Beyond Narcissism: Psychopathy, Moral Identity, and Differential Dark Triad Pathways to Cyberbullying

ABSTRACT While ubiquitous social networks offer convenience, their anonymity fosters antisocial behaviors like cyberbullying– a pervasive online aggression harming the individual’s psychological health. Although parental rejection predicts cyberbullying, mediating mechanisms remain unclear. Guided by the General Aggression Model, this cross-sectional study investigated sequential mediation through the Dark Triad traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy) and moral identity. Data from 571 Chinese undergraduates (31.7% male; Mage = 20.81 ± 1.30) analyzed via PROCESS 3.3 (Model 80) revealed distinct pathways: Machiavellianism and psychopathy independently mediated the parental rejection-cyberbullying link, while narcissism showed no significant mediation. Crucially, only psychopathy and moral identity sequentially mediated this relationship. These findings elucidate dual psychological mechanisms underlying cyberbullying – direct antisocial traits activation and moral disengagement processes – while highlighting the need for interventions targeting positive parenting and moral identity reinforcement to curb digital aggression. Results advance theoretical integration of personality and social-cognitive frameworks in cyberbullying research.