Parental Bullying Perpetration, Parental Closeness, and Student Cyberbullying Perpetration: Exploring the Imitation Principle of Social Learning Theory

While prior research has examined how learning-related mechanisms affect cyberbullying perpetration through deviant peer associations, few have considered how the deviant behaviors of parents may similarly affect cyberbullying perpetration. Relying on a sample of undergraduate students from a midwestern university in the United States ( N = 878), this study applies a social learning theoretical framework to examine if the bullying behaviors of parents relate to cyberbullying perpetration of students and if these relationships are moderated by parental closeness. Results show that parental cyberbullying perpetration is related to increased odds of student cyberbullying perpetration. Moreover, results show that relationships between parental bullying perpetration and student cyberbullying perpetration are stronger at higher levels of parental closeness. The findings thus highlight the importance of parents in learning processes related to cyberbullying perpetration and suggest that it would be beneficial to include parents in the design of bullying prevention programs.