Psychological Development and Education ›› 2025, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (2): 265-275.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2025.02.12

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Bullying Victimization and Adolescents’ Pro-bullying Bystander Behaviors: The Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement and Perceived Antibullying Class Norms

BAO Zhenzhou, CHU Yijia, WANG Fan, LIU Xixi, YU Mingshen   

  1. School of Educational Science, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou 341000
  • Published:2025-03-17

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Abstract: Bullying victimization is the risk factor of pro-bullying bystander behaviors. However, little is known about how and under what condition bullying victimization is related with pro-bullying bystander behaviors. Based on the social cognitive theory and risk and protective factor framework, the present study examined a moderated mediation model to explore whether moral disengagement would mediate the relationship between bullying victimization and pro-bullying bystander behaviors and perceived antibullying class norms as protective factor would moderate the direct and/or indirect pathway. A total of 1562 adolescents (Mage = 14.39 years, SD = 1.00) was recruited to participate in this study and completed relevant anonymous questionnaires. Data was analyzed using SPSS 26.0 and Mplus 8.3. The results indicated: (1) Bullying victimization was positively related to pro-bullying bystander behaviors; (2) The relationship between bullying victimization and pro-bullying bystander behaviors was partly mediated by moral disengagement; (3) Perceived antibullying class norms moderated the indirect pathways between bullying victimization and pro-bullying bystander behaviors. The present study revealed that how and under what condition bullying victimization is associated with pro-bullying bystander behaviors. Those findings contributed to our understanding of the underlying psychological mechanisms of pro-bullying bystander behaviors and provided suggestions for future bullying prevention interventions.

Key words: bullying victimization, moral disengagement, pro-bullying bystander behaviors, perceived antibullying class norms

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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