Abstract
This paper aims to examine and analyse the differences between the roles of children in peer violence concerning moral disengagement and social self-efficacy. The study included 715 seventh and eighth grade primary school adolescents in the Republic of Croatia. Adapted Participant Role Questionnaire (PRQ), Adapted Scale of Moral Disengagement regarding School Bullying and Social Self-Efficacy Scale were used for the purposes of this study. Based on the findings of the Mann-Whitney U test, it was found that there are statistically significant differences between the role of defenders in relation to the roles of bullies, victims and bystanders. In fact, the role of defenders has a higher social self-efficacy compared to the above three roles. With respect to the mechanisms of moral disengagement, it has been established that the roles of bullies, active assistants and reinforcers use the above mechanisms more frequently compared to the defenders. Another interesting finding is that the roles of victims and bystanders use the mechanisms of moral disengagement more frequently compared to the defenders. The statistically significant difference in the use of the mechanisms of moral disengagement was also found between the roles of bullies and bystanders, whereby children in the role of bullies use the mechanisms of cognitive restructuring and minimising agency more frequently compared to the bystanders. It derives that the lack of social self-efficacy and a tendency to moral disengagement leaves short-term and long-term consequences on the health, and physical and emotional well-being of all participants in peer violence.
