The Influence From Changes in Bullying Behavior on Stability
of Moral Disengagement
To control for the hierarchical structure of the data (children clustered in
classes), two different models were tested using multilevel linear modeling.
The first model assumed different patterns for each class regarding the relation
between changes in self-reported and peer-nominated bullying behavior
and changes in moral disengagement (residual SE = 12.49, df = 492). The
second model did not assume unique class-level differences (residual SE = 12.69, df = 558). Both models controlled for gender differences in the
classes. A comparison of the two models showed no significant differences,
F(66, 492) = 1.28, p > .05, indicating that the patterns between development
in bullying and development in moral disengagement do not differ between
the classes. Hence, the subsequent analyses did not control for unique class
level patterns of bullying and moral disengagement development.