MODERATING ROLE OF CORE SELF-EVALUATIONS ON MORAL DISENGAGEMENT AND CYBER-AGGRESSION AMONG GODFREY OKOYE UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADUATES

ABSTRACT The study examined moderating role of core self-evaluations on the relationship between moral disengagement and cyber-aggression among Godfrey Okoye University undergraduates. A total number of one hundred and forty-seven (147) participants were involved in the study, comprising 57 males and 90 females. Participants were selected using purposive sampling technique. Three instruments were used for data collection: Core self-evaluation scale by Judge et al. (2003), Mechanisms of moral disengagement scale-10 adapted by Concha-Salgado et al. (2022), and the cyber-aggression scale by Buelga et al. (2020), which obtained reliability scores of 0.60, 0.795 and 0.901 respectively following a pilot study by the researcher on a sample of Nigerian undergraduates outside Godfrey Okoye University. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested and Hayes Regression based PROCESS Macro was used in the data analysis. Result of data analysis indicate that moral disengagement significantly predicted cyber-aggression among undergraduates using regression (B = .44, p = .001); core self-evaluations is not significantly associated with cyber-aggression among undergraduates (B = -.20, p = .39); and core self-evaluations did not moderate the relationship between moral disengagement and cyber-aggression among undergraduates (B = .02, p > .05). The implication of the finding is that presence of moral disengagement may lead to increased levels of cyber-aggression, regardless of level of core self-evaluations. Limitations of the study were acknowledged, and recommendations were made to guide future research in understanding factors that mitigate cyber-aggression among undergraduates.