Gender-Patterns in Cyberbullying Involvement Categories: Insights into the Cyberbully/Victims Subgroup

Cyberbullying is a critical public health issue affecting adolescent well-being. This study adopted a socio-ecological framework to examine individual, family, and school-level risk factors associated with three cyberbullying roles-Cyberbullies, Cybervictims, and Cyberbully/Victims-with particular attention to the often-overlooked Cyberbully/Victim subgroup and gender pathways.

A total of 4543 adolescents (Mage = 13.97 years; 52.5% girls) completed the Tabby Improved Checklist. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted separately for boys and girls to identify predictors of involvement in the three cyberbullying roles, including empathy dimensions, moral disengagement, antisocial behavior, aggression toward teachers, and social support, using non-involved adolescents as the reference group.

Cyberbully/Victims represented a high-risk profile characterized by elevated moral disengagement, antisocial behavior, and aggression toward teachers, irrespective of gender. Gender-specific patterns also emerged: male Cyberbullies exhibited high cognitive empathy and low affective empathy, whereas female Cybervictims and Cyberbully/Victims reported higher levels of affective empathy. Furthermore, low parental support and monitoring significantly predicted involvement among male Cyberbullies but not among females. Aggression toward teachers emerged as a common risk factor across all cyberbullying roles.

These findings underscore the complexity of the Cyberbully/Victim role and support the need for gender-sensitive prevention strategies. Effective prevention efforts should adopt a multi-level approach addressing maladaptive cognitive processes, emotional regulation, and student-teacher relationships to reduce online aggression.