Family Communication Problems, Psychosocial Adjustment and Cyberbullying.

Ana Romero-Abrio,Celeste León-Moreno,María Elena Villarreal-González,Juan Evaristo Callejas-Jerónimo,Belén Martínez-Ferrer,Daniel Musitu-Ferrer

doi:10.3390/ijerph16132417

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to analyze the relationship between family communication problems and cyberbullying, through psychosocial adjustment—psychological distress, attitude towards institutional authority, and problematic use of social networking sites—in adolescents. Random sampling by conglomerates was performed. A total of 8115 adolescents participated in the study (51.5% boys, 49.5% girls), and were aged between 11 and 16 years old (M = 13.34, SD = 1.04) and enrolled in the State of Nuevo León (Mexico). A structural equations model was developed using the Structural Equation Modeling Software (EQS). The results showed that problematic family communication is directly associated with cyberbullying, and also indirectly through the relationships of psychological distress and attitude towards transgression of social norms with the problematic use of social networking sites. The multi-group analyses also revealed gender differences in these relationships. Finally, the obtained results were discussed and their practical implications were shown.

Highlights

Cyberbullying is a growing social problem, among adolescents and with a higher prevalence in developed countries [1,2,3]
Previous studies have shown that boys engage in cyberbullying behaviors more frequently than girls [9,95,96,97], the results obtained in the present study show that boys claim to partake more in cyberbullying behaviors than girls, the importance of psychological distress in cyberbullying, as a consequence of problematic family communication, is greater in the latter
Communication problems seem to be an important source of psychological distress, and are expressed in the form of higher levels of problematic use of social networking sites (PUSNS) and cyberbullying, especially in girls

Summary

Introduction

Cyberbullying is a growing social problem, among adolescents and with a higher prevalence in developed countries [1,2,3]. The emergence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has increased bullying behavior among adolescents, especially in the last decade [2,4]. The existing concern regarding this problem has prompted an increase in the number of studies analyzing cyberbullying and its relationship with psychosocial variables, taking into account different contexts of adolescent socialization [7,9,10]. One highly relevant variable in this context is child–parent communication, which is a way of transmitting affection and emotional bonding and is an essential component of family functioning [6,16] and a predictor of adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment [17,18]

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion