Identifying the Relationship between Cyberbullying Victimization and School Dropout Intention Among South Korean Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Peer/Teacher Support

Background and Purpose: School bullying is associated with a broad spectrum of behavioral and social problems among adolescents. More recently, cyberbullying as a new form of bullying emerged extending beyond the confines of classroom or playground to cyberspace. Cyberbullying victimization is increasing among South Korean adolescents through playing online games, using mobile massagers, and other social networking services. Previous studies indicated that bullying was significantly associated with school truancy, school disengagement and school dropout (Mehta et al., 2013). However, there is a dearth of research on the association between cyberbullying and dropping out of school for adolescents. This study aims to examine the association between cyberbullying victimization and school dropout intention, taking into account social-ecological factors in a nationally representative sample of adolescents in South Korea. The moderating effect of peer/teacher support on the link between cyberbullying victimization and school dropout intention is also investigated.

Methods: Data for this study is retrieved from the 2016 Korean Children and Youth Right Study (KCYRS), a nationally representative study of South Korean adolescents. The sample is consisted of 11,132 students from 4^th grade in elementary school to 3^rd grade in high school (equivalent to 12^th grade in the U.S.). The average age of the study population was 13.89 (SD=2.53, range 10-19). Four-step multivariate logistic regressions were conducted to examine the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and school dropout intention. The four analytic models include 1) cyberbullying victimization and individual factors (Model-1); 2) family factors (Model-2); 3) peer/school factors (Model-3); 4) moderating effects of family and peer/school factors (Model-4).

Results: Nearly 24% of adolescents had intended to drop out and 16.7% of adolescents were victims of cyberbullying in the past 12 months. The results of the four-step multivariate regression models revealed victims of cyberbullying incurred a higher risk of school dropout intention in Model-1. Additionally, attending high school, lower GPA, lower self-reported physical health, and higher depression were associated with the higher risk of school dropout intention. Model-2 indicated that parental support for autonomy reduced the risk of dropout intention, while parental abuse, parental neglect, and family dysfunction increased such risk. In Model-3, peer/teacher support and school connectedness were negatively associated with school dropout intention, while poor peer attachment and teacher abuse were positively associated with dropout intention. Finally, Model-4 showed peer/teacher support significantly moderated the association between cyberbullying victimization and school dropout intention.

Conclusions and Implications: Our findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge by explaining the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and school dropout intention with socio-ecological factors. This knowledge can be used by social work researchers and practitioners to alert the students, parents, school administrators and teachers of the prominence of early bullying experiences and their school avoidance, truancy, and dropout. Further, social workers and school personnel may collaborate to develop and implement specific programs (e.g., school-based anti-bullying program) that promote the awareness of bullying and bullying-related school matter as well as enhance adolescents’ social and emotional learning, which can in turn ameliorate the risk of cyberbullying and school problems.