Research On The Relationship Between Belief In A Just World And Bullying

Lerner and Simmons first proposed the concept of Belief in a just world(BJW)in 1966.The BJW refers to the belief that the world we live in is fair and just,and people can get what they deserve in this world.Since the concept of BJW was first put forward,the research on BJW has been more than half a century.Earlier studies focused more on the relationship between BJW and mental health.Studies have found that BJW can not only serve as a "personal resource" to enhance people’s life satisfaction and positive emotions,but also act as a "psychological buffer" to relieve people’s depression.Some studies have found that,in addition to being strongly linked to mental health,BJW may also be linked to aggression and deviant behavior(such as bullying).Previous research has shown that the stronger students’ BJW,the less likely they are to bully others.Similarly,the higher individuals’ level of BJW,the less likely they are to report being harmed by others.The relationship between BJW and bullying may be due to the fact that individuals with high BJW will maintain a general sense of justice in social interaction,and the improvement of BJW level will contribute to the improvement of forgiveness level,and the improvement of forgiveness level will help individuals reduce bullying behavior.Therefore,this study attempts to explore the influence of BJW on bullying,and examine the mediating role of forgiveness in the relationship between BJW and bullying,while considering the moderating role of gender in the mediating model.In order to explore the influence of just world belief on bullying behavior and its internal mechanism,a total of 850 junior high school students from a junior middle school in Enshi were investigated by using the Belief in a Just World Scale,the Traditional Bullying Perpetration Scale,Traditional Bullying Victimization Scale,the Cyber-Bullying Perpetration Scale,Cyber-Bullying Victimization Scales and the Forgiveness Scale.SPSS22.0 and Mplus were used to test the mediation effect of structural equation model and multi-group comparative analysis.The results showed that:(1)There are no significant gender differences in teenagers’ personal-BJW and general-BJW,but there are significant gender differences in the level of forgiveness among adolescents,and girls’ forgiveness level is significantly higher than that of boys.There are significant gender differences in the traditional bullying victimization of adolescents,and the traditional bullying victimization of boys is significantly higher than that of girls.The gender difference of teenagers’ traditional bullying perpetration is significant,the frequency of boys’ traditional bullying perpetration is significantly higher than that of girls.The gender difference of teenagers’ cyber-bullying victimization is significant,and the frequency of boys’cyber-bullying victimization is significantly higher than that of girls.The gender difference of adolescent cyber-bullying perpetration is significant,and the frequency of boys’ cyber bullying perpetration is significantly higher than that of girls.(2)The grade differences of forgiveness level,traditional bullying victimization,traditional bullying perpetration,cyber-bullying victimization and cyber-bullying perpetration of adolescents are not significant,but the grade differences of their personal-BJW are marginally significant.The grade difference of general-BJW is significant,and the general-BJW level of Grade 2 is significantly higher than that of Grade 1.(3)There is a significant negative correlation between personal-BJW and traditional bullying victimization and cyber-bullying victimization.General-BJW has a significant negative correlation with traditional bullying victimization and traditional bullying perpetration.General-BJW has a significant positive correlation with forgiveness,while forgiveness has a significant negative correlation with traditional bullying victimization,traditional bullying perpetration,cyber-bullying victimization and cyber-bullying perpetration.(4)Forgiveness plays an intermediary role in the influence of personal-BJW on traditional bullying victimization,traditional bullying perpetration,cyber-bullying victimization and cyber-bullying perpetration.Forgiveness plays an mediation role in the influence of general-BJW on traditional bullying victimization,traditional bullying perpetration,cyber-bullying victimization and cyber-bullying perpetration.(5)There are gender differences in the influence of forgiveness on traditional bullying victimization,traditional bullying perpetration and cyber-bullying perpetration.Boys are more likely than girls to reduce traditional bullying victimization,traditional bullying perpetration and cyber-bullying perpetration.By exploring the relationship between BJW and traditional bullying victimization,traditional bullying perpetration,cyber-bullying victimization,cyber-bullying perpetration,this study complements and improves the role of BJW in maintaining individual mental health and social adaptation.In addition,this study also provides new perspectives and useful suggestions on how to reduce bullying perpetration and bullying victimization...