Honesty–Humility and Perpetration of Digital Relational Violence: The Mediating Role of Moral Disengagement

Online relational aggression, such as cyberstalking, aggravated and coerced sexting, and cyber dating violence, is increasingly observed among young adults (Walsh et al., 2024). Previous research highlights the role of personality traits and moral disengagement in predicting these behaviours (Morelli et al., 2025). This study examines whether moral disengagement mediates the relationship between the Honesty-Humility (HH) trait of the HEXACO model (Lee & Ashton,2004) and various forms of online relational aggression, fi lling a gap in the literature. An online questionnaire was completed by 777 young adults aged 18–30 (M = 23.40, SD = 2.94) recruited through snowball sampling. A path analysis tested the mediating role of moral disengagement between HH and aggressive behaviours, controlling for other HEXACO traits, age and sex. Lower HH predicted higher moral disengagement ( = –.40, βp < .001), which was associated with increased cyberstalking ( = .35, βp < .001), aggravated sexting ( = .09, βp = .008) and cyber dating violence ( = .18, βp < .001). All indirect effects were signifi cant. Findings highlight how HH and moral disengagement contribute to online aggression in young adults, stressing the need for prevention efforts promoting awareness and responsible digital behaviour.