Long-term effect of cybervictimization on displaced aggressive behavior across two years: Mutually predicting mediators of hostile emotion and moral disengagement

Although the negative effects of cybervictimization are attracting increasing attention, its long-term consequences among college students and the underlying mechanisms behind the effects are still unclear. We attempted to address these issues by testing the mutually predicting mediators of hostile emotion and moral disengagement in the potential longitudinal effect of cybervictimization on self-reported displaced aggressive behavior across two years. The victims’ subscale of the Cyberbullying Inventory for College Students, the hostile emotion subscale of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Expanded Form, the Civic Moral Disengagement Questionnaire, and the Displaced Aggression Questionnaire were completed by 1157 undergraduates in three waves, one year apart. The results of the longitudinal multiple mediating model and cross-lagged panel model analyses showed that, after controlling for displaced aggressive behavior at Wave 1, cybervictimization at Wave 1 predicted hostile emotion and moral disengagement at Wave 2, which in turn predicted displaced aggressive behavior at Wave 3. Moreover, hostile emotion and moral disengagement could longitudinally predict each other. A motivation perspective was developed to comprehensively interpret the multiple mediating model with two mutually predicting mediators. Our findings and ideas contribute to cyber psychology by enhancing the understanding on the negative consequences of negative social experiences derived from Internet use (e.g., cybervictimization) and give practical implications to maintain mental health in Internet use. •Cybervictimization indirectly predicted displaced aggressive behavior after two years.•Hostile emotion and moral disengagement mediated the long-term effect.•Two mediators longitudinally predicted each other over one year.•Motivational perspective was developed to explain the multiple mediation model.