“Listen to me!” The role of family supervision and parental phubbing in youth cyberbullying

Background To mitigate or prevent the effects of cyberbullying, adolescents are primarily influenced by how they have been educated and supervised at home in the use of technology. Objective Our main objective was to examine the association of parental phubbing and family supervision of Internet and social networks use with cyberbullying victimization and aggression. Method A survey was conducted to examine these factors in a sample of 1,554 students aged 10 to 18 years in the Aragon region of Spain. Results Family supervision is a protective factor against becoming an aggressor or a victim of cyberbullying. Aggressor and victim roles correlate with higher levels of parental phubbing. Multigroup analysis applying structural equation modeling by age and gender revealed certain differences. Gender differences were found with parental phubbing associated with boys' likelihood of being aggressors. Although family supervision protected both boys and girls, there was a stronger association for girls' parents. Fewer differences were observed for age group. Conclusion This study found strong relation between cyberbullying, family supervision, and parental phubbing. Our findings also suggest that cyberbullying prevention strategies need to differ depending on whether they are applied to girls or boys. Implications The importance of model behavior for minors to follow in their optimal use of information and communication technologies and family supervision of smartphone use should be placed at the center of cyberbullying prevention strategies