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Longitudinal associations among neuroticism, depression, and cyberbullying in early adolescents

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106475Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Neuroticism predicted subsequent cyberbullying victimization.

  • Depression predicted subsequent cyberbullying (perpetration and victimization).

  • Cyberbullying (perpetration and victimization) did not predict subsequent depression.

  • Neuroticism had indirect effects on perpetration and victimization via depression.

  • Gender differences did not emerge in the cross-lagged pathways.

Abstract

The role of personality characteristics in cyberbullying has attracted increasing attention in the research literature, but the temporal sequences and possible psychological mechanisms linking personality characteristics and cyberbullying remain unclear. This study aimed to examine the longitudinal associations between neuroticism and cyberbullying (perpetration and victimization), taking into account depression as a potential mediator and gender as a moderator of the association. A sample of 3961 Chinese early adolescents (56.1% boys; age: M = 10.85 years, SD = 0.75) completed multiple measurements of the relevant constructs on three occasions at six-month intervals. The results showed that neuroticism and depression were reciprocally related. Neuroticism directly predicted subsequent cyberbullying victimization, and depression predicted both subsequent cyberbullying perpetration and cyberbullying victimization. Neither cyberbullying perpetration nor victimization predicted subsequent neuroticism or depression. Depression mediated the relation from neuroticism to subsequent cyberbullying (perpetration and victimization). Finally, gender differences did not moderate any of the longitudinal relations among neuroticism, depression, and cyberbullying (perpetration and victimization). These findings add to the literature on neuroticism and cyberbullying in early adolescents by demonstrating the presence of longitudinal associations mediated by depression. Implications for interventions to reduce the risk of cyberbullying (perpetration and victimization) among early adolescents were discussed.

Section snippets

Credit author statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interests.

Participants

Participants were recruited using a convenience sample from 13 elementary schools in a city located in southern China. These 13 elementary schools were coeducational, ordinary elementary schools and reasonably representative of such institutions in China. A total of 3961 students (56.1% boys; age: M = 10.85 years, SD = 0.75) took part in this study at baseline. The number of participants by age range was 1359 (34.3%) between ages 9 and 10, 2561 (64.7%) between ages 11 and 12, and 41 (1.0%)

Descriptive statistics

In Table 1, the means and standard deviations for the measures of neuroticism, depression, cyberbullying perpetration, and cyberbullying victimization are shown. The mean scores for the boys and girls were compared for neuroticism, depression, cyberbullying perpetration, and cyberbullying victimization using the independent sample t-test. At every time point, boys reported greater cyberbullying (perpetration and victimization) than girls. Furthermore, boys reported higher levels of neuroticism

Discussion

The overarching purpose of this study was to investigate the associations among neuroticism, depression, and cyberbullying (perpetration and victimization) in early adolescents through robust cascade models. Concurrent associations were found among neuroticism, depression, and cyberbullying (perpetration and victimization) at every time point in the study. Neuroticism and depression were reciprocally related to each other. Neuroticism directly predicted subsequent cyberbullying victimization,

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (School of Psychology Research Ethics Committee, South China Normal University) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Declaration of competing interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. 31971005), “13th Five-Year” Plan of Philosophy and Social Science Development in Guangzhou, 2018 (No. 2018GZGJ22), and the Major Program of the National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 19ZDA360).

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