The Impact of Traditional Bullying Victimization on Problematic Behaviors and Cyberbullying Engagement of Adolescents: Exploring the Mediating Roles of Learning Motivation and School Belongingness

Background and Purpose: Previous research has suggested the significant association between bullying victimization and multiple problematic behaviors of adolescents, with limited attention paid to their online behavioral health, particularly in the current cyber era. Further, less is known about the underlying mechanisms through which bullying victimization influences both adolescents’ online and offline problematic behaviors. To address such research gaps, this study examined the impact of traditional bullying victimization on problematic and cyberbullying behaviors of adolescents and explored how school-related factors (learning motivation and school belongingness) may mediate the aforementioned relationship.

Methods: Data collection was performed through a cross-sectional survey design. Based on a cluster sampling procedure, this study recruited participants (N=1822) from eight schools in one county in the Inner Mongolia, China. There were 863 girls and 959 boys in our sample. The mean age was 11.8 years (SD=.909). The independent variable in this study was traditional bullying victimization (Problem Behavior Frequency Scale; 4 items; α=.74). The dependent variables were problematic behaviors (Problem Behavior Frequency Scale; 8 items; α=.88) and cyberbullying engagement (Cyberbullying Scale; 3 items; α=.85). The mediators were learning motivation (Learning Motivation Scale; 6 items; α=.95) and school belongingness (Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire; 8 items; α=.93). Gender, age, and ethnicity were included as control variables. We performed descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations of the key variables in SPSS 26.0 and tested our research hypotheses by using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in AMOS 26.0.

Results: Results indicated that traditional bullying victimization was directly associated with both problematic behaviors (β=.506, p<.001) and cyberbullying engagement (β=.257, p<.001) of adolescents. Moreover, we found that the relationship between traditional bullying victimization and problematic behaviors could be mediated by learning motivation (β=.035, bootstrapping 95% CI [.007, .038], p<.001) and school belongingness (β=.019, bootstrapping 95% CI [.001, .021], p<.05). Also, learning motivation (β=.047, bootstrapping 95% CI [.010, .049], p<.001) mediated the relationship between traditional bullying victimization and cyberbullying engagement, while school belongingness failed to mediate this association.

Conclusions and Implications: The findings indicate that future researchers and practitioners need to consider the online and offline behavioral health of adolescents experiencing bullying. Furthermore, the significant mediating roles of learning motivation and school belongingness in the relationship between bullying victimization and problematic behaviors necessitate that practitioners assess these factors in adolescents to prevent such behaviors. School-based programs should be implemented to strengthen learning motivation and school belonging among adolescents bullied by their peers.