Do Emotional Components of Alexithymia Mediate the Interplay between Cyberbullying Victimization and Perpetration?

Abstract

A substantial amount of research has revealed that cyberbully-victims have more emotional and behavioral problems than either cyberbullying victims or perpetrators. However, until now, little research has been conducted into the factors that contribute to the interplay between cyberbullying victimization and perpetration. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between cyberbullying victimization, perpetration, and two emotional components of alexithymia, namely difficulties in identifying and describing one’s own feelings. Self-report questions were administered to 1549 adolescents between 12 and 18 years old (M = 14.51; SD = 1.68; 42.1% (n = 652) male) from Germany and Thailand. Results showed that cyberbullying victimization and alexithymia are associated with cyberbullying perpetration. Moreover, alexithymia mediated the associations between cyberbullying victimization and adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration. Consequently, we suggest that the ability to describe and identify one’s own feelings might be important for understanding the link between cyberbullying, victimization, and perpetration. The results may help develop prevention and intervention programs focused on reducing cyberbullying.

Bullying and alexithymia: Are there differences between traditional, cyber, combined bullies, and nonbullies in reading their own emotions?

“…We found that all three bullying groups had higher alexithymia scores than young people who did not bully others, thus extending previous findings about associations between traditional and cyber bullies and alexithymia (Aricak & Ozbay, ; Wachs et al, ). A possible explanation is that when people cannot recognise or describe their own emotions, it may be hard to modulate emotions through cognitive processes, thus increasing their likelihood of aggression towards others.…”

“…The 1,549 young people taking part were between 12 and 18 years old (mean [ M ] = 14.51; standard deviation [ SD ] = 1.68; 897 (57.9%) were female; 849 (54.8%), 422 of them girls, were from three schools in Germany, and 700 (45.2%), 475 of them girls, from one school in Thailand. Other sample characteristics are described in more detail elsewhere (Wachs et al, ).…”

Cross-National Associations Among Cyberbullying Victimization, Self-Esteem, and Internet Addiction: Direct and Indirect Effects of Alexithymia

“…Past research showed that age, sex, and cyberbullying perpetration is correlated with cyberbullying victimization and alexithymia (Tokunaga, 2010;Brody and Vangelisti, 2017;Wachs et al, 2017;Wachs and Wright, 2018).…”

Cyberbullying: A narrative review

“…Those who are both bullies and victims are said to experience more emotional and behavioral problems than bullies and victims [94]. In a study on 1549 adolescents from Germany and Thailand, alexithymia was noted to mediate the relationship between being both a victim and a bully.…”