The current study sought to examine whether parental phubbing was significantly related to adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration and if moral disengagement mediated this relationship. We further examined whether online disinhibition moderated the direct and indirect relationships between parental phubbing and adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration. The participants included 2,407 adolescents from seven middle schools in China who completed the questionnaires regarding their experience with parental phubbing, moral disengagement, cyberbullying perpetration, and online disinhibition. Results indicated that adolescents with a high level of parental phubbing were likely to cyberbully others. Moral disengagement significantly mediated the relationship between parental phubbing and adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration. Furthermore, online disinhibition moderated the indirect relationship between parental phubbing and adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration. Specifically, the paths from parental phubbing to moral disengagement and from moral disengagement to cyberbullying perpetration became strengthened when adolescents experienced high levels of online disinhibition.

The present study sought to examine whether parental phubbing was significantly related to children’s social withdrawal and aggression, and determine whether positive and negative parenting behaviors mediated this association. We further examined whether parents’ gender moderated the direct and indirect relationships between parental phubbing and children’s social withdrawal and aggression. The participants included 465 Chinese fathers and mothers from different families, and each father or mother had one child from preschool and early school aged 4–10 years. They completed the measures regarding their experience with parental phubbing, positive and negative parenting behaviors, and children’s social withdrawal and aggression. Results showed that parental phubbing was positively related to children’s social withdrawal and aggression. Positive and negative parenting behaviors significantly mediated the associations between parental phubbing and children’s social withdrawal and aggression. Furthermore, parents’ gender moderated the relationships between parental phubbing and children’s social withdrawal and aggression. Specifically, in the mediating model of positive parenting behavior, the pathways from parental phubbing to children’s social withdrawal and parental phubbing to children’s aggression were significantly different. In the mediating model of negative behavior, the pathway from negative parenting behavior to children’s social withdrawal was significantly different.

The present study examined the relationship between online disinhibition and adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration and investigated whether empathy and gender would moderate this relationship. A total of 2407 Chinese adolescents aged 11–16 years completed the questionnaires to measure their online disinhibition, empathy, and cyberbullying perpetration. Results indicated that high levels of online disinhibition were associated with high levels of cyberbullying perpetration, even after controlling for key covariates related to cyberbullying perpetration. Empathy significantly moderated the relationship between online disinhibition and cyberbullying perpetration. Specifically, this relationship was not significant at high levels of empathy. Moreover, the impact of empathy was moderated by gender. For male adolescents, online disinhibition was significantly associated with cyberbullying perpetration only when their empathy was low. For female adolescents, the relationship between online disinhibition and cyberbullying perpetration became nonsignificant, regardless of whether they had a low or high level of empathy.

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