Cyberbullying Victimization and Cyberbullying Perpetration among Adolescents: the Roles of Normative Beliefs about Aggression and Dual-Mode of Self-Control

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2020, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (5) : 1117-1124.

PDF(751 KB)
PDF(751 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2020, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (5) : 1117-1124.

Cyberbullying Victimization and Cyberbullying Perpetration among Adolescents: the Roles of Normative Beliefs about Aggression and Dual-Mode of Self-Control

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Abstract

In recent years, cyberbullying has gradually become a prevalent phenomenon with the sweeping progress of technology. A series of negative effects brought from it like anxiety and depression, have already been confirmed. Besides, researchers found that being subjected to online bullying can lead to deviant behaviors, such as Internet addiction, substance abuse and cyberbullying perpetration. Although prior cyberbullying literature suggests that cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying perpetration may be in an interlocking process, research about the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relation is limited. Drawing from the social learning theory and social information processing mechanisms, we proposed normative beliefs about aggression as a potential mediator of the association between cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying perpetration. Furthermore, not all children are equally influenced by cyberbullying victimization. According to the organism-environment interaction mode, the extent to which an external social factor affects teenagers’ deviant behaviors may vary as a function of one’s personality trait. So we wonder if the direct relations between cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying perpetration would vary as the function of self-control. The dual-system theory of self-control proposes that self-control should be consist of impulse system and control system. Considering that the dual-system theory of self-control is believed to better explain why some people are more able to control their aggressive behaviors than the others than the single model, this study takes a dual-system perspective. Based on the aforementioned analyses, the present study adopted the questionnaire investigation to explore the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and perpetration among adolescents, the mediating role of normative beliefs about aggression and the moderating role of self-control under this relation. In this study, questionnaires including the revised cyber cullying inventory, the normative beliefs about aggression scale, the dual-mode of self-control scale (including impulse system and control system), and the Olweus bully/victim questionnaire were administrated to 750 junior high school students in Wuhan. After eliminating regular response questionnaires, 619 valid questionnaires were obtained. Among them, there were 336 male students, 259 female students and 24 students with gender item missing. Data were collected and analyzed with SPSS 23.0 and SPSS macro PROCESS. The results indicated: (1) Cyberbullying victimization had a direct and positive effect on cyberbullying perpetration. (2) Normative beliefs about aggression played a mediating role in the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying perpetration. (3) The direct effect of cyberbullying victimization on cyberbullying perpetration was moderated by control system but not impulse system. Specifically, compared with the individuals with higher scores in the control system, the predictive effect of cyberbullying victimization on cyberbullying perpetration was more significant in the adolescents with lower scores in the control system. Our findings indicate that cyberbullying victimization plays an important role in resulting in adolescent’s cyberbullying perpetration. And we confirm the internal mechanisms underlying the relationship above, which will help to design targeted interventions.Adolescents with low control are more likely to adopt non-social adaptive responses such as cyberbullying perpetration because of their lack of problem solving, future time perspective and other abilities. For this part of students, schools and parents should develop strategies to enhance adolescent’s control system.

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Cyberbullying Victimization and Cyberbullying Perpetration among Adolescents: the Roles of Normative Beliefs about Aggression and Dual-Mode of Self-Control[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2020, 43(5): 1117-1124
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