The impact of cyberbullying victimization on psychosocial behaviors among college students during the covid-19 pandemic: The indirect effect of a sense of purpose in life

Abstract

By drawing from positive psychology and general strain theory, this study examined whether a sense of purpose in life has an indirect effect between college students’ cyberbullying victimization and their depressive symptoms, cyberbullying perpetration, and suicidal thoughts/behaviors. Data were collected from 314 college students (69.9% female) aged 18 to 24 and older from two universities in the Midwest and South-central region of the United States. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) identified that cyberbullying victimization was positively associated with depressive symptoms and cyberbullying perpetration. Moreover, cyberbullying victimization indirectly affected depressive symptoms through a sense of purpose in life. This study will emphasize the importance of fostering cyberbullied college students’ purpose in life to college staff, administrators, faculty, and practitioners, and will provide them with strategies to develop campus-wide cyberbullying interventions for college students.