Relationship between violence exposure and school bully:the mediating role of social anxiety and the moderating role of self-control

Abstract

To investigate the relationship between violence exposure, self-control, social anxiety and school bully. In the urban and rural areas of Xinxiang between September and December, 2018, a total of 1631 students from grade 1 to grade 3 from 3 junior high schools and 3 senior high schools were selected by convenient sampling. Violence exposure scale, middle school students& apos; self-control scale, adolescents' social anxiety scale and middle school students& apos; school bully scale. Among them, there were 770 boys and 861 girls. The number of junior high school students was 891, and the number of senior high school students was 740.There were 922 urban students and 709 rural students. There recovery data was analyzed by independent sampled t-test, correlation analysis and the structural equation model was established. (1) The male in the scores of violence exposure(34.45±12.97), social anxiety(11.04±3.61), traditional bully(24.09±8.86) and cyberbully(14.94±6.25) were higher than the female [(32.07±11.09), (10.30±3.58), (21.57±7.98), (13.00±4.30)], and the difference was statistically significant(P& lt; 0.05). The junior high school students in the scores of violence exposure(35.21±13.83), social anxiety(11.24±3.58), traditional bully(26.40±8.68) and cyberbully(15.06±6.26) were higher than the senior high school students [(30.52±8.51), (9.92±3.53), (19.26±6.14), (12.55±3.73)], but the junior high school students in the scores of self-control(121.98±17.22) was lower than senior high school students(129.84±19.02) and the difference was statistically significant(P& lt; 0.05). The urban students in the scores of self-control(126.30±18.54) was lower than rural students(122.99±18.04), but the junior high school students in the scores of social anxiety(10.38±3.53) and traditional bully(22.41±8.28) were higher than senior high school students [(11.06±3.67), (23.25±10.01)] and the difference was statistically significant(P& lt; 0.05). (2) The scores of violence exposure, social anxiety, traditional bully and cyberbully were positively correlated each other(r=0.24-0.59, P& lt; 0.01), but separately negatively correlated with the scores of self-control(r=-0.36--0.19, P& lt; 0.01). (3) Social anxiety played a partial mediating role between violence exposure and school bully. The direct effect of violence exposure on school bullying was β=0.45, 95%CI 0.38-0.53, t=17.19, P& lt; 0.001.The mediating effect of social anxiety was 0.02, accounting for 4.26% of the total effect. Self-control played a moderating role in the second half of the relationship between violence exposure and school bully. Interaction between social anxiety and self-control can significantly positively predict school bully(β=0.08, 95%CI 0.03-0.12, t=3.05, P& lt; 0.01). Violence exposure positively predicts school bully. Violence exposure also plays a mediating effect on them through social anxiety and a moderating effect on them through self-control. The moderating effect of self-control is not significant in boys and junior high school students.