A Study on the Effects of Cyber Bullying on Cognitive Processing Ability and the Emotional States: Moderating Effect of Social Support of Friends and Parents

College students experience more cyber bullying than youth and cyber bullying on college students may be more harmful than youth. But many studies of cyber bullying have been conducted in youth, but little has been studied for college students. Therefore, this study investigated the negative effects of college students’ cyber bullying experience on cognitive processing ability and emotional states. The social support of friends has a buffering effect that prevents stress and reduces the influence on external damage in stressful situations. But the impact of parental social support is controversial. Traditionally, the social support of parents has been claimed to mitigate the negative effects of external damage. Recently, however, it has been argued that parental social support, without considering the independence and autonomy needs of college students, does not alleviate the negative effects. Therefore, this study examined how the social support of friends and parents moderate the negative impact of cyber bullying. The results show that the more college students experience cyber bullying, the lower their cognitive processing ability and emotional states. And, the higher the social support of friends, the lower the harmful impacts of cyber bullying on cognitive processing ability and emotional states. But, the higher the social support of parents, the higher the harmful impacts of cyber bullying on cognitive processing ability and emotional states.