Gender Differences in Childhood Cyberbullying Victimization and Sexual Assault Experiences in Emerging Adulthood: Moderation Effects of Parent and Peer Involvement

Background and Purpose:

Childhood cyberbullying victimization has been faced as a social issue that leads to potentially long-lasting consequences, such as sexual harassment. Previous studies have demonstrated the significant associations between bullying and sexual harassment; yet little research has been done to identify the influence of childhood cyberbullying victimization on subsequent sexual assault in emerging adulthood. This study aims to understand gender differences in the relationships between childhood cyberbullying victimization and sexual assault experiences among young adults in college history. Childhood parent and peer factors that may mitigate these impacts are also examined.

Methods:

This study employed an online survey to collect data from a random sample of undergraduate students aged 19-25 (Mean age=20.66 years, SD=1.29) in two large public universities in Florida. The retrospective and cross-sectional survey was performed and yielded a final sample of 356 students (69.7% females, 56.5% White, 88.5% heterosexual/straight, and 35.6% income-based grant receipt). To test research hypotheses, childhood cyberbullying victimization (CCBV) as the independent variable, parental monitoring and deviant peer association as moderators, young adult sexual assault experiences as the dependent variable, and control variables were measured. Chi-square and t-test analyses were examined to compare the estimates of the variables between male and female students. Zero-inflated Poisson regression analyses were also conducted to test the hypotheses, involving three preplanned steps.

Results:

Findings indicated that female students committed more CCBV and sexual assault in their college history than male counterparts. In Model-1, CCBV increased the incidents of sexual assault for both male and female students. Compared to heterosexual/straight, gay/lesbian/homosexual males were at the higher incidents of sexual assault. Females who were a recipient of income-based grants and spent more time online were more likely to experience sexual assault. In Model-2, parental monitoring reduced the incidents of sexual assault for both males and females, while deviant peer association increased the incidents of sexual assault for male students only. In Model-3, the results for moderation effects of parent and peer factors indicated that parental monitoring buffered against the positive relationship between CCBV and female sexual assault, while deviant peer association increased the magnitude of the positive relationship. However, parent and peer factors did not moderate the impact of CCBV on subsequent sexual assault among male students.

Conclusions and Implications:

This study contributes to scholarship on gender differences in the relationship between childhood cyberbullying victimization and sexual assault for emerging adults, which has implications for social work research and practice. It is also important to investigate the moderating effects of parent and peer factors to reinforce the resilience against childhood traumatic experiences and reduce subsequent sexual harassment. The findings can be used by social work practitioners in developing and implementing effective bullying and sexual assault prevention and educational training programs to inform students, parents, and school administrators regarding the significance of early bullying experiences and severe behavioral consequences. Insights gained from the current findings could also shed light on specific intervention strategies for men and women that address gender-specific mechanisms between bullying and sexual assault behaviors.