Adolescents’ cyberbullying experience and subjective well-being: Sex difference in the moderating role of cognitive-emotional regulation strategy

Individuals who experience cyberbullying are at increased risk for future health and social difficulties. Despite this correlation, not all individuals who encountered cyberbullying experience exhibit poor subjective well-being, indicating the need for further investigation into potential protective factors. Cognitive emotional regulation strategy may help buffer or reinforce the negative emotions triggered by cyberbullying and prevent psychological problems, and there may be sex differences in emotion regulation resulting from the influence of social expectations and gender norms. Therefore, the present study examined sex differences in the moderating role of cognitive-emotional regulation strategies on the association between cyberbullying experiences and well-being outcomes in adolescents. We analyzed data from 5151 adolescents from 30 secondary schools (female = 53.9%, Mean grade level = 8.68, SD = 1.98) in Hong Kong. The results indicated that the experience of cyberbullying perpetration, victimization, and bystander was negatively associated with adolescent girls' well-being, whereas only the experience of cyberbullying perpetration was negatively associated with adolescent boys' well-being. Girls who reported blaming others more often had better well-being when they were victims of cyberbullying, and those who engaged in more cognitive reappraisal had better well-being when they were perpetrators of cyberbullying. Boys who reported blaming others more often had better well-being if they were cyberbullying perpetrators. These findings provide valuable insights for the development of gender-specific interventions aimed at reducing the negative impact of cyberbullying experience on adolescents' well-being.