Factors influencing ethnic minority students' helping behavior in cyberbullying: perceived severity of cyberbullying from various perspectives, the online disinhibition effect, and parental online discipline style

This study investigates the interrelationships among cyberbullying severity, online disinhibition, and parental online discipline styles and further predicts 189 Chinese ethnic minority undergraduate students’ helping behaviors in various cyberbullying incidents. The t test analysis showed that females judged cyberbullying behaviors viewed from the victim’s perspective as more harmful than males and were more willing to reach out to victims of specific cyberbullying incidents (outing and trickery and flaming). In contrast, males perceived a stronger toxic disinhibition effect and stronger technical intervention and monitoring from parents. The correlation analysis indicated that the perceived severity of cyberbullying from the two perspectives and the toxic disinhibition effect were correlated with all helping behaviors. Finally, the regression analysis revealed that gender, the perceived severity of cyberbullying from the two perspectives, the online disinhibition effect, and the parental online discipline style jointly predict students’ helping behaviors with a moderate level of predictive power. Furthermore, perceived severities from both the bully and victim perspectives were common determinants for predicting students’ helping behaviors. This study confirms the utility of perceived severity and determines the impact of research factors on minority bystanders’ helping behaviors in cyberbullying, thereby addressing the research gaps in previous studies.