Cybervictimization and cyberbullying among college students 2023

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. 

Conclusion

This study investigated the relationship between cybervictimization and cyberbullying among college students, including the mediating roles of stress and rumination. The results show that cybervictimization not only directly affects cyberbullying but also has indirect effects through rumination and the chain mediating effect of stress and rumination. The Internet’s proliferation has led to the attack on Internet users and has made it inevitable for users to be cyberbullied or engage in cyberbullying.

The findings indicate that college students, first, experience cybervictimization before engaging in cyberbullying. The stress associated with their cyberbullying experience affects their way of thinking and makes them retaliate violently by engaging in cyberbullying to relieve themselves from the stress resulting from their bullying experiences. This behavior may be due to the fact that parents pay much attention to grades obtained by their adult children but disregard their psychological well-being, which makes the college students to bear the pain of cyberbullying alone without disclosing it to their parents or to their teachers or friends for a solution. This phenomenon is applicable to all cultures; therefore, it is necessary that teachers, parents, or friends, should provide proper guidance to college students who experience cyberbullying to relieve them from stress and change their negative attitude towards cyberbullying, as well as prevent them from self-blame and from becoming cyberbullies in retaliation to their bully experiences. Similarly, Internet platforms should be designed in such a way that they can actively block the occurrence of cyberbullying and make the Internet better for all. We suggest that future research should investigate the influencing factors and macro systems between cybervictimization and cyberbullying, and investigate factors that inhibit cyberbullying from cultural norms, social help, and family protection, while establishing a tripartite cyberbullying intervention system and measures for schools, society, and families.

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