School Psychology Review

https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2023.2263812

SPECIAL SERIES

The Association Between Bullying Victimization and Problematic Internet Use:

The Role of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Competencies
Chun Chena, Chunyan Yangb#, Qian Niec, and Zhaojun Tengc
Chinese University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen; bUniversity of California, Berkeley; cSouthwest University
a

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Guided by the compensatory Internet use theory, this cross-sectional study examined the Received January 15, 2022
relationship between bullying victimization (i.e., overall, traditional, and cyberbullying victimization) Accepted September 18, 2023
and problematic Internet use (PIU) among 1,141 Chinese adolescents. The study also examined the KEYWORDS
moderating roles of five core social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies (i.e., responsible structural equation modeling,
decision-making, social awareness, relationship skills, self-management, and self-awareness) international school psychology,
between bullying victimization and PIU. Results of structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that social competence, bullying
more frequent traditional bullying and cyberbullying victimization were associated with a higher
frequency of PIU symptoms. Overall, SEL competencies were protective factors against PIU. ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Tamika La Salle-Finley
Moreover, the positive association between traditional bullying victimization and PIU was intensified
among students with higher levels of overall SEL competencies, social awareness, relationship skills,
and self-awareness. The significant and positive association between cyberbullying victimization
and PIU was not moderated by any of the five core SEL competencies. This implies that students
with high SEL competencies generally experienced less bullying victimization and PIU. However,
once they experienced bullying, they were more vulnerable to have PIU. Implications for school-
based bullying intervention and PIU prevention were also discussed.

IMPACT STATEMENT
The study demonstrated that traditional bullying and cyberbullying victimization place students
at a higher risk of PIU. Overall, SEL competencies were protective factors against PIU. However,
higher levels of overall SEL competencies, social awareness, relationship skills, and self-awareness
intensified the positive relationship between traditional bullying victimization and PIU. This implies
that students with high SEL competencies generally experienced less bullying victimization.
However, once they experienced bullying, they were more vulnerable to PIU.

With Internet use becoming an integral part of youth’s
everyday life in the past decades, there has been an increas-
ing public concern about youth’s online risk behaviors,
such as bullying victimization in both online and off-line
spaces and their excessive or maladaptive use of online
activities or problematic Internet use (PIU). Ample
research has shown that both bullying victimization and
PIU have detrimental impact on youth’s development,
academic, and social life (Tan et al., 2016). To prevent and
reduce the negative impact of online risk behaviors,
researchers and policymakers have endorsed leveraging
social and emotional learning (SEL) to prevent bullying
and promote positive youth development. An increasing
body of empirical evidence has also suggested that higher
levels of SEL competencies were associated with lower risk
of bullying victimization in both traditional and cyber
formats (e.g., Yang et al., 2020) and lower-level PIU risk
(e.g., Mei et al., 2016). However, there has been very
limited empirical investigation about the role of youth’s
SEL competencies in the risk linkage between bullying
victimization and youth’s problematic internet use. Such
understanding is critical for developing school-based bul-
lying prevention and SEL intervention programs that aim
at preventing online risk behaviors and promoting healthy
technology use and positive youth outcomes. To address
this research gap, we used the compensatory Internet use
theory (Kardefelt-Winther, 2014), the social emotional
model of Internet addiction (Savci & Aysan, 2017), and
the diathesis-stress theory (Cicchetti & Toth, 1998;
Lazarus, 1993) as the guiding theories to examine how SEL
competencies moderated the association between both
types of bullying victimization and PIU, as an indicator of
youth’s online risk behavioral maladjustment, among
Chinese adolescents. More specifically, we examined (1)
the main associations between traditional bullying
and cyberbullying victimization and PIU and (2) the

CONTACT Chun Chen chunchen@ucsb.edu School of Humanities and Social Science, Chinese University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China.
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2023.2263812.
#Additional affiliation: University of Maryland, College Park.
© 2023 National Association of School Psychologists
2 School Psychology ReviewDOI: 10.1080/2372966X.2023.2263812
moderating effect of SEL competencies in the association
between bullying victimization and PIU.
