IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i13p9978-d1177442.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cyberbullying Victimization and Social Anxiety: Mediating Effects with Moderation

Author

Listed:
  • Tiansheng Xia

    (School of Art and Design, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510090, China)

  • Jieying Liao

    (School of Art and Design, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510090, China)

  • Yiting Deng

    (School of Art and Design, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510090, China)

  • Linli Li

    (School of Art and Design, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510090, China)

Abstract

Cyberbullying experiences are considered an important factor contributing to social anxiety among college students. However, potential mediators of the relationship between cyberbullying and social anxiety, which may strengthen or weaken this relationship, are unclear. The present study examined the mediating role of self-esteem and appearance anxiety, as well as the moderating role of gender. A total of 269 college students participated in a questionnaire survey on cyberbullying victimization, appearance anxiety, self-esteem, and social anxiety, and 240 valid questionnaires were obtained, including 71 from males and 169 from females. The results show that cyberbullying victimization was significantly and positively correlated with appearance anxiety and social anxiety; appearance anxiety was significantly and positively correlated with social anxiety; and self-esteem was significantly and negatively correlated with social anxiety. Cyberbullying victimization mainly affects college students’ social anxiety in two ways: the mediating role of appearance anxiety and the sequential mediating role of appearance anxiety and self-esteem. In addition, gender plays a moderating role between self-esteem and social anxiety. We discussed the practical implications of the current study and measures of behavioral interventions for college students.

Suggested Citation

  • Tiansheng Xia & Jieying Liao & Yiting Deng & Linli Li, 2023. "Cyberbullying Victimization and Social Anxiety: Mediating Effects with Moderation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-14, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:13:p:9978-:d:1177442
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/13/9978/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/13/9978/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:13:p:9978-:d:1177442. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.