There is no significant difference in grade.(2)The existing cyberbullying experience is positively related to the promoting bullying behaviors,outside behaviors,and is negatively related to helping the bullied behaviors;the existing be-bullied experience is positively related to the promoting bullying behaviors.(3)Empathy is positively correlated with the defending behaviors,and is negatively related to outside behaviors.Moral disengagement is positively related to the promoting bullying behaviors,outside behaviors,and is negatively related to the defending behaviors.(4)Moral disengagement has a partial mediation effect between empathy and defending behaviors/outside behaviors.These findings indicate that the high empathy of the individual by reducing the moral disengagement to increase the helping behaviors,the low empathy of the individual by increasing the moral disengagement to increase the outside behaviors.Then in school education,to improve the empathy of students,for more effective intervention in cyberbullying and promote the healthy development of network communication is of great significance.