Examining Digital Parental Mediation, Social and Emotional Competence, and Well-Being on Cyberbullying Roles Across Different Cohorts of Chinese Children

Using a sample of 834 male and 765 female Asian students in China (average age = 12.31), this study investigated how active and restrictive digital parental mediation, children’s social and emotional competence, and their subjective well-being were associated with cyberbullying penetration and victimization, along with the moderating roles of gender and grade. The results generally supported the unfavorable role of restrictive mediation and the favorable roles of active mediation and subjective well-being. Unexpectedly, children’s social and emotional competence was positively related to cyberbullying perpetration and victimization, especially for male students. Multigroup comparisons further revealed that the favorable impacts of active mediation were more pronounced for female and middle school students, while those of subjective well-being were more salient for males.