Longitudinal studies showed that parenting styles can increase the risk of perpetrating Cyberbullying (Marinoni, 2025) and that high levels of teacher support can reduce the influence of deviant peer groups on adolescent problem behavior (Wang and Dishion, 2012). The aim of the study is to investigate whether the vulnerabilities of unsupportive parenting styles on Cyberbullying can be moderated by teacher support.
A sample of 1605 Italian adolescents (43.2% females; age: M=15.63, SD=1.251) participated to a three waves data collection, answering self-report questionnaires to assess cyberbullying (Palladino et al., 2015), support of adult (teachers) at school and parenting styles (Tagliabue et al., 2014).
As preliminary analysis, a series of moderation models was run with Cyberbullying perpetration (at time 2) as criterion variable, types of parenting style (time 1) -for mothers and fathers separately- as predictors, and teachers' support (at time 1) as moderator. Cyberbullying perpetration at time 1 was also included as covariate. Teachers' support was negatively associated with Cyberbullying, but it moderated only the association between mothers' authoritarian parenting styles and Cyberbullying (b=.116, p=0.001), with mothers' authoritarian style predicting, positively and significantly, Cyberbullying for medium (b= .122, p=0.000) and high levels of teacher support (b=.209, p=0.000).
Results suggest that teacher support at school can be a direct protective factor against Cyberbullying but it can moderate vulnerabilities related to parenting styles only to a very limited extent. This finding can depend on the type of teacher support experienced at school, more focused on generic emotional and academic support, and calls for the implementation of specific online education at school to prevent Cyberbullying.