BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Media Psychology
Sex-Specific Psychological Mechanisms of Cyber Reactive Aggression: Evidence from Chinese College Students
Qiannan Ruan 1
Ru-Ying Yu 2
Fei-Rui Ni 1
1. Department of Psychiatry, Wenzhou Seventh Peoples Hospital, Wenzhou, China
2. Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
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Abstract
This study investigated sex-specific psychological mechanisms underlying cyber reactive aggression (CRA) among Chinese college students, addressing a critical gap in understanding how trait anger (TA), hostile attribution bias (HAB), and revenge motivation (RM) differently influence male and female online aggressive behaviors. Using convenience sampling, we collected data from 926 students (371 males, 555 females) across twelve universities in China. Network analysis with mgm package revealed distinct sex-specific patterns: male participants showed strong TA-HAB and RM-CRA associations, while female participants exhibited prominent HAB-CRA relationships. Notably, maternal education levels were positively associated with aggressive behavior in both sexes (males: weight = 0.22; females: weight = 0.14), while left-behind experiences uniquely was associated with higher HAB in males (weight = 0.55). Multi-group structural equation modeling further validated these sex-specific pathways: TA was significantly associated with CRA in both sexes (males: β = 0.40, p < 0.001; females: β = 0.44, p < 0.001), with both HAB and RM mediating the TA-CRA relationship in males, while only HAB served as a significant mediator in females. These findings advance our theoretical understanding of sex-specific aggression mechanisms in digital contexts and suggest that intervention strategies should be tailored differently for male and female college students.
Summary
Keywords
Cyber reactiveaggression (CRA), Hostile attribution bias (HAB), Network analysis, Revenge motivation (RM), sex differences, Trait anger (TA)
Received
09 December 2025
Accepted
18 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Ruan, Yu and Ni. 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: Fei-Rui Ni
Disclaimer
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