The Influence Of Network Anonymity On Adolescents’ Cyberbullying Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

Internet social interaction is an emerging way of social contact,which not only greatly enriches the daily life of teenagers,but also provides them with a lot of convenience in study and life.However,the negative impact of network anonymity on teenagers cannot be ignored.Cyberbullying is one of the typical examples.Adolescents are in a period when their spiritual world has not been built completely and view of world is immature.They are easily disturbed by the external environment,and they are also more prone to cyberbullying.Cyberbullying not only brings psychological harm to teenagers,but also has a negative impact on their studies and even their lives.Therefore,exploring the influence of network anonymity on teenagers’ cyberbullying and its mechanism will help prevent and control cyberbullying and its consequences.Teenagers’ cyberbullying behavior is mainly affected by the interaction of individual and environmental factors.In the environment of network anonymity,self-control ability and internet morality,as protective factors affecting adolescents,play an important role in the green and healthy development of teenagers’ online behavior.Therefore,this research is based on the general bad behavior theory and trait moral evasion theory to explore the moderate effect of internet morality in the relationship between network anonymity and cyberbullying,and the mediate effect of self-control between them.The study selected 513 first-and second-year students from a vocational high school in Fuzhou,Fujian Province as the subjects,and used the Cyberbullying Scale,the Internet Morality Scale,the Self-Control Scale,and the Network Anonymity Scale to conduct the questionnaire survey.The research results are as follows:(1)Cyberbullying behavior is significantly negatively correlated with network anonymity,internet morality,and self-control ability.Network anonymity is significantly positively correlated with internet morality,but not significantly related to self-control ability.Internet morality is not significantly related to self-control ability.(2)Network anonymity has a negative predictive effect on youth cyberbullying,but this influence is produced through the mediate effect of internet morality.Specifically,network anonymity positively predicts internet morality,and internet morality negative predicts cyberbullying.Internet morality completely mediates the relationship between network anonymity and youth cyberbullying behavior.In other words,the higher the level of network anonymity,the higher the level of internet morality,thereby reducing youth cyberbullying.(3)Self-control ability plays a moderating role in the mediating role relationship between internet morality and cyberbullying.Self-control ability will significantly affect the role of internet morality on cyberbullying.When the level of self-control ability is low,individuals with low internet morality are more likely to have cyberbullying behavior;when the self-control ability is high,no matter whether the level of internet morality is high or low,it is not easy to cause cyberbullying behavior.