The Influence Of Empathy On Bullying Behavior In Adolescents

Empathy is an important factor that influences the individual’s moral cognition.As a mechanism that influences the individual’s moral cognition,moral evasion makes the individual act against internal moral standards,and can significantly predict the occurrence of juvenile bullying.In this study,1095 subjects from Grade 5 to Grade 8 were selected to use the basic empathy scale,the adolescent version of the moral evasion questionnaire and the bullying and defensive behavior scale to study adolescents’ empathy,moral evasion and bullying behavior.This paper analyzed the mediating role of moral evasion in the influence of adolescents’ empathy on bullying behavior and the moderating role of gender in this mediating:(1)The adolescents’ overall empathy was good,and there were significant differences in gender and whether they are class cadres or not.Female students reported significantly higher cognitive empathy and affective empathy than male students,and class cardres’ cognitive empathy and affective empathy were significantly higher than that of non-class cadres.(2)The overall level of teenagers’ moral evasion was not high.There were significant gender differences in adolescent moral defensiveness,euphemistic labeling,distorted outcomes,and dehumanizing behaviors,and boys significantly outperformed girls in these behaviors.The junior middle school students’ euphemistic labels,favorable comparisons and distorted results behaviors were significantly higher than those of the elementary school students.The non-class cadres’ euphemistic labels,favorable comparisons,responsibility shift and distorted results behaviors were significantly higher than those of the class cadres.(3)There were significant differences in the gender of bullying behavior among adolescents.Male students reported significantly higher bullying behavior than female students.(4)Empathy was significantly negatively correlated with bullying behavior,moral avoidance was significantly positively correlated with bullying behavior,and empathy was significantly negatively correlated with moral avoidance.(5)Adolescent moral abdication played a part in mediating roles in empathy and bullying behavior,among which there was no difference in grade and class cadre,but there is a significant gender difference.The direct pathway of empathy’s mediating effect on bullying behavior through moral evasion was mediated by gender.In the male group,moral evasion was partially mediated between empathy and adolescent bullying,while in the female group it was completely mediated.According to the above conclusions,this study finds that adolescents’ empathy not only directly affects their bullying behavior,but also affects their bullying behavior through moral abdication.It suggests that people should pay more attention to the development of empathy,reduce the emergence of moral abdication,and clarify the gender difference among them,thus provide theoretical reference and practical basis for schools and families and other moral education to reduce the occurrence of bullying behavior.