ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Media Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1664970
This article is part of the Research TopicUnderstanding Cyberbullying from Various Perspectives - Volume IIView all 6 articles
Parental Psychological Control and Cyberbullying Among Adolescents: the Mediating Roles of Sleep Quality and Moral Disengagement and the Moderating Role of Grade
Provisionally accepted
- 1Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
- 2Chenzhou Vocational and Technical College, Chenzhou, China
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Background: This study investigated how parental psychological control (PPC) influences adolescents' cyberbullying behaviors through the mediating roles of sleep quality and moral disengagement, as well as examined the moderating effect of grade level. Methods: In this study, a total of 688 students from 23schools in one province were enrolled, and they have completed several psychological assessments including PPC, sleep quality, moral disengagement, and cyberbullying. A moderated chain mediation model was conducted to examine their relationships. Results: The finding revealed that PPC significantly positive associated with adolescents' engagement in cyberbullying. Mediation analyses demonstrated that both sleep quality and moral disengagement served as significant mediators in this relationship, and a sequential (chain) mediation effect was also observed. Furthermore, the effect of moral disengagement on cyberbullying was found to be moderated by grade level, and the relationship was stronger among highschoolers than pupils. Conclusions: These findings underscored the importance of parenting style, adolescent sleep health, and moral cognition in understanding and preventing cyberbullying, and suggested that effective intervention should address parental control strategies, promote healthy sleep habits, and enhance adolescents' moral reasoning to reduce cyberbullying and support healthy adolescent development. Keywords: parental psychological control, cyberbullying, sleep quality, moral disengagement, moderated chain mediation model
Keywords: Parental psychological control, cyberbullying, sleep quality, Moral disengagement, Moderated Chain Mediation Model
Received: 13 Jul 2025; Accepted: 06 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Dai, Jiang and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Suo Jiang, jsbnu@163.com
Hui Xu, huixu@wmu.edu.cn
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