A reconsideration of the “victim complex”: the moderating role of exercise behavior

Introduction This study examined the associations among victim justice sensitivity, dispositional envy, and hostile attribution bias in adolescents, and whether these associations varied with exercise behavior. Methods A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among 1,116 Chinese adolescents in Grades 7–12 (31.5% male and 68.5% female; 13.1% junior high school students and 86.9% senior high school students). Structural equation modeling and the PROCESS macro were used to examine direct and indirect associations and the moderating role of exercise behavior, controlling for gender and grade. Results Victim justice sensitivity was significantly and positively associated with dispositional envy and hostile attribution bias. Dispositional envy was also significantly and positively associated with hostile attribution bias, and a significant positive indirect association between victim justice sensitivity and hostile attribution bias through dispositional envy was observed. The conditional direct association between victim justice sensitivity and hostile attribution bias became more positive as exercise behavior increased, whereas the positive indirect association through dispositional envy became weaker. Discussion The findings suggest that dispositional envy and exercise behavior are relevant to understanding the association between victim justice sensitivity and hostile attribution bias among adolescents. Exercise behavior showed different moderating patterns across the direct and indirect pathways and should therefore not be interpreted as uniformly protective. Given the cross-sectional design, these findings do not establish causality or temporal ordering. Longitudinal and intervention studies are needed to examine the proposed relationships and their implications for adolescent mental health.