Familial and Individual Factors Associated with Cyberbullying among Adolescents: Parenting Attitudes and Reactive-Proactive Aggression

Abstract

Objectives: Nowadays, increased access to the internet and the rapid spread of technology constitute a risk for problematic adolescent behavior in virtual environments. As a result, it is necessary to determine the familial and individual variables that influence the cyberbullying behaviors of adolescents. This study aimed to examine the familial and individual characteristics associated with adolescents’ cyberbullying behaviors. Perceived parenting behaviors were defined as familial factors and reactive-proactive aggression of adolescents as individual factors discussed in this study. Materials and Methods: “The Parenting Styles Scale”, “Revised Cyberbullying Inventory”, and “Reactive and Proactive Aggression Scale” were administered to a sample of 170 high school teenagers (mean age= 15.6, standard deviation= 0.8). Results: The results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that gender and proactive aggression positively and significantly predicted cyberbullying behaviors of adolescents. Exposure to cyberbullying was negatively predicted by parental acceptance and positively predicted by proactive aggression. Conclusion: The findings of this study draw attention to the importance of proactive aggression rather than reactive aggression on cyberbullying. In addition, parental acceptance has only a predictive role in exposure to cyberbullying. The findings of our study highlight the importance of intervention programs to address cyberbullying in adolescents, as well as the importance of positive parenting to establish good parenting skills in these programs. In addition, the prevention of proactive aggressive behaviors of adolescents is considered important in dealing with cyberbullying. © 2023, Galenos Publishing House. All rights reserved.