Bullying and Protection: The Influence of Moral Disengagement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/subbpsyped.2025.1.01Keywords:
active defending, student, moral disengagement, active bullying, victimisationAbstract
Bullying is one of the most frequently discussed of social problems, which can be found in macro-, meso- or micro-communities, i.e. the family, public, higher education institutions or the workplace. Specialists increasingly put emphasis on the phenomenon of bullying, despite the fact that different types of bullying are prominent in the afore mentioned social institutions. The phenomenon can cause significant trauma to the victim, both psychologically and physically, which may lead to some form of isolation from society. However, the number of national and international studies on bullying in higher education is negligible. This study aims to answer the following questions: the relationship between victimisation and moral disengagement; if active defending and moral disengagement correlate; the type of correlation between active defending and victimisation; and gender differences from the perspective of active defending. The participants of the recent study were all Hungarian-speaking students of Babeș-Bolyai University. The research design applied in this study was a quantitative, correlational design. The results of this research show that victimisation is positively correlated with moral disengagement. No relationship was found between moral disengagement and active defending. Victimisation and active defending were also positively correlated, and there is a significant difference between men and women when it comes to active defending. The results of this research may be relevant for the implementation of various preventive and intervention programmes, for example the NAB IT! programme.
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