Do Self-Esteem and Trait Aggressiveness Moderate the Longitudinal Effect of Environmental Risk on Bullying Behavior in Chinese Adolescents?

The present study investigated the longitudinal effects of multiple environmental risk factors in three social domains (i.e., family, school, and Internet) on traditional bullying and cyberbullying and the moderating roles of self-esteem and trait aggressiveness in these relations. The present research was conducted by a four-wave panel design with 6-month intervals. A total of 358 students (40.5% girls) aged 12 to 14 (M = 12.89) participated in this study and completed the measures on research variables. Results indicated that participants who experienced more risk factors reported higher bullying perpetration scores at later times. Participants exposed to more risk domains reported more cyberbullying activities at T4 than those exposed to none or fewer risk domains. Besides, trait aggressiveness moderated the predictive effects of cumulative environmental risk/cumulative risk domain in bullying perpetration. However, these effects were not moderated by self-esteem. The effects were much stronger for adolescents with higher levels of trait aggressiveness than those with lower levels of trait aggressiveness. These findings can enrich the previous literature and provide some basis for developing interventions on bullying behavior.