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Comunicar Journal 56: Cyberbullying: the threat without a face (Vol. 26 - 2018)

Emotional intelligence and peer cybervictimisation in adolescents: Gender as moderator

https://doi.org/10.3916/C56-2018-01

Lourdes Rey

Cirenia Quintana-Orts

Sergio Mérida-López

Natalio Extremera

Abstract

Elucidating personal factors that may protect against the adverse psychological outcomes of cyberbullying victimisation might help guide more effective screening and school intervention. No studies have yet examined the role of emotional intelligence (EI) and gender in adolescent victims of cyberbullying and how these dimensions might interact in explaining cybervictimisation experiences. The main aim of this study was to examine the relationship between EI and cybervictimisation, and the interactive link involving EI skills and gender as predictors of cyberbullying victimisation in a sample of 1,645 Spanish adolescents (50.6% female), aged between 12 and 18 years. Regarding the prevalence of cybervictimisation, our results indicated that over 83.95% of the sample were considered non-cyber victims, while 16.05% experienced occasional or severe cyber victimisation. Additionally, findings indicated that deficits in EI and its dimensions were positively associated with cyber victimisation in both genders, but were stronger in females. Besides, a significant emotion regulation x gender association was found in explaining cyber victimisation experiences. While no interaction was found for males, for females the deficits of emotion regulation were significantly associated with greater victimisation. Our findings provide empirical support for theoretical work connecting EI skills, gender and cyber victimisation, suggesting emotion regulation skills might be considered as valuable resources, as well as the inclusion in new gender-tailored cyberation victimisation prevention programmes.

Keywords

Emotional intelligence, cyberbullying, victimisation, adolescents, emotional regulation, gender, cybervictimization and socio-emocional abilities