Witnessing intimate partner violence and cyberbullying among Chinese adolescents: The mediating effect of self-control and moderating effect of parental psychological control

Abstract

Witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with adolescents’ externalizing behavior problems such as bullying and aggression, but its association with cyberbullying perpetration remains unclear. Given the prevalence of cyberbullying perpetration, this study aims to examine the relationship between witnessing IPV and cyberbullying perpetration, and also to explore whether self-control mediates, and parental psychological control (PPC) moderates the association. 1,670 primary and junior high school students (aged from 10 to 15 years, 53.7% boys) in China participated in the questionnaire survey in May, 2017. The results showed that witnessing IPV positively predicted cyberbullying perpetration significantly when sex and grade were controlled. Self-control partially mediated the relationship between witnessing IPV and cyberbullying perpetration, while PPC moderated the relation between witnessing IPV and cyberbullying perpetration. Specifically, the effect of IPV on cyberbullying perpetration was stronger when PPC was high compared to when PPC was low. Multi-group analysis showed that the effect of witnessing IPV on cyberbullying perpetration was stronger in boys than in girls and the mediation effect of self-control was stronger among junior high school students than among primary schools. The implications for intervention of cyberbullying perpetration are discussed.