학교 급에 따른 자기통제력이 사이버폭력 가해경험에 미치는 영향: 사이버 자신감의 조절효과

초록

This study examines whether the effect of self-control on cyberbullying perpetration varies across school levels (elementary, middle, and high school) and whether cyber confidence moderates this relationship. The data were drawn from the 2015 National Survey on Youth Cyberbullying conducted by the Korean Institute of Criminology, including 5,358 students from the 5th grade of elementary school to the 2nd grade of high school (1,375 elementary, 2,305 middle, and 1,678 high school students). Cyberbullying perpetration (no/yes) was used as the dependent variable. Self-control (reverse-coded so that higher scores indicate greater self-control) served as the independent variable, and cyber confidence (four items) was examined as a moderator. Pearson correlations and logistic regression analyses were conducted using SPSS 27.0, and moderation effects were tested using PROCESS Macro Model 1 with a logistic specification. The results indicate that, in the full sample, self-control had a significant negative association with cyberbullying perpetration, while cyber confidence showed a significant positive association. The interaction term between self-control and cyber confidence was significant in the overall model, suggesting that higher levels of cyber confidence may attenuate the protective effect of self-control. However, when analyses were conducted separately by school level, the interaction effect was not statistically significant across elementary, middle, and high school groups. In contrast, the main effects of self-control (protective factor) and cyber confidence (risk factor) remained consistent across all school levels. These findings suggest that cyber confidence may function as an independent risk factor rather than a conditional moderator in explaining cyberbullying perpetration across developmental stages. By incorporating school level as a developmental and institutional context, this study extends prior research that has often treated adolescents as a homogeneous group. The findings reaffirm the applicability of self-control theory in digital environments and highlight the importance of distinguishing between protective and risk factors in cyber contexts. Practically, the results suggest that cyberbullying prevention strategies should prioritize strengthening self-control (e.g., impulse and emotion regulation) across all school levels while simultaneously addressing excessive online confidence and moral disengagement through digital citizenship education. A developmentally tailored and multi-level intervention approach is recommended.

키워드