Life Stress and Cyberbullying: Examining the Mediating Roles of Expressive Suppression and Online Disinhibition

Life stress is a significant predictor of cyberbullying. However, previous studies have not investigated the roles of emotional and cognitive characteristics, such as expressive suppression and online disinhibition, in explaining the associations between life stress and cyberbullying perpetration/victimization. To fill this gap, a two-wave longitudinal design was used to investigate these two mediating variables as the underlying mechanisms among adolescents after controlling for possible covariates. A total of 724 Chinese adolescents (female: 41.2%) aged 12 to 16 years old (M = 13.36, SD = 0.77) participated in this survey. They completed self-report questionnaires on life stress, expressive suppression, online disinhibition (including benign and toxic disinhibition), cyberbullying perpetration, and cyberbullying victimization. The survey was conducted in two waves, six months apart. The correlational analyses showed that life stress was positively associated with cyberbullying perpetration/victimization cross-sectionally and longitudinally. After controlling other variables, life stress did not predict cyberbullying perpetration cross-sectionally or longitudinally, but cross-sectionally predicted cyberbullying victimization. The results only revealed the significant mediation effects of expressive suppression and online disinhibition at the first time point. Specifically, toxic disinhibition mediated the relationship between life stress and cyberbullying perpetration/victimization, and benign disinhibition mediated the relationship between life stress and cyberbullying victimization. In addition, life stress cross-sectionally and positively predicted cyberbullying victimization through the serial mediating roles of expressive suppression and benign disinhibition. The results of the multi-group analysis showed that there was no significant difference in the hypothesized model for the male and female groups. This study reveals how life stress is related to cyberbullying perpetration/victimization. Reducing expressive suppression and online disinhibition may be effective in preventing cyberbullying among adolescents.