Bullying Victimization and Problematic
Internet Use
Bullying victimization is defined as a repeated experience
of being subjected to intentionally aggressive behaviors
perpetrated by others, with a perceived imbalance of
power (Olweus, 1991). Traditional bullying victimization
is defined as experiences of aggression, which occur face-
to-face (Erentaitė et al., 2012), whereas cyberbullying vic-
timization is defined as experiencing aggression via
electronic forms of contact, such as instant messaging
(Klomek et al., 2010). Previous research has found that
those who experienced bullying offline and online are not
two different population (Hinduja & Patchin, 2012) and
about 90% of the cyberbullying victims were also victims
under traditional bullying (Olweus, 2013). Although most
empirical studies considered cyberbullying as a form of
bullying in line with verbal, physical, and relational bul-
lying (Olweus & Limber, 2018), Olweus and Limber also
pointed out that such reported facts were based a limited
amount of research, such a conclusion should be regarded
as tentative. Meanwhile, some researchers indicate that
cyberbullying has little in common with traditional bul-
lying (Hemphill et al., 2012; Law et al., 2012), including
its accessibility to witnessing audience, the anonymity of
perpetrators, its widespread dissemination, and its differ-
ent platforms. In the present study, we have both consid-
ered general bullying victimization which are combined
of both traditional and cyberbullying victimization, as well
as considered traditional and cyberbullying victimization
as two separate forms.
PIU is conceptualized as a broader construct that
encompasses Internet gaming disorder and many other
forms of addictive and maladaptive Internet use (Ho et al.,
2014). More specifically, it is defined as excessive or mal-
adaptive use of online activities, which interferes with
youth’s development, academic, and social life in negative
ways (Ceyhan, 2008; Ioannidis et al., 2019).
The risk linkage between bullying victimization and
problematic internet use has been well supported by both
theoretical and empirical literature (e.g., Chu et al., 2019;
Kardefelt-Winther, 2014; Zhang et al., 2021). According
to the compensatory Internet use theory (Kardefelt-
Winther, 2014), adverse experiences would motivate
students to maladaptively use the Internet as a negative
coping approach to escape from their unpleasant feelings
caused by traditional bullying and cyberbullying (Liu
et al., 2021). It is argued that youth who have negative
peer experiences are more likely to cope with their stress
and meet their emotional needs via online activities, such
as online gaming. The maladaptive coping strategy, in
turn, is expected to lead to excessive Internet dependency
and more difficulties with their self-control (Swickert
et al., 2002).
Empirical evidence across different countries and with
different research designs supported both associations
between traditional bullying and cyberbullying victimiza-
tion and PIU. For example, researchers found that being
bullied (e.g., school-based verbal, social, and physical bul-
lying victimization) was associated with increased risk of
addictive Internet use in a study with cross-sectional
design with 4,822 adolescents in China (Huang et al.,
2016). A longitudinal study among 1,377 Italian adoles-
cents also found that adolescents experiencing traditional
bullying as victims reported more coping and conformity
motives for using the Internet than nonvictim and
cyber-victim adolescents (Gini et al., 2019). For cyberbul-
lying, it was found to be associated with Internet addiction
among Taiwanese junior high school students (Chang
et al., 2015a) and middle school students in Korea (Jung
et al., 2014). Longitudinal studies also found that the
increase in Internet addiction from grades 10 to 11 pre-
dicted the emergence of cyberbullying victimization in
11th grade among Taiwan high school students (Chang
et al., 2015b) and cyberbullying victimization increased
the risk of PIU among Chinese adolescents (Liu et al.,
2021). However, previous studies that were conducted in
China were targeted at students located in metropolitans
(e.g., Shenzhen, Chang et al., 2015a) and younger age stu-
dents (e.g., junior high school students, Chang et al.,
2015a, 2015b). Few of the previous studies were conducted
among Chinese high school students. Also, it was largely
unclear about the protective factors that may reduce or
break down the close relationship between bullying vic-
timization and PIU among a sample of Chinese high
school students.
