Citation

Liang H, Jiang H, Zhang C, Zhou H, Zhang B, Tuo A. Psychol. Res. Behav. Manag. 2022; 15: 2259-2269.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Dove Press)

DOI

10.2147/PRBM.S371254

PMID

36035808

PMCID

PMC9409373

Abstract

PURPOSE: With the widespread use of the Internet and mobile phone, cyberbullying has become a new type of bullying among adolescents. It is of great practical significance to explore the relevant factors affecting cyberbullying for prevention and intervention of adolescents' cyberbullying. However, few studies have considered the effect of both the family and social factors on cyberbullying. Therefore, the current study examines whether the parent-adolescent conflict as a family factor and deviant peer affiliation as a social factor have an effect on adolescents' cyberbullying, as well as the role of moral disengagement and gender.

METHODS: A total of 777 middle school students (females = 336; mean age = 13.57; SD = 0.98) were surveyed by using the Parent-child Relationship Questionnaire, Deviant Peer Affiliation Questionnaire, Moral Disengagement Questionnaire and Cyber Bullying Behavior Questionnaire. SPSS21.0 was used to conduct descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and T-test, PROCESS were used to conduct significance test of moderated mediation effect on the data.

RESULTS: Parent-adolescent conflict does not directly predict cyberbullying. Moral disengagement played a complete mediating role between parent-adolescent conflict and cyberbullying, and gender played a moderating role between moral disengagement and cyberbullying. Deviant peer affiliation directly predict cyberbullying. Moral disengagement played a partially mediating role between parent-adolescent conflict and cyberbullying, and gender played a moderating role between moral disengagement and cyberbullying.

CONCLUSION: Attention should be paid to the effect of moral disengagement on cyberbullying in family and social factors, as well as the role of gender.

Language: en

Keywords

gender; cyberbullying; deviant peer affiliation; moral disengagement; parent-adolescent conflict