Cybervictimization and cyberbullying among college students: The chain mediating effects of stress and rumination

Abstract

The popularity of the Internet has led to an increase in cybervictimization and cyberbullying. Many studies have focused on the factors influencing cybervictimization or cyberbullying, but few have researched the mechanism that mediates these phenomena. Therefore, in this study, we use a chain mediation model to explore the mechanisms of cybervictimization and cyberbullying. This research is based on the general aggression model and examines whether stress and rumination play a mediating role in the relationship between cybervictimization and cyberbullying among Chinese college students. This study included 1,299 Chinese college students (597 men and 702 women, M = 21.24 years, SD = 3.16) who completed questionnaires on cybervictimization, stress, rumination, and cyberbullying. Harman’s one-factor test was used to analyze common method bias; mean and standard deviations were used to analyze the descriptive statistics, Pearson’s moment correlation was used to determine the relationship between variables, and Model 6 of the SPSS macro examined the mediating effect of stress and rumination. The results indicate that rumination mediated the relationship between cybervictimization and cyberbullying. In addition, stress and rumination acted as a chain mediator in this association. These results have the potential to reduce the likelihood of college students engaging in cyberbullying as a result of cybervictimization, minimize the rate of cyberbullying among youths, and lead to the development of interventions for cybervictimization and cyberbullying.

Perceived chronic social adversity and cyberbullying perpetration among adolescents: the mediating role of rumination and moderating role of mindfulness

“…Accordingly, literature has found a significant positive correlation between angry rumination and cyberbullying perpetration among adolescents (Camacho et al, 2021;Gao et al, 2021;. Luo et al (2023) also confirmed that the tendency to ruminate has a significant association with an individual's cyberbullying perpetration. Moreover, Parris et al (2022) suggested that high school students who engage in social media rumination may be more likely to be cyberbullying perpetrators.…”

“…Compared to other negative life events, as a typical adverse event in cyberbullying scenarios, cyber victimization is more likely to lead to cyberbullying, thus creating a vicious cycle ( Sun et al, 2020 ). Prior literature has found a strong correlation between cyber victimization and cyberbullying perpetration, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear ( Luo et al, 2023 ). Future studies could further explore the association between early cyber victimization experience and cyberbullying perpetration to examine the mechanisms underlying the role transition from victim to bully in cyberbullying incident.…”

“…Aggressive behavior is often manifested in the form of cyberbullying in adolescents (Chu et al, 2019). Empirical evidence has indicated that high PCSA is associated with increased cyberbullying perpetration (Liu, 2023). Specifically, for adolescents, perceiving adverse events such as being overcontrolled by parents is significantly positively correlated with cyberbullying perpetration (Li, 2020).…”

Perceived COVID-19 stress and online aggression among Chinese first-year college students: a moderated mediation model

“…Anderson and Bushman's general model of aggression (18) suggests that personal and situational factors (both referred to as input variables) influence the occurrence of aggression through present internal states (including cognition, affect, and arousal), and Kowalski et al (17) further explain cyberbullying encountering through this theoretical model. According to the general aggression model, perceived stress is an important personal factor affecting individuals' cognitive and affective states (19,20). Previous research has shown a strong association between perceived stress and aggression involving adolescents (21), and youth are more likely to engage in bullying behavior (both traditional and online) to respond to stressful life events (22).…”