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Competencies’
Associations With Bullying Victimization and PIU
SEL competencies refer to skills of understanding and
managing emotions, expressing empathy with and estab-
lishing relationships toward others, and making responsi-
ble decisions, according to the Collaborative for Academic,
Social, and Emotional Learning (2015, p. 1). The five inter-
related core sets of SEL competencies include responsibility
decision making (i.e., the ability to make responsible
choices about one’s behavior that aligns with ethical stan-
dards and social norms), relationship skills (i.e., the ability
to establish and maintain positive relationships with oth-
ers), self-management (i.e., the ability to manage and reg-
ulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors), social
awareness (i.e., the ability of empathy and being able to
THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN BULLYING VICTIMIZATION AND PROBLEMATIC INTERNET USE: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING (SEL) COMPETENCIES
take the perspective of others), and self-awareness (i.e., the
ability to recognize their own emotions, thoughts,
strengths, and limitations; Collaborative for Academic,
Social, and Emotional Learning, 2005). Understanding
SEL competencies and their roles in mental health among
Chinese student population is important in order to pro-
vide empirical evidence for supporting the implementation
of SEL curriculums in Chinese context. Since 2002, inter-
national SEL programs have been introduced and booming
in Chinese schools (Chen & Yu, 2022). Although there has
been substantial evidence for the merits of integrating SEL
curriculums and programs into educational settings, little
empirical research on this SEL approach has been con-
ducted in Mainland China (An et al., 2021). Chen and Yu
(2022) also argued that China is still in the informal explo-
ration stage of SEL. Therefore, studying the effects of SEL
competencies among the wellbeing of Chinese students
could provide more empirical evidence of what roles SEL
functioned in Chinese cultural contexts.
Research has shown that youth’s SEL competencies play
a significant role in influencing both bullying victimiza-
tions, but the findings are mixed depending on the sub-
types of SEL competencies and types of bullying
victimization examined. Among the five core SEL compe-
tencies guided by the CASEL SEL framework, relationship
skills and self-management was negatively associated with
traditional bullying victimization, while social awareness
was positively associated with traditional bullying victim-
ization (Gómez-Ortiz et al., 2017; Yang et al., 2020).
Cyberbullying victimization was negatively associated
with responsible decision-making (Chen et al., 2021; Zych
et al., 2018) and self-management (Chen et al., 2021), and
positively associated with social awareness (Chen et al.,
2021). In comparison to bullying victimization, research
findings about SEL competencies’ association with PIU
risks have been more consistent. However, research in this
area is still emerging with only a few aspects of SEL com-
petencies have been examined in Asian countries. For
example, a few studies have also shown that higher levels
of SEL competencies, such as self-control (Li et al., 2013),
self-esteem or self-confidence (Mei et al., 2016), were asso-
ciated with lower risk of PIU. Although the CASEL’s five
core SEL competencies have been widely applied to guide
school based SEL programs in the U.S., there is a lack of
systematic examination about how these five core SEL
competencies associated with PIU risks.
Moderating Role of SEL Competencies in the
Association Between Bullying Victimization
and PIU
As reviewed above, the risk linkage between bullying vic-
timization and PIU has been established in the literature
3
and some core SEL competencies were found to signifi-
cantly associated with both bullying victimization and
PIU. In schools, particularly in the U.S., there has been
increasing efforts made by policy makers and school edu-
cators to implement SEL programs and practices to reduce
youth’s online risk behaviors and promote positive youth
development (Taylor et al., 2017). Besides, social emo-
tional model of Internet addiction (Savci & Aysan, 2017)
has argued that PIU can be explained through the rela-
tionships between social-emotional structures, including
self-monitoring, self-control, and social relationship dif-
ficulties, which signifies the potential relationships
between SEL competencies and PIU. However, if and to
what extent increased SEL competencies could help alle-
viate or exacerbate the risk linkage between bullying vic-
timization and PIU is largely in debate in both theoretical
and empirical literature.
From the perspective of diathesis-stress theory, indi-
vidual’s cognitive vulnerabilities (i.e., diathesis) interact
with environmental stressors to influence their internal-
izing and externalizing problems (Cicchetti & Toth, 1998;
Lazarus, 1993). According to this theory, youth’s lower
level of SEL competencies could function as cognitive vul-
nerabilities to interact with the bullying victimization
stressor to increase their maladjustment behaviors, such
as PIU whereas higher level of SEL competencies could
function as cognitive strengths to interact with the bully-
ing victimization stressor to reduce their maladjustment
behaviors. There have been a few empirical studies sup-
porting this hypothesis. For example, higher level of
self-control was found to buffer the negative association
between peer relationships and PIU among Korean ado-
lescents (Park et al., 2014). Similarly, Chinese adolescents’
higher level of effortful control was found to buffer the
negative impact of general stressful life events on their PIU
(Li et al., 2010). In addition, higher level of effortful con-
trol was found to attenuate the negative relationship
between school-wide bullying climate perceptions and
PIU among Chinese middle school adolescents (Li
et al., 2016).
