IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i21p7966-d437155.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Serial Mediation Model of the Relationship between Cybervictimization and Cyberaggression: The Role of Stress and Unforgiveness Motivations

Author

Listed:
  • Cirenia Quintana-Orts

    (Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment at the University of Granada, 51001 Campus Ceuta, Spain)

  • Lourdes Rey

    (Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment at the University of Malaga, 29071 Malaga, Spain)

  • María Teresa Chamizo-Nieto

    (Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment at the University of Malaga, 29071 Malaga, Spain)

  • Everett L. Worthington

    (Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA)

Abstract

Cyberaggression is often triggered by cybervictimization. However, little attention has been given to the underlying mechanisms in this relationship. Specifically, this study examined the mediating roles of stress as well as unforgiveness (i.e., revenge and avoidance motivations) in the cybervictimization-cyberbullying aggression link. The main goal is to investigate the direct and indirect effects of cybervictimization on cyberbullying aggression while modeling a process in which cybervictimization causes stress, which in turn causes unforgiveness motivations concluding with cyberbullying aggression as the consequent. A total of 979 adolescents ( M age = 13.72, SD = 1.31) completed the relevant scales at two time points spaced four months apart. The results confirm that stress and revenge motivation at Time 1 act as serial mediators between cybervictimization at Time 1 and cyberbullying behaviors at Time 2. Additionally, the results reveal that avoidance at Time 1 was not a significant mediator in the links between cybervictimization at Time 1 and cyberbullying aggression at Time 2. Our findings provide support for the stress-and-coping model of forgiveness in adolescence and offer original insight into the developmental process of bully-victims in cyberbullying context. These results suggest the importance of efforts addressing motivations and emotion-focused coping strategies in adolescents who have been bullied to prevent and reduce those adolescents’ future stress and aggressive behaviors. The contributions and implications of the results are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Cirenia Quintana-Orts & Lourdes Rey & María Teresa Chamizo-Nieto & Everett L. Worthington, 2020. "A Serial Mediation Model of the Relationship between Cybervictimization and Cyberaggression: The Role of Stress and Unforgiveness Motivations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-13, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:21:p:7966-:d:437155
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/7966/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/7966/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barbara Spears & Carmel Taddeo & Anthony Daly & Alexander Stretton & Larisa Karklins, 2015. "Cyberbullying, help-seeking and mental health in young Australians: implications for public health," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 60(2), pages 219-226, February.
    2. Sung, Yu-Hsien & Chen, Li-Ming & Yen, Cheng-Fang & Valcke, Martin, 2018. "Double trouble: The developmental process of school bully-victims," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 279-288.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Poh Chua Siah & Xiang Yi Tee & Joanna Tjin Ai Tan & Chee Seng Tan & Komathi Lokithasan & Sew Kim Low & Chin Choo Yap, 2022. "Cybervictimization and Depression among Adolescents: Coping Strategies as Mediators," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-16, March.
    2. Wanderlei Abadio de Oliveira & Antonio Marcos Neves Esteca & Solange Muglia Wechsler & Ersilia Menesini, 2024. "Bullying and Cyberbullying in School: Rapid Review on the Roles of Gratitude, Forgiveness, and Self-Regulation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(7), pages 1-12, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Smaldone, Francesco & Ippolito, Adelaide & Ruberto, Margherita, 2020. "The shadows know me: Exploring the dark side of social media in the healthcare field," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 19-32.
    2. Dennehy, Rebecca & Meaney, Sarah & Cronin, Mary & Arensman, Ella, 2020. "The psychosocial impacts of cybervictimisation and barriers to seeking social support: Young people’s perspectives," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    3. Daniela Acquadro Maran & Tatiana Begotti, 2022. "Cyberstalking and Previous Offline Victimization in Italian Young Adults: The Role of Coping Strategies," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-13, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:21:p:7966-:d:437155. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.