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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Media Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1459249
This article is part of the Research Topic Understanding Cyberbullying from Various Perspectives View all 7 articles

The Moderating Effect of Parental Mediation in the Longitudinal Associations Among Cyberbullying, Depression, and Self-Harm Among Chinese and American Adolescents

Provisionally accepted
Michelle F Wright Michelle F Wright *
  • Indiana State University, Terre Haute, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    For full guidelines please refer to Author Guidelines Researchers have concentrated on identifying factors that might mitigate the negative consequences associated with cyber victimization. One key factor that has garnered significant attention is parental mediation in adolescents' digital technology usage and its role in reducing the risk of cyber victimization. Additionally, the buffering effects of parental mediation on the longitudinal associations among cyberbullying victimization, depression, and self-harm have been underexplored, especially cross-cultural investigations of such effects. To address this gap, the present study examined the role of parental mediation in buffering against depression and self-harm, both measured one year later, associated with cyberbullying victimization among 463 Chinese (49% female) and 445 American (52% female) eighth graders (ages 13-15). The findings revealed that Chinese adolescents reported higher levels of parental mediation across a one-year period compared to their American counterparts. High levels of parental mediation were associated with a more negative relationship between cyberbullying victimization, depression, and self-harm for both Chinese and American adolescents, but these effects were stronger for Chinese adolescents. These results are discussed in the context of cultural values and how these values shape the role of adults in adolescents' lives. parental mediation of adolescents' technology use, which is believed to guard against the negative consequences of digital technology usage (Abelman, 2006;Nikken & Jansz, 2006;Sciacca et al., 2022). Research shows that inadequate parental supervision is linked to cyberbullying and exposure to inappropriate content such as pornography (Fong-Ching Chang et al., 2021;Lwin et al., 2008; Mesch, 2009). Consequently, there is a growing focus on understanding how parents' mediation of adolescents' technology use can buffer against these negative outcomes.

    Keywords: Cyberbullying victimization, parental mediation, Depression, self-harm, adolescents

    Received: 03 Jul 2024; Accepted: 21 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wright. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Michelle F Wright, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, United States

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