Study Purpose
Guided by the theory of compensatory Internet use and
the diathesis-stress theory, the present study first exam-
ined the relationships between traditional bullying and
cyberbullying victimization and PIU among Chinese high
school students and the moderating effect of overall SEL
and five SEL subdomains on the relationships between
traditional bullying and cyberbullying victimization and
PIU. It was hypothesized that traditional bullying and
cyberbullying victimization was positively associated
with PIU. It was also hypothesized that overall SEL
4 School Psychology ReviewDOI: 10.1080/2372966X.2023.2263812
competencies was a significant moderator between bully-
ing victimization and PIU, in which SEL competencies
diminished the associations between both traditional bul-
lying and cyberbullying victimization and PIU. Among all
the five factors of SEL, all five SEL acted as significant
moderators between bullying victimization and PIU.
Informed by the diathesis-stress theory, the functions of
the moderating roles of SEL and SEL subfactors on the
relationship between both forms of bullying victimization
and PIU were hypothesized as protective factors. Figures 1
and 2 present the conceptual models of the study after
controlling students’ sex, family SES, and left-behind status
as covariates.
METHOD
Participants
Participants were 1,141 students from three high schools
in Chongqing municipality and Sichuan province in
Southwest China. All participants were at grade 11th
(Mage = 15.39, SD = .66). Most students, comprised of
97.9%, were identified as Han ethnicity, the major ethnic-
ity in China, and other students were from ethnic minority
groups, such as the Yi and Miao. Around 40% were iden-
tified as left-behind children, with one or both parents
migrating far from home for work for more than 3 months.
Figure 1. Structural Equation Model With Traditional Bullying Victimization Being Focal Predictor and SEL as Moderator
The 40% of left-behind children in the sample is relatively
comparable to 30.1% of left-behind children in a nationally
representative study conducted by Tong et al. (2019). The
average monthly salary of household in Southwest China
is 6,829 RMB (National Bureau of Statistics of China,
2020). About 25.5% of the participants’ families received
a monthly income that was lower than 3,000 RMB, and
63.4% received around 3,000 to 10,000 RMB per month,
whereas 10% received more than 10,000 RMB per month.
The demographic characteristics of the participants are
presented in Table S1.
Procedure
Data were collected in February 2020. The Research
Project Ethical Review Board at the researchers’ universi-
ties approved all measures and procedures. Written con-
sent was obtained from teachers and parents, with all
student participants providing assents. Participants com-
pleted all measures in their classrooms under the admin-
istration of the researchers and classroom teachers. The
response rate was 99.47%. In total, 1,306 students returned
the surveys. After the screening items (e.g., duplicated
response, “In the survey, I have answered all the questions
honestly.”) were checked, 165 responses were excluded as
invalid.
THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN BULLYING VICTIMIZATION AND PROBLEMATIC INTERNET USE: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING (SEL) COMPETENCIES
Figure 2. Structural Equation Model With Cyberbullying Victimization Being Focal Predictor and SEL as Moderator
Measurements
Demographic Questionnaire
Students’ demographic characteristics were obtained
through students’ self-reported questionnaire on
their age, sex, ethnicity, both father’s and mother’s
education levels, family monthly income, and left-be-
hind status.
Traditional Bullying Victimization
The Chinese Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire
(OBVQ-C; Zhang et al., 1999) was a widely used measure
of bullying perpetration and victimization among
Chinese adolescents (e.g., Liu et al., 2017). The original
measure was designed and validated among elementary
and middle school students in China. In the current sur-
vey, the victim subscale of the OBVQ-C was used. This
subscale consists of six items that assess the frequency of
the three kinds of victimization: verbal, physical, and
social victimization. Social victimization was named as
indirect victimization in the original survey. This sub-
scale had reported a good internal consistency (α = .82)
and test-retest reliability (γ =.78; Zhang et al., 1999).
In the present studied population, the second-order
model showed good fit statistics (χ2(6) = 29.52, p < .001,
RMSEA = 0.059, 90% CI = 0.039 − 0.081, CFI = 0.944,
SRMR = .038). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the
overall measure is .82.
