Longitudinal associations between parental attachment and adolescents' pro-bullying bystander behaviors: The mediating role of moral disengagement

Pro-bullying bystander behaviors refer to actively taking the bullies' side when the bullying occurs, such as joining in the bullying or assisting the bullies by laughing or cheering. Previous studies have indicated that pro-bullying bystander behaviors might increase the incidence and intensity of bullying directly. Poor-quality parental attachment has been found to predict adolescents' pro-bullying bystander behaviors. We tested whether adolescents' moral disengagement mediated the association and tested for gender differences in this process. A longitudinal study was conducted three times, each 6 months apart to test our hypotheses. 885 participants (47.91 % boys) were included in the longitudinal mediating model of parental attachment, moral disengagement, and pro-bullying bystander behaviors. We found that parental attachment at Time 1 negatively predicted moral disengagement at Time 2, and moral disengagement at Time 2 positively predicted adolescents' pro-bullying bystander behaviors at Time 3. Moral disengagement at Time 2 mediated the relationship between parental attachment at Time 1 and pro-bullying bystander behaviors at Time 3. The longitudinal mediation was marginally significant for boys but not for girls. Our findings indicated that moral disengagement, as a longitudinal mediating factor in the link between parental attachment and pro-bullying bystander behaviors, might be a useful focus in interventions to reduce school bullying. •We focused on longitudinal predictors of pro-bullying bystander behaviors to better understand causality.•We used a Chinese sample of middle school students, a less studied population.•Moral disengagement mediated the longitudinal associations between parental attachment and pro-bullying bystander behaviors.•The longitudinal mediation model was marginally significant for boys, but not girls.