Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Dark Side Personality Traits and Cyberbullying: The Mediating Role of Moral Disengagement

Background: Cyberbullying is a pervasive aggressive behavior, and many studies have investigated its mechanisms and influencing factors, such as the dark tetrad and moral disengagement. The present study further investigated the relationships among the dark tetrad (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism), cyberbullying offending, and cybervictimization, with a focus on gender differences. Methods: A total of 566 university students participated in the online survey. A multiple-group structural equation model was used to test the gender differences in the mediating role of moral disengagement in relationships between dark side personality traits and cyberbullying offending and cybervictimization. Results: The results indicated that gender differences only emerged for narcissism and cybervictimization. More specifically, for males, moral disengagement did not mediate any paths of the dark side personality traits and cyberbullying. For females, moral disengagement mediated the links between (a) Machiavellianism and cyberbullying offending (effect size = 0.064, p = 0.001); (b) sadism and cyberbullying offending (effect size = 0.075, p = 0.001); (c) Machiavellianism and cybervictimization (effect size = 0.030, p = 0.024); (d) sadism and cybervictimization (effect size = 0.035, p = 0.027). Conclusions: The findings suggest that moral disengagement increases the likelihood that females with dark personality traits engage in cyberbullying, while this association is not observed in males.