Deviant peer affiliation and adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration: Online disinhibition and perceived social support as moderators

Abstract

Nowadays, cyberbullying perpetration has become a global psycho-social problem. However, scanty attention has been paid to investigate the impact of deviant peer affiliation on adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration and which factors that can moderate the strength of this relationship is also limited. Thus, the present study examined the association between deviant peer affiliation and adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration and investigated whether online disinhibition and perceived social support would moderate this relationship at the same time. Participants were 2407 Chinese adolescents (11–16 years, Mage = 12.75) from seven middle schools in Taiyuan and Changzhi city of Shanxi province, China. All participants completed self-report questionnaires including Deviant Peer Affiliation Scale, Cyberbullying Perpetration Scale, Online Disinhibition Scale, and Perceived Social Support Scale. Results indicated that adolescents who reported higher deviant peer affiliation were more likely to bully others online, even after controlling for age and gender. Online disinhibition moderated the relationship between deviant peer affiliation and adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration. Compare to low online disinhibition adolescents, high online disinhibition adolescents who experienced higher levels of deviant peer affiliation were more likely to engage in cyberbullying perpetration. More interestingly, we found online disinhibition and perceived social support could simultaneously moderate this relationship. Specifically, for high online disinhibition adolescents, the predictive effect of deviant peer affiliation on cyberbullying perpetration became much weaker when they with high perceived social support than low perceived social support.