# The moderating role of moral disengagement on the relation between bullying and school well-being in adolescents

## TL;DR

This study explores how moral disengagement affects the relationship between bullying and school well-being in adolescents.

## Contribution

The study introduces the moderating role of moral disengagement in the link between bullying roles and school well-being.

## Key findings

- Victimization is linked to lower school well-being, but moral disengagement weakens this connection.
- Moral disengagement allows individuals to distance themselves from moral norms when coping with bullying.
- The study highlights cognitive scripts and reduced moral beliefs as potential coping mechanisms.

## Abstract

In recent years, research on bullying has focused on the association between moral disengagement and bullying behaviors. Additionally, the adverse effects that bullying has on school-level variables have been investigated. However, studies investigating the interplay between these variables are lacking.

Therefore, the present study focuses on the moderating effect of moral disengagement on the association between bullying roles (bully, victim, assistant, outsider, and defender) and school well-being. 216 (53.7% female; M = 12.84 years, SD = 1.39 years) secondary school students from Bremen and Lower Saxony, Germany, participated in the study from January 2022 until July 2022.

The results highlight the moderating role of moral disengagement in the association between victimization experience and school well-being. According to these findings, the more victimization someone experiences, the worse they feel in school. However, the detachment from moral norms weakens this bond.

The discussion explores the notions of cognitive scripts, reduced moral beliefs, and their potential influence on individuals repeatedly victimized by bullying. The focus is on how these individuals may cope by distancing themselves from moral norms.