Sensation seeking and cyberbullying among Chinese adolescents: Examining the mediating roles of boredom experience and antisocial media exposure

Although various personality traits have been suggested as possible risk factors for development of cyberbullying among adolescents, research attempts to identify which traits are most influential in promoting cyberbullying and the processes that underly this relationship are few in number. As sensation seeking is a personality trait that has been found to be relevant to a number of problem behaviors, it was selected for closer examination. The present study additionally examined boredom experience and antisocial media exposure as mediators in the relationship between sensation seeking and cyberbullying. The sample consisted of 725 Chinese adolescents, aged from 11 to 15 years (42.76% girls), who completed measures of sensation seeking, cyberbullying, boredom experience, and antisocial media exposure. The bias-corrected bootstrap method was employed to test several proposed multiple mediation models. After controlling for participants' gender and grade, sensation seeking not only directly predicted cyberbullying but also predicted cyberbullying through three indirect paths by the mediating role of (1) boredom experience, (2) antisocial media exposure and (3) the chain mediating role of boredom experience and antisocial media exposure. The present study highlights the complex nature of the association between adolescents’ sensation seeking and cyberbullying. The limitations and implications of this study are discussed.