Callous-Unemotional Traits, Moral Identity, and Bullying Perpetration in Adolescents

Theoretical Background: The influence of moral identity on prosocial and antisocial behavior in adolescents has been highlighted in numerous studies. However, even if moral principles are central to the self, they do not always directly and consistently lead to moral behavior. Callous-unemotional (CU) traits have been associated with bullying among adolescents. However, at this point we do not know whether the association of each of the three sub-constructs of CU-traits are associated with moral identity. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to examine whether CU traits and moral identity were related to moral decisions. Further, the aim of the current study was to investigate the association between CU traits and bullying perpetration, and to determine whether these associations were mediated by moral identity. Method: Cross-sectional data was collected in 2020. A total of 749 adolescents (46.5% boys; M-Age = 14.14, SDAge = 1.85) from different schools in Germany completed an online questionnaire. Questions regarding moral identity (Koglin, 2017), callous-unemotional traits (Essau, Sasagawa, & Frick, 2006), and bullying (KFN, Bergmann et al., 2017) were answered by the participants. SPSS Statistics and SPSS AMOS were used to analyze the collected data. Path analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Results: The results of this study contribute to the description of the explanatory processes for the connection between CU traits, moral identity, and bullying, for a national sample. The hypothesized path model demonstrated good fit values (N = 749;chi(2)/df = .032, p = .858, CFI = 1.00, NFI = 1.00, TLI = 1.02, RMSEA = .000). Results showed that callousness and uncaring were negatively related to moral identity and positively related to bullying perpetration. Moral identity was negatively associated with bullying perpetration. Mediation analysis showed that moral identity was a significant mediator between CU-traits and bullying perpetration. The findings indicate that moral identity plays an essential role in bullying perpetration in adolescents and that callousness and uncaring appears to be the most important CU-traits in relation to moral identity and bullying perpetration. Discussion and Conclusion: The results suggest that moral identity and the associated moral development are important predictors of adolescents' behavior. Furthermore, these findings point out that moral identity plays an essential role in bullying perpetration in adolescents. The present results confirm that the promotion of social-emotional competencies can be used to prevent bullying during adolescence. To reduce CU traits, interventions that start very early would have to be used to promote social-emotional development. Further research should explore this interplay in order to gain a holistic and comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms.