The Socio-Cognitive Attitudes of Teen Bullies: Right-Wing Authoritarianism, Moral Disengagement, and Perceived Victimization

The current study examined the relations among socio-cognitive attitudes such as right-wing authoritarianism (submission to authority figures, aggressive behavior in the name of those authority figures, and conformance to social conventions) and moral disengagement (the justification of harmful actions) as they relate to teen bullying perpetration and victimization. Analyses tested a moderated mediation model among 212 ninth-grade students attending a public high school. Right-wing authoritarianism was directly linked to increased self-reported frequency of bullying perpetration and indirectly linked to bullying perpetration via perceptions of victimization. Both the direct and indirect effects were moderated by moral disengagement. That is, right-wing authoritarianism was only linked to higher levels of bullying perpetration when moral disengagement was also higher. Findings from the current study may help inform bullying prevention and intervention techniques as well as provide further insight regarding the etiology of bullying behaviors.