Current research converges to demonstrate that
children who bully, similarly to other aggressive children,
tend more frequently to use moral disengagement
mechanisms compared to their nonaggressive
peers. For instance, in a cross-national study with Italian
and Spanish elementary school children, bullies
reported higher levels of moral disengagement and
the presence of a profile of egocentric reasoning when
compared to the defenders of the victim [Menesini
et al., 2003b]. Among Canadian adolescents, Hymel
et al. [2005] also found a positive association between
bullying and moral disengagement. Similarly, in a
sample of Italian elementary-school children, Gini
[2006] found that bullies scored higher than nonaggressive
pupils on a scale assessing the mechanisms
identified by Bandura. In this study, bullies’ followers
(i.e., assistants and reinforcers of the bully) also scored
high on the same scale. Thus, in bullying dynamics,
it is not solely the bullies who are likely to morally
disengage, but also the peers who support them. Finally,
higher levels of moral disengagement in both
child and adolescent bullies were recently confirmed
by Gini et al. [2011] and Obermann [2011].
Unfortunately, based on exploratory factor analysis,
previous studies have only investigated the association
between a global index of moral disengagement
and bullying behavior, thus losing information about
the specificity of the different sets of mechanisms
conceptualized by Bandura. Conversely, Pornari and
Wood [2010] have recently analyzed the relationship
between the various mechanisms of moral disengagement
and peer aggression (but not specifically bullying)
among 12–14-year-old students. Results of their
regression analysis showed that aggressive behavior
toward peers was positively associated with moral
justification and euphemistic language and, to a lesser
extent, displacement of responsibility. In other words