Understanding the relationship between cyber-victimisation and cyber-bullying on Social Network Sites: The role of moderating factors

The strongest predictor of engagement in cyber-bullying is having experienced cyber-victimisation oneself. We examined the extent to which trait (moral disengagement, cognitive empathy, affective empathy), demographic (age, sex), and situational factors (Internet use, parental Internet monitoring) moderated the strength of the relationship between victimisation and bullying on Social Network Sites (SNSs). We surveyed 175 adolescents (M age = 14.82 years; SD = 1.52; 53% male) who had a SNS profile. Higher moral disengagement strengthened the cyber victim-bully relationship, whereas greater parental monitoring weakened this relationship. Neither affective nor cognitive empathy, age, sex, nor time online moderated the relationship. Overall, 30% to 48% of the variance in cyber-bullying frequency was explained. The results suggest that cyber-bullying interventions need to also focus on experiences of victimisation and that reducing the adolescent's moral disengagement and educating parents about the importance of monitoring adolescent Internet use would be most effective.