Social pressure during adolescence, a stage in which children begin to yearn for acceptance and to feel part of a group, is a cause of cyberbullying, as a series of self-justifications lead those who engage in these attacks to not feel responsible for the suffering they cause their victims.
This is according to a study – “Peer Pressure and Cyberaggression in Adolescents: The Mediating Effect of Moral Disengagement Strategies” by Blanca Álvarez-Turrado, Daniel Falla, and Eva M. Romera – that appeared in the journal Youth & Society.
Here, 1,487 schoolchildren (48.1% girls; M = 13.46, SD = 1.07) aged 11 to 17 were surveyed using self-reports. Descriptive and mediation analyses were performed using the PROCESS macro.
The study found:
- There was a direct, significant relationship between peer pressure and cyberaggression
- To “deal” with their guilt for cyberbullying, there were moral disengagement strategies used, including minimizing of responsibility, distortion of consequences, and dehumanization; that is, either the aggressors tended to downplay the consequences of their behavior, because the victims do not complain, or they dehumanized the victim by concluding that they deserved it, because they are inferior, or based on their behavior (transferring responsibility to the victim)
According to Félix: “The implicit or explicit pressure of the group spurs the perpetrators to interpret the situation in a different way, to reduce their levels of guilt, responsibility and shame.” Meaning, “peer pressure prompts students to justify their behavior and end up making decisions that violate their own moral standards, but are positively considered by the group.”
To a lesser extent, adolescents also shirked their own responsibility for this behavior and end up blaming other people (such as adults, for not being vigilant), or they envisioned their conduct at something collective, a group phenomenon, rather than something unique to the aggressor.
Thus, “the coldness of screens generates a moral distance from the victims, which can exacerbate the relationship between peer pressure and cyberbullying.”
In this regard, according to the research team, it is important that prevention programs work on the humanization and dignification of cybervictims, as, in many cases, they are depersonalized and lost through the screen.
Therefore, it is necessary to address the connection between these different variables to identify increasingly specific strategies that help to understand a phenomenon as complex as this one.
Also, for psychoeducational programs to be effective, they must take into account the wide variety of factors (emotional, moral and social) that influence cyberbullying. One of these factors is related to young people’s desire to belong to groups.
