The moral perspective of the relations of peer bullying: An exploratory analysis of the attributions of Spanish and Portuguese adolescents.

Abstract

This study explores moral emotions associated to adolescents when discussing about peer bullying in school contexts. Bearing this objective in mind, we asked participants about the emotional experience of guilt, shame, pride, and indifference of bullies, victims and bystanders. In addition, we asked them to justify these associations. Secondly, we analysed whether their personal experience is distinctive from the emotional experience of story’s protagonists in any of the above-mentioned roles. A total of 1237 Spanish and Portuguese pre-adolescents and adolescents from 11 to 16 year-olds took part in this study. We applied the SCAN-Bullying 2005 questionnaire, with graphic support (drawings depicting a typical story on peer bullying in a school context). Results showed a different emotional profile depending on the role: pride and indifference were mostly associated with bullies; shame was more associated with the victims; and indifference, shame and guiltiness with bystanders. This research is embedded in former studies that analyse the happy victimizer phenomenon and moral disengagement, and in the results are discussed in line with this theoretical framework.

Key words: Peer bullying, moral emotions, sociomoral reasoning, adolescents.