The moderating roles of peer pressure and family economic stress in the longitudinal links between adolescent trait anger and cyberbullying perpetration

Abstract

In adolescence, individuals are at high risk for cyberbullying perpetration. Although the role of trait anger in cyberbullying perpetration has attracted attention in the research literature, it is unclear the temporal sequence between trait anger and adolescents' cyberbullying perpetration and whether stressful environments could interact synergistically with trait anger to create a profile of the particularly severe risk to adolescents' cyberbullying perpetration. This study contributed to existing knowledge by examining the longitudinal and reciprocal relationships between trait anger and cyberbullying perpetration and exploring whether peer pressure and family economic stress would moderate these relationships across 2 years (3 time points) with a cohort of Chinese adolescents (N = 2,407, M_age = 12.75 at baseline). The cross-lagged model revealed that prior trait anger was associated with later self-reported cyberbullying perpetration (β_{T1 → T2} = 0.09 and β_{T2 → T3} = 0.10), whereas earlier self-reported cyberbullying perpetration was not associated with subsequent trait anger. Peer pressure moderated the link between trait anger and self-reported cyberbullying perpetration. Family economic stress did not play a moderating role in the link between trait anger and self-reported cyberbullying perpetration. Findings suggest that cyberbullying perpetration prevention and intervention programs should attach importance to adolescents' trait anger and the way of getting along with their peers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).