Cyberbullying and cybervictimization on digital media platforms: the role of demographic variables and parental mediation strategies

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate adolescents’ perspectives on different parental mediation strategies in adolescent cyberbullying and cybervictimization. It also investigated the roles of the adolescent’s age and gender as moderators. An online survey was conducted among 387 Saudi adolescents aged 12–17 years. The results show that decreases in active, restrictive, internet safety, and monitoring strategies were significantly associated with increases in cyberbullying. However, only restrictive and internet safety strategies were significant contributors to cybervictimization, both of which followed the same pattern of a negative relationship between the mediation strategy and cybervictimization. Furthermore, the internet safety strategy had a significant three-way interaction with age and gender in associating with cyberbullying, while the restrictive strategy had a significant three-way interaction with age and gender in associating with cybervictimization.