How does belief in a just world correlate with conduct problems in adolescents? The intervening roles of security, cognitive reappraisal and gender

In this study, we explored the possible patterns of relationship between belief in a just world (BJW), sense of security, emotion regulation strategies, and conduct problems, and then further tested the moderating role of gender with a sample of 1,018 junior high school students. Participants responded to a series of scales evaluating the levels of BJW, sense of security, emotion regulation strategies, and conduct problems. The results revealed that BJW was significantly related to conduct problems. Meanwhile, sense of security, cognitive reappraisal (one kind of emotion regulation strategies), and the chain from sense of security to cognitive reappraisal played mediating roles in the relationship between BJW and conduct problems. Besides, there were also significant gender differences in the patterns of the relationships between the four constructs. For details, compared with girls, for boys, the association of BJW with conduct problems was stronger and the association of cognitive reappraisal with conduct problems is weaker. The implications and limitations of the results were discussed at the end of the paper.