Bullying and moral disengagement in early adolescence: do personality and family functioning matter?
Mazzone, AngelaORCID: 0000-0002-5858-8033 and Camodeca, Marina
(2019)
Bullying and moral disengagement in early adolescence: do personality and family functioning matter?
Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28
.
pp. 2120-2130.
ISSN 1062-1024
The present study adopted a multi-informant approach to investigate the contribution of personality and family
functioning to moral disengagement and bullying-related behaviors in early adolescence. The sample included 102 early
adolescents (53 boys and 49 girls; mean age = 12.21 years; effect size = 0.35, power = 0.95, and error probability =
5%). Behaviors during bullying situations were detected by peer nominations. Self-report measures were administered
to assess moral disengagement and family functioning, whereas a parent-report was administered to detect personality
traits. Results showed that extraversion was positively associated with bullying and moral disengagement, while
benevolence was positively associated with defending behavior. Family functioning was negatively associated with
moral disengagement. Furthermore, we found that personality and family functioning were intertwined in their
association with bullying-related behaviors and moral disengagement. In particular, a low conscientiousness, together
with a low family functioning, decreased the likelihood of defending behavior and increased the risk of bullying. High
levels of benevolence decreased outsider behavior in students with a high family functioning. Although extraversion
was positively associated with bullying and moral disengagement, findings suggested that it increased moral
disengagement only among early adolescents with low family functioning. Overall, findings underline the importance
of addressing individual and contextual variables when studying bullying and moral disengagement among early
adolescents.
Keywords: bullying, defending, outsider,
Metadata
Item Type:
Article (Published)
Refereed:
Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:
bullying; defending; outsider; moral disengagement; personality; family functioning