Cybervictimization and Cyberbullying: The Role of Socio-Emotional Skills

Abstract

Social and emotional competences are considered to have a crucial role in cyberbullying as, e.g., difficulties concerning emotion regulation and empathy can characterize both cyberbullies and cybervictims. Although, the dynamics of socio-emotional processes underlying cyberbullying are still open for research, as e.g., there are contradicting results concerning the role of empathy in cybervictimization. Thus, the aim of our study was to explore the specific maladaptive emotion regulation strategies characterizing cybervictims and to clarify the role of empathy in cybervictimization. Furthermore, another goal was to explore whether moral disengagement characterizes cyberbullies in absence of empathic and adaptive emotion regulation skills. 524 students (214 males, aged 12-19 years) participated in our research. We used self-report questionnaires to measure cyberbullying perpetration and cybervictimization, adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, moral disengagement, affective, cognitive empathy, and intention to comfort. Our main findings show that cyberbullying is associated with difficulties in socio-emotional competences. Cyberbullies and bully-victims demonstrate less empathic responsiveness and display higher moral disengagement than noncyberbullies. On the other hand cybervictims tend to use both adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies to cope with their negative emotions. In addition, cybervictims have higher cognitive and affective empathy than cyberbullies and bully-victims. Our findings confirm and extend the research on the relationship among socio-emotional skills and cyberbullying as well as cybervictimization. Moreover, our results have important implications for prevention programs targeting emotion regulation and empathy.

Predictors and outcomes of cyberbullying among college students: A two wave study

“…Other research has identified high empathy as a protective factor for both CP and TP involvement (Graf et al, 2019;Kowalski et al, 2014). In one study, for example, 524 Hungarian adolescents who experienced CV or were uninvolved in cyberbullying had higher cognitive and affective empathy compared to those who engaged in CP (Arató et al, 2020).…”

Cybervictimization and well-being among adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating roles of emotional self-efficacy and emotion regulation

“…Limited research on emotion regulation in cybervictimization among adolescents and young adults demonstrated that cybervictims are more likely to use maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, such as suppression, self-blame, and rumination ( Ak, Özdemir, & Kuzucu, 2015 ; Arató, Zsido, Lénárd, & Lábadi, 2020 ; Erreygers et al, 2018 ; Vranjes, Erreygers, Vandebosch, Baillien, & De Witte, 2018 ). On the other hand, adolescents who experienced no cybervictimization reported more reappraisal ( Vranjes et al, 2018 ).…”

Can Acting Out Online Improve Adolescents’ Well-Being During Contact Restrictions? A First Insight Into the Dysfunctional Role of Cyberbullying and the Need to Belong in Well-Being During COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Contact Restrictions

“…This could be due to a close bivariate relation of emotion regulation problems with well-being, but not with cyberbullying. This later finding is surprising, given that several studies found a negative relation of emotion regulation problems with cyberbullying perpetration (Baroncelli and Ciucci, 2014;Gianesini and Brighi, 2015;Den Hamer and Konijn, 2016;Arató et al, 2020Arató et al, , 2021. Possibly, because of the strain due to contact restrictions and distance learning, emotion regulation problems were widely spread in our sample (as indicated by high standard deviations: lack of clarity M = 2.40, SD = 1.27, impulse control problems M = 2.07, SD = 1.12, limited strategies M = 2.55, SD = 1.10), so the values did not co-vary systematically with the values of cyberbullying.…”