Abstract
Cyber-bullying is becoming an increasing school and health problem affecting adolescents worldwide. A number of studies have examined risk factors and protective factors in cyber-bullying situations and their consequences on the psychological well-being of adolescents. Gratitude and Emotional Intelligence (EI) are two personal resources that have been shown to have beneficial effects on the health and the social, personal and psychological functioning of young people. Nevertheless, little is known about these two variables in the context of cyber-bullying. The main purpose of this study was to examine the roles of gratitude and EI in cyber-aggression. Specifically, we hypothesised a mediational effect of gratitude in emotional intelligence-cyber-aggression link. A total of 1157 students aged 12–18 years (54.4% females) completed several questionnaires assessing gratitude (Gratitude Questionnaire; GQ-5), EI (Wong and Law’s Emotional Intelligence Scale; WLEIS-S) and cyber-bullying (European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire; ECIPQ). The results showed expected significant associations between the studied variables. Moreover, the structural equation model analysis confirmed that EI dimensions were indirectly associated with cyber-aggression via gratitude, even when controlling for the effects of socio-demographic variables. These findings provide evidence on why those adolescents high in emotional intelligence are less aggressive in cyber-bullying context and suggest possibilities for gratitude interventions to reduce aggressive actions by electronic means among adolescents. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Highlights
New technologies have changed the way people relate to each other, bringing advances in ease, speed and accessibility to global communication
Evidence exists for the explanatory power of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and gratitude in predicting cyber-aggression, the way in which gratitude might influence the emotional intelligence-cyber-aggression link has never been examined
With regard to our first aim, our findings are consistent with the previous literature showing a significant positive relation between both resources [36,41,51], while negative correlations were found between cyber-aggression and EI [5] and between cyber-aggression and gratitude
Summary
New technologies have changed the way people relate to each other, bringing advances in ease, speed and accessibility to global communication. In spite of these advantages, using the Internet and other electronic communication devices can have negative consequences, one of these being cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying is defined as “an aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot defend him or herself” [1] According to a report by Save the Children [4] on violence in the digital environment, 39.65% of young Spanish people aged
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