Exploring Risk and Protective Factors for Cyberbullying and Their Interplay: Evidence from a Sample of South Korean College Students

Abstract

This study explored risk and protective factors for cyberbullying perpetration and examined whether they independently and interactively predicted cyberbullying perpetration. Based on key propositions of micro-level theories of crime and delinquency, we adopted two risk factors, cyberbullying victimization and association with cyberbullying peers, and two protective factors, morality and self-control. Using a sample of South Korean college students (N = 244; 112 women (45.9%), 132 men (54.1%); Mean (age) = 22), we found that the two risk factors were positively associated with cyberbullying perpetration, while only one of the two protective factors, which is morality, had a negative relationship with cyberbullying perpetration. In addition, the two protective factors partially buffered the effects of both risk factors on cyberbullying perpetration. The implications and limitations of these findings were also discussed.