Traditional Bullying Victimization, Negative Emotion, and Cyberbullying in South Korea: A General Strain Theory Perspective Across the Middle-to-High-School Transition

Drawing on General Strain Theory, this study examines whether negative emotion links traditional bullying victimization to cyberbullying perpetration among Korean adolescents and whether this pathway changes across the transition to high school. Three waves of Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey data (N = 1,892) show that victimization was associated with perpetration at every wave, whereas negative emotion mediated this association only in middle school. Wald tests indicated that only the link between negative emotion and perpetration weakened significantly across the transition. The findings point to the opportunity for criminal coping as a conditioning factor in General Strain Theory.