Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment, Faculty of Psychology, University of Málaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071 Málaga, Spain.
Department of Educational & Community Programs, Queens College, City University of New York, New York, NY 11367, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jun 22;17(12):4475. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17124475.
Cyber-bullying is becoming an increasing school and health problem affecting adolescents worldwide. A number of studies have examined risk factors and protective factors in cyber-bullying situations and their consequences on the psychological well-being of adolescents. Gratitude and Emotional Intelligence (EI) are two personal resources that have been shown to have beneficial effects on the health and the social, personal and psychological functioning of young people. Nevertheless, little is known about these two variables in the context of cyber-bullying. The main purpose of this study was to examine the roles of gratitude and EI in cyber-aggression. Specifically, we hypothesised a mediational effect of gratitude in emotional intelligence-cyber-aggression link. A total of 1157 students aged 12-18 years (54.4% females) completed several questionnaires assessing gratitude (Gratitude Questionnaire; GQ-5), EI (Wong and Law's Emotional Intelligence Scale; WLEIS-S) and cyber-bullying (European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire; ECIPQ). The results showed expected significant associations between the studied variables. Moreover, the structural equation model analysis confirmed that EI dimensions were indirectly associated with cyber-aggression via gratitude, even when controlling for the effects of socio-demographic variables. These findings provide evidence on why those adolescents high in emotional intelligence are less aggressive in cyber-bullying context and suggest possibilities for gratitude interventions to reduce aggressive actions by electronic means among adolescents. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
网络欺凌正成为一个日益严重的学校和健康问题，影响着全球青少年。许多研究已经探讨了网络欺凌情境中的风险因素和保护因素，以及它们对青少年心理健康的影响。感恩和情绪智力（EI）是两种个人资源，它们已被证明对年轻人的健康以及社交、个人和心理功能有有益的影响。然而，关于这两个变量在网络欺凌背景下的情况，我们知之甚少。本研究的主要目的是探讨感恩和 EI 在网络攻击中的作用。具体来说，我们假设感恩在情绪智力与网络攻击关系中具有中介作用。共有 1157 名 12-18 岁的学生（54.4%为女性）完成了几个问卷，评估感恩（感恩问卷；GQ-5）、EI（黄和罗的情绪智力量表；WLEIS-S）和网络欺凌（欧洲网络欺凌干预项目问卷；ECIPQ）。结果表明，研究变量之间存在预期的显著关联。此外，结构方程模型分析证实，EI 维度通过感恩与网络攻击间接相关，即使在控制了社会人口统计学变量的影响之后也是如此。这些发现提供了证据，说明为什么那些情绪智力高的青少年在网络欺凌环境中不太具有攻击性，并为通过感恩干预减少青少年通过电子手段进行攻击行为提供了可能性。讨论了理论和实际意义。
