A serial cascade effect of cybervictimization and hostile rumination on the within‐person change of moral disengagement

Objective There is a lack of clarity regarding the developmental mechanisms underlying moral disengagement (a typical moral personality) at the within‐person level. To address this issue, we explore the serial cascade effect of cybervictimization and hostile rumination. Method The longitudinal relationships between cybervictimization, hostile rumination, and moral disengagement were explored among 1146 undergraduates, assessed four times (T1–T4) across 2 years. Results The random intercept cross‐lagged panel model (RI‐CLPM) analysis revealed that the random intercepts of all variables were positively associated with each other. At the within‐person level, cybervictimization at T2 indirectly predicted subsequent changes in moral disengagement at T4 through changes in hostile rumination at T3 (the indirect effect was 0.02); furthermore, moral disengagement at T3 predicted changes in hostile rumination at T4 (β = 0.091). Conclusions The within‐person dynamics of moral disengagement should be partly due to the serial effect of cybervictimization and hostile rumination, whereas hostile rumination and moral disengagement may form a developmental cascade to some degree. These findings and the proposed serial cascade model of moral disengagement could expand our understanding of the developmental mechanism of moral personality. Additionally, caution must be exercised as this study exhibits seemingly small effect sizes and inconsistent results.