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Longitudinal relations among family dysfunction, depressive symptoms, and cyberbullying involvement in Chinese early adolescents: Disentangling between- and within-person associations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2022

Jianhua Zhou ,
Xiang Li ,
Yan Zou  and
Xue Gong Open the ORCID record for Xue Gong [Opens in a new window]
Jianhua Zhou
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China
Xiang Li
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Yan Zou
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China
Xue Gong*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
*
Corresponding author: Xue Gong, email: gongxuedw@163.com
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Abstract

Family dysfunction plays an important role in cyberbullying and cybervictimization. However, little research has investigated the longitudinal relations and the mediating mechanisms between them during adolescence. This study examined the longitudinal relations between family dysfunction and cyberbullying and cybervictimization, along with whether depressive symptoms function as mediators between them at the within-person level. A total of 3,743 Chinese adolescents (46.2% females; Mage = 9.92 years; SD = 0.51) participated a five-wave longitudinal study with a 6-month time interval. The results of random intercept cross-lagged panel model found that: (1) family dysfunction directly predicted depressive symptoms and vice versa at the within-person level; (2) depressive symptoms directly predicted cyberbullying and cybervictimization at the within-person level, but not vice versa; (3) family dysfunction indirectly predicted cyberbullying and cybervictimization via depressive symptoms at the within-person level; (4) at the between-person level, there were significant associations among family dysfunction, depressive symptoms, cyberbullying and cybervictimization. The results are discussed on the basis of the mechanisms that lead to cyberbullying and cybervictimization.

Keywords

cyberbullyingcybervictimizationdepressive symptomsfamily dysfunction
Type
Regular Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , February 2024 , pp. 395 - 403
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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