A Gender Difference in the Buffering Effect of Morality in Influencing of Two Risk Factors on Cyberbullying

This study aims to examine gender differences in effects of two risk factors cyberbullying victimization and association with cyberbullying peers for explaining cyberbullying perpetration, focusing on the different buffering roles of morality. This study examines whether the effect of cyberbullying victimization is significant in male and the effect of association with cyberbullying peer is significant in female. In addition, it also examined whether morality significantly buffers the direct effects of two risk factors across gender. Drawing on the analysis of the data from 256 college students, the result shows that the effects of both cyberbullying victimization and association with cyberbullying peers are significant for both males and females. However, we found a gender difference in their moderated buffering effects with morality. It is shown that morality significantly buffers the effect of association with cyberbullying peers for females, while it significantly buffers the effect of cyberbullying victimization for males. We discuss theoretical implications on the gender difference in the buffering roles of morality.