Bullying victimization and cyber delinquency among adolescents with immigrant backgrounds: a cross-sectional path analysis

Bullying victimization represents a form of social exclusion that may have greater implications for children and adolescents with immigrant backgrounds compared to their counterparts. Delinquent behavior in relation to bullying victimization and cyber delinquency have recently gained attention as an emerging form of digital behavior. Although the internalizing and externalizing pathways linking bullying to delinquency are well-documented in the general adolescent population, evidence regarding their relation to cyber delinquency among adolescents with immigrant backgrounds remains limited. Therefore, this study investigated the pathways linking bullying victimization to cyber delinquency in this population. Data were drawn from the 2023 fifth wave of the second panel of the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study, from which 1,675 adolescents with immigrant backgrounds were included in the analysis. A path analysis was conducted to test the sequential mediation of bullying victimization on cyber delinquency via social withdrawal, depression, and aggression. Bullying victimization showed a significant direct effect on cyber delinquency (β = 0.106; p = 0.001). Simple indirect effects were not significant, whereas sequential indirect effects through depression and aggression (estimate = 0.018, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.009–0.029) and social withdrawal, depression, and aggression (estimate = 0.013; 95% CI: 0.007–0.020) were significant. Among adolescents with immigrant backgrounds, bullying victimization may lead to cyber delinquency through a socioemotional cascade, beginning with social withdrawal. Therefore, detecting and supporting early social withdrawal responses following victimization may be necessary to interrupt subsequent socioemotional pathways in this population.