Chronic Sleep Reduction and Cyberbullying Among Adolescents: The Roles of Low Self-Control and Family Cohesion

ABSTRACT The serious psychological consequences of cyberbullying urge researchers to explore its antecedents and intervention programs. Based on the I3 theory, which indicates that instigation, impellance, and inhibition are three orthogonal processes of aggressive behavior generation, family cohesion was examined as a moderator of the indirect relationships between chronic sleep reduction and cyberbullying through low self-control. A total of 452 adolescents (M age = 13.91, SD = 1.07; 43.6% female) completed questionnaires regarding their experience with chronic sleep reduction, cyberbullying, low self-control, and family cohesion. Results indicated that individuals with high chronic sleep reduction tend to have more cyberbullying, which was mediated by low self-control. Furthermore, family cohesion moderated the path from low self-control to cyberbullying. Specifically, the relationship between low self-control and cyberbullying became weaker for individuals with high family cohesion. Findings elucidate that chronic sleep reduction and low self-control are risk factors while family cohesion is a protective factor of cyberbullying, which suggest that targeted prevention and intervention programs for cyberbullying should include efforts to ensure adequate sleep and increase family cohesion as well as self-control.