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The relationship between parental conflict and adolescent cyberbullying: the roles of parent-child attachment and core self-evaluation

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Abstract

Cyberbullying is a common problem behavior among adolescents, and parental conflict has a significant influence on it. However, the mechanisms underlying this relation is largely unclear. The current study aimed to examine the potential mediating roles of parent-child attachment and core self-evaluation in this relationship. In total, 1,245 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 14.48, SDage = 1.58, 560 boys and 685 girls) completed a questionnaire survey on parental conflict, parent-child attachment, core self-evaluation, and cyberbullying. Findings showed a positive correlation between parental conflict and adolescent cyberbullying. Additionally, parent-child attachment and core self-evaluation played mediating roles in this relationship, both in parallel as well as sequentially. These findings provide new evidence on how parental conflict affects adolescent cyberbullying and deepened our understanding of the mediating roles of parent-child attachment and core self-evaluation in this relationship.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by Opening Foundation of the Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior of Ministry of Education (Central China Normal University) and Key Laboratory of Human Development and Mental Health of Hubei Province (Central China Normal University) [grant number 2019B05], the Research Program Funds of the Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality at Beijing Normal University [grant number 2022-04-009-BZPK01]. The Planning Project of Nanchong Federation of Social Science Associations [grant number NC22C456].

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Contributions

Dan He: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Writing-original draft, Writing-review & editing. Gengfeng Niu: Investigation, Writing-review & editing. Yunyang Hu: Writing-review & editing. Kuai Song: Writing-review & editing. Zongkui Zhou: Writing-review & editing, Supervision, Project administration. Cuiying Fan: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing-review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Cuiying Fan.

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Authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

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Ethics approval all procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committees and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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He, D., Niu, G., Hu, Y. et al. The relationship between parental conflict and adolescent cyberbullying: the roles of parent-child attachment and core self-evaluation. Curr Psychol 43, 8230–8240 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04998-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04998-z

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