3765 - HOW DO PERSONAL AND PROXIMAL FACTORS MODERATE THE CONSEQUENCES OF (CYBER)BULLYING VICTIMIZATION?

Session: 3748 - PROCESSES OF INEQUALITIES AND UNFAIRNESS IN THE SCHOOL AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS
AUTHORS:
Ozbek Ebru (Norwegian Centre for Learning Environment and Behavioral Research in Education, University of Stavanger ~ Stavanger ~ Norway) , Caravita Simona Carla Silvia (Universitas Mercatorum ~ Rome ~ Italy) , Salmivalli Christina (3INVEST Flagship, University of Turku ~ Turku ~ Finland)
Abstract text:
Peer victimization affects the well-being and mental health of young people, even for a long period of life (Kelly et al., 2015). Buffering or preventing the adverse effects of bullying victimization contributes to the well-being and life quality of individuals. Although the literature on moderators of the impact of cyberbullying is limited, evidence suggests that psychological stress following cyberbullying victimization is higher for boys with negative parent-child relationships (Sampasa-Kanyinga et al., 2018). Considering the dynamic and interpersonal characteristics of bullying, it is essential to understand both personal and contextual protective and risk factors to effectively intervene in bullying (Rapee et al., 2020). This study aims to investigate how personal, environmental sensitivity, and contextual factors, parent-child relationship and preventive actions of schools, moderate the relation of cyberbullying and offline bullying victimization with internalizing problems and self-esteem. Using three-wave, multi-informant longitudinal data from 3,696 Finnish students (grades 4-9; Mage=13.06, SD=1.70; 46.7% male) and 1,625 parents, we applied cross-lagged panel models with moderation analyses. Students reported depression and anxiety symptoms, self-esteem, offline and cyberbullying victimization three times, and environmental sensitivity at time 1. Parents reported on parenting behaviors and school preventive action on bullying at time 1. The preliminary results of the main effect models showed that self-esteem is negatively affected by each type of bullying victimization, while only cyberbullying victimization increased depression. Although parenting stress and affective parenting are directly associated with self-efficacy and depression, no significant interaction with cyberbullying and offline bullying victimization was found. Surprisingly, we could not find any preliminary main effect or interaction effect of the preventive action of schools. Only environmental sensitivity provided a significant interaction, and students with higher environmental sensitivity exhibited greater anxiety following cyberbullying victimization. The findings are discussed to provide insights for policy implementation and future research.