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The relationship between being bullied and bystander intervention in adolescent school bullying: the moderating mediation of moral disengagement and only child status

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Abstract

Many studies have examined that bullying bystander intervention refers to a positive, pro-social bystander behavior that prevents the sustained development of bullying incidents in the face of school bullying. Limited research has investigated the different roles of bystanders and the factors that influence their behavior. This study attempts to explore the association between being bullied and intervention by bystanders in adolescent school bullying, the role of moral disengagement, and the status of only children in this context. For this purpose, 2113 middle school students completed the Being Bullied Behavior Scale, Bystander Intervention Scale, and Moral Disengagement Scale. The study findings indicate that (1) being bullied positively anticipates the intervention by bystanders in school bullying; (2) further, moral disengagement plays an essential role in mediating the effects of bullying on bystander intervention, and being bullied "masks" the related positive influence on the bystander intervention through the negative mediation of moral disengagement; and (3) finally, the status of being an only child moderates the first half of this mediating effect. Based on this, this study implies that being bullied is more effective at predicting moral disengagement for only children. Consequently, the influence of being bullied on bystander intervention in school bullying is revealed in this study, which exhibits significant practical implications for improving the ecological environment of school bullying.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This study was conducted within the Doctoral Research Foundation Project of Xinjiang Normal University. The authors sincerely thank all students, teachers, and school administrators for participating and cooperating and MJEditor (www.mjeditor.com) for providing English editing services while preparing this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by The Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science project (19YJA880086), the Doctoral Research Foundation Project of Xinjiang Normal University (XJNUBS202008), and the Doctoral Students' Independent Innovation Project for 2021, College of Educational Sciences, Xinjiang Normal University (XJNUJKYA2101).

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  1. School of Education Science, Xinjiang Normal University, 100 Guanjing Road, Wulumuqi, 830017, China

    Dongrong Wang, Yuhong Zhang, Huidong Tian, Haoxiang Sun, Kui Wang, Meng Su & Yixin Wei

  2. Center for Teacher Education Research in Xinjiang, Xinjiang Normal University, 100 Guanjing Road, Wulumuqi, 830017, China

    Yuhong Zhang

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Dongrong Wang, Yuhong Zhang, Huidong Tian, Haoxiang Sun, Kui Wang, Meng Su, and Yixin Wei. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Dongrong Wang and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Wang, D., Zhang, Y., Tian, H. et al. The relationship between being bullied and bystander intervention in adolescent school bullying: the moderating mediation of moral disengagement and only child status. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05734-x

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