Risk and Protective Factors in Cyberbullying: the Role of Family, Social Support and Emotion Regulation

Abstract Family and peer effects, as well as socio-emotional skills, are considered to have an essential role in cyberbullying. Although the dynamics of social factors and socio-emotional processes underlying cyberbullying are still open for research to further understand the direct and indirect relationships among the social factors (e.g., peers and family), socio-emotional skills (e.g. emotion regulation) and cyberbullying engagement. Thus, the aim of our study was to test models of cyberbullying perpetration and cybervictimization based on the role of family dynamics (cohesion, adaptability and communication), social support (from family and friends) and emotion regulation difficulties. One thousand, one hundred and five students (552 males, aged 11–19 years) participated in our research. We used self-report questionnaires to measure cyberbullying perpetration and cybervictimization, family functioning, perceived social support and emotion regulation difficulties. Our main findings support the crucial role of family and peers in cyberbullying engagement during adolescence. Perceived support from friends and family serve as protective factors against cybervictimization. Further, perceived support from friends and balanced family cohesion are protective factors against cyberbullying perpetration. On the other hand, emotion regulation difficulties appear to increase the risk of both cyberbullying perpetration and cybervictimization. Our findings confirm and extend the research on the role of family and peer effects, as well as emotion regulation in cyberbullying engagement. Moreover, our results have important implications for prevention and intervention programs involving family and peer support.