The Moral Maze of Cyberbullying: Navigating the Roles of Victims, Bystanders, and Perpetrators in the Cycle of Harm

The available literature suggests that cyberbullying victims might be prone to become cyber-perpetrators themselves and that cyber-passive bystanders might be influenced by their cyberbullying experience and moral disengagement. The current study aimed to investigate the role of cyberbullying victimization and passive bystander behavior as predictors of cyberbullying aggression, while accounting for the mediating role of moral disengagement (specifically related to cyberbullying) and the moderating role of gender. We recruited 840 Romanian participants (78.6% females), aged 18 to 35 (M = 21.16, SD = 2.38). Results suggested that male participants reported higher cyberbullying aggression, passive bystander behavior, and moral disengagement. Both cyberbullying victimization and passive bystander behavior predicted cyberbullying aggression. Moral disengagement mediated the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying aggression, as well as between passive bystander behavior and cyberbullying victimization. Furthermore, gender moderated the effect of passive bystander behavior on moral disengagement. Also, passive bystander behavior predicted moral disengagement only for male participants. The current results highlight that cyber-victims and bystanders with high moral disengagement might have higher chances of becoming cyber-aggressors.