Positive Parenting Practices and Defending Interventions in Cyberbullying: the Mediation of Disclosure

Problematic adolescent Internet use has been linked to parental practices; however, the underpinnings of such relationships remain unclear. A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the relationship between positive parenting practices, such as warmth, inductive discipline, and autonomy support, and bystander-defending interventions in cyberbullying incidents. This study also examined the mediating role of adolescent disclosure in these relationships. The research included 684 secondary and high school students from the North of Mexico, recruited using convenience sampling. The adolescents completed self-report measures. Structural equation models with latent variables were calculated. The results showed that parental warmth had a statistically significant direct positive association with adolescents' defending interventions in cyberbullying, whereas inductive reasoning and autonomy support did not. Furthermore, the study revealed that the additive positive impact of these parenting practices had a direct effect on defender interventions in cyberbullying. Finally, the findings confirmed that adolescent disclosure played a mediating role in the relationship between all parenting practices and defensive interventions in cyberbullying. In conclusion, this research indicates that positive parenting practices encourage adolescents to intervene as defenders against cyberbullying through online disclosure.