The Impact of Ethno-Cultural Empathy on Cyberbullying and Moderating Role of Personality Traits among Secondary School Girls

The increasing use of social networks by teenagers on the one hand and the increasing growth of cultural diversity and as a result of this, and the development of ethnic and cultural empathy in the cyberspace on the other hand have developed behavioral challenges such as bullying in this space. It is important to know to what extent bullying is due to personality or it is affected by the sympathetic atmosphere. Accordingly, this study investigated the effect of ethno-cultural empathy on cyberbullying with the moderating role of personality traits among teenagers. The method of the present research is correlation. The statistical population of this research included all the girls' students of secondary level of high school in Isfahan city in the school year of 2020-2021. Due to the unknown number of cyberspace users, 380 people were selected as a sample using Cochran's unknown community formula and convenience sampling. Data were collected through Wang et al.'s (2003) Standard Ethnic Cultural Empathy Questionnaire, Menesini, Nocentini, and Calussi’ (2011) Cyberbullying Questionnaire, and McCray and Costa’s (1985) Short Form of Personality Traits. Data validity was confirmed through face and content validity; Cronbach's alpha coefficient was also used to confirm reliability. Inferential level analysis of data was done using structural equation modeling using AMOS software. The results of the analysis showed that ethnic and cultural empathy reduces cyberbullying. Neuroticism and extraversion increase cyberbullying while other traits such as flexibility, conscientiousness, and pleasantness continue to have a negative effect. Generally, cultural-ethnic empathy has a greater effect on reducing bullying, but this effect diminishes with the moderating role of personality traits.