Childhood Emotional Trauma and Cyberbullying Perpetration Among Emerging Adults: A Multiple Mediation Model of the Role of Problematic Social Media Use and Psychopathology

Abstract

Research suggests that a small minority of social media users experience problems as a result of their online use. The purpose of the present study was to examine the association of cyberbullying perpetration and problematic social media use with childhood emotional trauma, Cluster B (narcissistic, histrionic, antisocial, and borderline) personality traits, dissociative experiences (DEs), depression, and self-esteem in a nonclinical undergraduate sample. A total of 344 university students volunteered to complete a questionnaire that included measures on the aforementioned dimensions. Thirty-eight percent of the participants had emotional neglect and 27% had emotional abuse, while 44% of them demonstrated at least one cyberbullying perpetration behavior. Results indicated that cyberbullying perpetrators had higher scores on problematic social media use, dissociative experiences, Cluster B traits, depression and childhood emotional trauma, and lower on self-esteem. Path analysis demonstrated that, while adjusting for gender and age, childhood emotional trauma was directly and indirectly associated with cyberbullying perpetration via Cluster B traits. Moreover, depression and dissociation were directly associated with problematic social media use. The findings of this study emphasize the important direct role of childhood emotional trauma and pathological personality traits on cyberbullying perpetration.

Childhood Emotional Abuse and Cyberbullying Perpetration Among Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Trait Mindfulness

“…As expected (H1), CEA was directly associated with CBP. This result is consistent with the previous empirical literature which has reported direct associations of emotional and psychological maltreatment with CBP (Kircaburun et al 2018b;Lyu and Zhang 2017). Furthermore, this result can be explained by the theoretical assumptions that posit individuals will observe others' behaviors and mimic them in similar situations (Bandura 2002).…”

“…Getting victimized by emotional abuse as a child may result with impairments in one's moral justification, reasoning, and standards (Bandura 1999) in which moral values may be a particularly important preventive factor for reducing CBP because-contrary to the preventive laws for traditional bullying (Patchin and Hinduja 2018)-disincentive punishment that may stop individuals bullying others in online contexts is inadequate in most jurisdictions (Hinduja and Patchin 2014). Furthermore, a recent empirical study suggested that emotional maltreatment can be associated with higher CBP among university students and that self-report personality disorders may partially mediate this relationship (Kircaburun et al 2018b). Another study indicated that psychological maltreatment was directly and indirectly associated with CBP via moral disengagement among college students (Lyu and Zhang 2017).…”

“…To date, empirical research has demonstrated different individual differences and psychological predictors of CBP including depression, lower feelings of social belonging, low empathy, internalizing and externalizing problems, antisocial personality, aggressive cognition, and negative family environment (Doane et al 2014;Guo 2016;Kircaburun et al 2018a). A recent empirical study reported that childhood emotional maltreatment (i.e., abuse and neglect) might have a moderate role in higher CBP among university students (Kircaburun et al 2018b). Despite the established possible preventive role of emotion-related personality facets (e.g., self-control, emotion regulation, awareness of feelings) on online and offline bullying (Baroncelli and Ciucci 2014;Gül et al 2018) and the negative relationship between emotional maltreatment and emotional and personality development (Bernstein et al 1994), the mediating effect of emotion-related constructs between emotional maltreatment and CBP has yet to be investigated.…”

The relationship between childhood trauma and Internet gaming disorder among college students: A structural equation model

“…IGD could be impacted by a lot of other variables. Internet-related disorders should be considered within an integrative theoretical framework, covering the aspects of biopsychological factors, social factors, psychopathological factors, personality traits and other specific motivations (Brand, Young, Laier, Wolfling, & Potenza, 2016;Kircaburun, Demetrovics, Kir aly, & Griffiths, 2018). We recommended that future studies use comprehensive measurements covering multiple factors.…”

Adolescents’ eveningness chronotype and cyberbullying perpetration: the mediating role of depression-related aggression and anxiety-related aggression

“…A recent study reported that, when controlling for gender, Big Five personality traits, and sleep quality, eveningness was a predictor of CBP (Kircaburun & Tosuntaş, 2018). Given that negative factors such as emotional instability, impulsivity, and psychopathology are important determinants of CBP (Erreygers et al, 2016;Kircaburun et al, 2018a;Kircaburun & Tosuntaş, 2018), the evening chronotype may be expected to directly associate with higher CBP.…”