Parental Warmth, Friendship Quality, Empathy and Bystander Defending Behavior in Cyberbullying Among Adolescents in China

Adolescents' bystander defending behavior in cyberbullying contributes to reducing the harm done to cyberbullying victims. This study examined the relationships and underlying mechanisms of parental warmth, friendship quality, empathy and bystander defending behavior in cyberbullying among 848 Chinese adolescents (43.986% girls, mean age = 14.960 years old [SD = 1.398]). The results showed that parental warmth, friendship quality and empathy were all positively correlated with bystander defending behavior in cyberbullying among adolescents. Both friendship quality and empathy played a mediating role between parental warmth and bystander defending behavior in cyberbullying, indicating that parental warmth was associated with increased bystander defending behavior through higher levels of friendship quality and empathy, respectively. Friendship quality and empathy also played a chain mediating role between these two, indicating that parental warmth was linked to increased bystander defending behavior by first associating with higher level of friendship quality and subsequently with greater empathy. These results suggest that high degrees of parental warmth, friendship quality and empathy may all increase the likelihood of bystander defending behavior in cyberbullying among adolescents. This study provides practical implications for improving adolescent bystander defending behavior in cyberbullying.