The Structural Model of Relationships Between Personality Pathology Dimensions and Cyberbullying Mediated by Contingent Self-Worth in Adolescent Girls

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the present study was to test the structural model of relationships between personality pathology dimensions and cyberbullying mediated by contingent self-worth in adolescent girls.

Methods: This study was tested using the structural equation modeling method. The statistical population of this research included all adolescent female students in District 2 of Tehran during the 2020-2021 academic year. According to the data obtained from the Tehran Department of Education, their total number was 145,398. Based on Michel’s criteria (1993) and using multi-stage cluster sampling, 300 participants were selected as the sample. They responded to the Contingent Self-Worth Questionnaire by Crocker et al. (2003), the Cyberbullying Questionnaire by Antoniadou et al. (2016), and the short form of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5-BF). SPSS.22 and AMOS.22 software were used for data analysis.

Findings: The findings from testing the structural model showed that the direct effect of abnormal personality on contingent self-worth was (-0.33), on cyberbullying (0.26), and the direct effect of contingent self-worth on cyberbullying was (-0.40). Contingent self-worth mediated the relationship between abnormal personality and cyberbullying, with the indirect effect of this relationship being (0.13) (P<0.01). Overall, the results indicated that the tested model had a good fit with the conceptual model (RMSEA=0.06; GFI=0.91).

Conclusion: It can be concluded that contingent self-worth mediates the relationship between dimensions of abnormal personality and cyberbullying.