ИСТИНА

Introduction. Adolescents socialization in modern world is realized in global informational society that is characterized by high level of social uncertainty and contradictory system of social norms and values. Adolescents can break moral norms as the subject of deviant behavior and use moral disengagement mechanisms of own actions to save self-esteem for themselves and social environment. Objective. The study examines the connection between preferred mechanisms of moral disengagement and cyberbullying behavior in adolescence. Methods. C. Moore’s method of moral disengagement highlighting the preferred mechanisms of moral disengagement (in the adaptation of Ya. A. Ledovaya, R. V. Tikhonov, O. N. Bogolyubova, E. V. Kazennaya, Yu. L. Sorokina, 2016), Tendency for cyberbullying behavior questionnaire (Molchanov, 2019). Results. The respondents (N=411) were divided into 3 moral disengagement types: 1) ‘active users’ (29%) - more active than the other groups of respondents in using all of the moral disengagement mechanisms, 2) ‘victim image distortion’ (44%) - demonstrate an average level of use of moral disengagement mechanisms, the most popular mechanisms are victim image distortion strategies (dehumanization and guilt attribution, as well as moral comparison) and 3) ‘passive users’ (27%) - show the least activity in the use of moral disengagement mechanisms. ‘Active users’ of the mechanisms of moral disengagement are significantly more likely to practice and justify cyberbullying behavior than ‘passive users’ and adolescents with ‘victim image distortion’ (χ²=50,489; p<0,001; V Cramer’s - 0,352), which confirms our hypothesis that the use of moral freedom mechanisms is associated with cyberbullying behavior. Conclusion. Thus, identifying the peculiarities of the using of moral disengagement mechanisms by Russian adolescents allows us to assign risk group - adolescents who are inclined to participate in cyberbullying as an aggressor. Support. The research was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research under the project #19-013-00823A.