Being Brave or Silent: How Moral Courage and Moral Behavior Shape Bystander Behavior in Youth Sport

Bullying in youth sport is a form of peer-directed interpersonal violence that remains underexamined, particularly regarding the psychological mechanisms shaping bystander responses in team contexts. This study examined whether moral courage predicts athletes’ bystander behaviors in bullying and whether these relationships are mediated by moral disengagement, prosocial and antisocial behavior. A total of 305 youth athletes (Mage = 17.11, SD = 1.70) completed validated measures. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). SEM revealed that moral courage was positively associated with defending and negatively associated with passive bystanding and pro-bullying behavior. Moral courage was negatively related to moral disengagement and antisocial behavior, and positively related to prosocial behavior. Moral disengagement emerged as a central cognitive–moral mechanism underlying bystander responses, exerting positive direct effects on pro-bullying and passive bystanding and negative effect on defending. Antisocial behavior provided an additional independent pathway, contributing a unique positive direct effect on pro-bullying beyond the influence of moral disengagement. Indirect effects indicated that moral courage was linked to pro-bullying mainly through athletes’ antisocial behavior, whereas moral disengagement mediated its effects on passive bystanding and defending. These findings highlight moral courage as potentially important resource for promoting active bystander behavior and underscore the importance of targeting moral disengagement in bystander interventions.