Psychological Maltreatment to Cyberbullying Victimization: Mediating Pathways of Submissive Behavior and Moderating Effects of Social-Emotional Competence

Background/Purpose: Cyberbullying has emerged as a critical issue among adolescents worldwide, often reflecting a cycle of victimization stemming from childhood maltreatment. While existing studies have demonstrated that childhood maltreatment increases the risk of cyberbullying victimization, the underlying mechanisms remain underexplored. Notably, psychological abuse (characterized by threats) and psychological neglect (characterized by deprivation) may have distinct impacts and should be examined separately. This study investigates the mechanisms linking childhood psychological maltreatment (abuse/neglect) to cyberbullying victimization (CV) among Chinese adolescents. Specifically, it identifies submissive behavior as a mediating factor and social-emotional competence (SEC) as a moderating factor that may buffer against these effects.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1,334 middle school students from Beijing and Hunan Province, selected through cluster sampling from five public schools. Participants completed validated measures assessing psychological abuse and neglect (25-item scale, α = 0.90), submissive behavior (16-item scale, α = 0.86), SEC (21-item modified DSECS-S, α = 0.91), and cyberbullying victimization (14-item scale, α = 0.88). Structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrapping (5,000 resamples) was employed to examine mediation and moderation effects, incorporating latent variable interactions via the unconstrained product indicator method.

Results: The SEM results indicated a good model fit (χ² = 178.431, df = 64, p < 0.001; CFI = 0.984; TLI = 0.978; SRMR = 0.032; RMSEA = 0.037). Psychological abuse (β = 0.195, p < 0.01) and neglect (β = 0.243, p < 0.01) were both significantly associated with increased submissive behavior. Submissive behavior fully mediated the relationship between psychological abuse and CV (indirect effect = 0.039, 95% CI [0.003, 0.025], explaining 68.42% of the total effect) and partially mediated the link between psychological neglect and CV (indirect effect = 0.048, 95% CI [0.008, 0.040], accounting for 40.68% of the total effect). Additionally, SEC significantly moderated the submissive behavior-CV relationship (p < 0.001), with high SEC levels (M+1SD) reducing the effect size by 32% compared to low SEC levels (M-1SD), as demonstrated through conditional mediation analysis.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings underscore the urgent need to break the cycle of psychological maltreatment leading to cyberbullying victimization. Family education programs should focus on training parents to recognize and address emotional neglect, while schools should implement tailored interventions, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy-based assertiveness training for youth experiencing psychological abuse and SEC-focused curricula to enhance empathy accuracy in adolescents facing neglect. Systemic change requires the integration of SEC screenings into school mental health protocols and the utilization of technology to monitor submissive behavior patterns, which are linked to increased cyberbullying exposure. This study contributes to the understanding of risk and protective factors in adolescent cyberbullying victimization and informs targeted prevention strategies.