Cyberbullying in Hong Kong Chinese students: Life satisfaction, and the moderating role of friendship qualities on cyberbullying victimization and perpetration

Nga Man LEUNG, Lok Yee Natalie WONG, JoAnn M. FARVER

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlespeer-review

58 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Cyberbullying is a serious concern among Internet users worldwide. Few studies have examined the variables that may moderate cyberbullying behavior, especially among the Chinese population. This study examined cyberbullying with 312 Hong Kong Chinese college students (Mage = 19.64). The goal was to understand the relative impact of cyberbullying experiences as measured by life satisfaction and to examine how friendship quality may moderate this relation differentially for males and females. The results showed that 58% of the participants reported cyberbullying others and of those 68% also reported being cyber-victimized. Cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying perpetration were both negatively correlated with life satisfaction. Male students perpetrated more cyberbullying than female students. Cyberbullying victimization and perpetration were positively related for both males and females. Friendship closeness and security only moderated the relation between cyberbullying victimization and perpetration for female students. Interestingly, the two components of friendship quality moderated the relation in opposite directions. Specifically, friendship closeness buffered the relation between cyberbullying victimization and perpetration while friendship security enhanced the relation. These findings indicate that gender and subscales of friendship quality should be included when investigating the effect of friendship on cyberbullying behavior, cyberbullying involvement and life satisfaction. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7-12
JournalPersonality and Individual Differences
Volume133
Early online dateJul 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2018

Citation

Leung, A. N. M., Wong, N., & Farver, J. M. (2018). Cyberbullying in Hong Kong Chinese students: Life satisfaction, and the moderating role of friendship qualities on cyberbullying victimization and perpetration. Personality and Individual Differences, 133, 7-12. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2017.07.016

Keywords

  • Cyberbullying
  • Life satisfaction
  • Friendship quality

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