From Psychological Maltreatment to Cyberbullying Victimization: Submissive Behavior as a Mediator and Social-Emotional Competence as a Moderator

Despite growing attention to the link between psychological maltreatment and cyberbullying victimization, the underlying mechanisms remain underexplored, especially in non-Western cultural contexts like China. Recognizing cyberbullying as a critical issue with alarming prevalence rates among Chinese adolescents and its detrimental effects on well-being, this study aims to illuminate pathways within the cycle of victimization. Drawing on social rank theory, which posits that early maltreatment fosters submissive strategies that heighten vulnerability to victimization, and the resilience framework, which emphasizes the protective role of assets such as social-emotional competence (SEC), this study examined whether submissive behavior mediates the association between psychological maltreatment (psychological abuse and neglect) and cyberbullying victimization, and whether SEC buffers these pathways. A three-wave cross-sectional survey with 1 week apart was conducted with 1,323 Chinese adolescents from five public schools in Beijing and Hunan Province. Utilizing structural equation modeling, results suggested that submissive behavior fully mediated the relation between psychological abuse and cyberbullying victimization, and partially mediated the relation between psychological neglect and cyberbullying victimization. Importantly, while SEC did not moderate the link between psychological maltreatment and submissive behavior, it significantly buffered the association between submissive behavior and cyberbullying victimization. These findings help outline a model of how psychological maltreatment may contribute to vulnerability to cyberbullying from a social rank perspective and highlight the protective role of social-emotional competence in mitigating these risks among adolescents.