Mediation of cognitive empathy in loneliness and cyberbullying in middle school students

Objective To investigate possible mediation of cognitive empathy in the association between loneliness and cyberbullying among middle school students.Methods A total of 949 students from four middle schools in Shenyang,Liaoning Province were investigated with being cyber bullied/cyber bullying questionnaire,basic mobility scale and UCLA loneliness scale.Results Among students with cyberbullying behavior or being cyberbullied,loneliness and cognitive empathy scores were statistically significant by gender(t =5.28,5.86,3.25,-3.54,P<0.05).Boys scored higher than girls except cognitive empathy(P<0.05).Middle school students had higher score than high school students in being cyberbullied/cyberbullying(P<0.01),and lower score in cognitive empathy(P<0.05).Correlation analysis showed that being cyberbullied/cyberbullying positively correlated with loneliness(r=0.18,028,P<0.01),and negatively correlated with cognitive empathy(r =-0.16,-0.25,P<0.01).Loneliness directly affected cyberbullying behavior,being cyber bullied and elements of cognitive empathy.Partial intermediary effect on cyberbullying/being cyberbullied was also found(x2/df=2.597,RMSEA =0.041,CFI=0.992,TLI=0.987;x2/df=3.235,RMSEA =0.049,CFI =0.991,TLI=0.983),and the mediation effect accounted for 13.6% and 19.2% of the total effect,respectively.Conclusion Cognitive empathy has direct effect on loneliness and being cyberbullied/cyberbullying behavior among middle school students.