The associations between cyberbullying/cyber victimization and emotion attribution to a fictional cyberbully and to a fictional cyber victim in a community sample of preadolescents

The present study was realized starting from research on emotion processes related to moral reasoning in cyberbullying, using a task of emotion attribution (i.e., positive and negative emotions) to a fictional cyberbully and a fictional cyber victim. Specifically, we investigated whether the involvement in cyberbullying or in cyber victimization was associated with differences in the emotion attribution task. 528 middle school students (282 girls, mean age = 12.58 years, DS = 1.16 years) took part in the study. The results of a MANOVA showed that youths perpetrating cyberbullying, compared to non-involved peers, attributed higher positive emotions and lower negative emotions to the fictional cyberbully. Moreover, youths involved in both cyberbullying and cyber victimization (i.e., the so-called cyberbully-victims) compared to pure cyber victims had higher likeability to attribute positive emotions to a fictional cyber victim. The findings were discussed in light of the role of morality and moral disengagement in both traditional bullying and cyberbullying research, expanding the role of emotion attribution beyond moral emotions. Furthermore, the importance of carefully considering cyber victims' impairments in emotion attribution processes as possible risk factors for the development of a cyberbully-victim condition was advanced.