The Mediating and Moderating Effects of Social Support and School Climate on the Association between Cyber Victimization
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EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
The Mediating and Moderating Effects of Social Support and School Climate on the Association between Cyber Victimization and Internalizing Symptoms Brett Holfeld1 Rachel Baitz2 ●
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Received: 27 April 2020 / Accepted: 9 July 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Although the link between cyber victimization and internalizing symptoms is well established, questions remain about the factors that may describe this association and whether they differ by gender. In the current study, the mediating and moderating roles of social support (peers, family) and experiences of school climate (i.e., students’ feelings of safety and caring within the school environment) were examined on the association between cyber victimization and internalizing symptoms among early adolescent boys and girls. Participants included 1151 students (51.4% boys) aged 10 to 16 (Mage = 12.7, SD = 0.93). Results from a hierarchical regression model indicate moderation effects of peer support and school climate; higher levels of cyber victimization were more strongly associated with internalizing symptoms when adolescents reported lower levels of peer support whereas higher levels of cyber victimization were more strongly associated with internalizing symptoms when adolescents reported more positive experiences of school climate. Structural mediation models show partial mediation effects with higher levels of cyber victimization associated with lower levels of peer support, lower levels of family support, and poorer experiences of school climate respectively, which in turn, were associated with more internalizing symptoms. The findings highlight the importance of creating safe and supportive environments at home and at school to promote healthy development during early adolescence, however, these efforts may not benefit adolescents who experience repeated cyber victimization. Keywords
Cyber victimization Social support School climate Anxiety Depression Adolescents ●
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Introduction Establishing and maintaining strong interpersonal relationships is an important aspect of adolescent development. Many of these face-to-face relationships extend to the online world as 95% of adolescents report owning or having access to a smartphone (Anderson and Jiang 2018). Indeed, the process of interacting and disclosure with peers online is an essential developmental process (Davis 2012), as
* Brett Holfeld [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, NL A2H 5G4, Canada
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Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
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deepening friendships within the peer group aids in the formation of friendships outside the family home (Galliher and Kerpelman 2012). Increasing activity in online environments has also exposed adolescents to a new and particularly distressing form of peer victimization called cyber vic
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