5
Cyberbullying Victimization
The E-Victimization Scale (E-VS) was used to assess ado-
lescents’ perceptions of cyberbullying victimization (Lam
& Li, 2013). It consists of five items on a seven-point Likert
scale. The survey was intended to ask about students’
online experiences using email, texting, short messages,
and Chinese most popular social networking platforms,
such as QQ and WeChat. This measure has been previ-
ously validated among Chinese high school students in
Henan and Hubei provinces (e.g., Lam & Li, 2013; Hu
et al., 2014). The E-VS was demonstrated as a single-factor
model in Lam and Li’s measurement development study
(2013). The goodness-of-fit statistics were χ2 = 67.90
(df = 5), p < .001; RMSEA = .034, and GFI = .918. The
internal reliability was reported to be .92 of the Cronbach’s
alpha in Henan province’s adolescents (Lam & Li, 2013)
and .84 in Hubei province’s adolescents (Hu et al., 2014).
In this study, the E-VS has the best model fit as a one-factor
model, as shown in previous studies. The model showed
a good fit (χ2(2) = 3.94, p < .001, RMSEA = 0.029, 90%
CI = 0.000 − 0.072, CFI = 0.988, SRMR = .022). The inter-
nal consistency was .90 in the Cronbach’s alpha.
Problematic Internet Use
Given the Internet addiction Test’s (IAT; Young, 1998)
being the most common assessment tool in PIU research
(Frangos et al., 2012), the modified Chinese version of IAT
was used to measure adolescents’ PIU in the present study.
6 School Psychology ReviewDOI: 10.1080/2372966X.2023.2263812
The Chinese version of the IAT has been widely used and
rigorously validated among Chinese youth (e.g., Lai et al.,
2013). The measure was designed to assess the problematic
nature of one’s Internet use by assessing three domains of
their PIU, which were (1) time management & perfor-
mance (e.g., “How often do you find that you stay online
longer than you intended?”), (2) withdrawal & social prob-
lems (e.g., “How often do you choose to spend more time
online over going out with others?”), (3) reality substitute
(e.g., “How often do you fear that life without the Internet
would be boring, empty, and joyless?”). In the current
study, responses on the IAT were designed to be on a six-
scale option to cover a more comprehensive range of
responses, from 1 (never) to 6 (always). Informed by Lai’s
psychometric study on the Chinese version of IAT, the
current study intended to modify the survey into a briefer
version of 13 items. In the current sample, the modified
IAT demonstrated a second-order three-factor model on
12 items [χ2(51) = 347.65, p < .001, RMSEA = 0.071, 90%
CI = 0.064 − 0.070, CFI = 0.931]. A Cronbach’s alpha of
the overall measure was reported as .93, and the alphas of
the subscales were ranged from .83 to .92.
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Competencies
The Modified Chinese version of the Delaware Social and
Emotional Competencies Scale-student version (DSECS-S)
consists of 22 items. The modified scale was designed on
five domains: responsible decision-making (e.g., “I feel
responsible for how I act.”), social awareness (e.g., “I think
about how others feel.”), self-management (e.g., “I can con-
trol how I behave.”), self-awareness (e.g., “I can calm myself
when upset.”), and social relationships (e.g., “I get along
well with others.”). Compared to the original DSECS-S
(Bear et al., 2019), the current survey added the fifth domain
of self-awareness based on the original survey to present the
full scales of SEL. The development of the self-awareness
items and the translations and back-translation of the mea-
sure were conducted by university researchers in China and
the United States. Researchers were all fluent in English and
Chinese. Respondents were asked whether they agreed or
disagreed with each statement on a 4-point Likert scale. In
the current sample, a second-order five-factor structure
(χ2(147) = 619.02, p < .001, RMSEA = 0.053, 90% CI =
0.049 − 0.057, CFI = 0.941) was validated on 19 items in
Chen et al.’s study (2021). The internal reliability was
reported as .95 in Cronbach’s alpha. The alphas of the sub-
scales were ranged from .83 to .92.
Statistical Analyses
Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to
test the hypothesized model, which is illustrated in
Figure 1, using Mplus 7.4 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998–
2015). The study explored (1) the associations between
bullying and cyberbullying victimization and PIU, (2)
the moderating roles of SEL competencies on the asso-
ciation between bullying and cyberbullying victimiza-
tion and PIU, and (3) the moderating roles of SEL
competencies subscales (i.e., responsible decision-mak-
ing, social awareness, self-management, self-awareness,
and social relationship) on the association between
bullying and cyberbullying victimization and PIU.
Maximum Likelihood (ML) Estimation was used to han-
dle missing data, as previous studies have suggested
applying ML as the most optimal method when using
SEM (Allison, 2003).
RESULTS
Association Between Bullying Victimization
and PIU
After controlling for students’ sex, family SES (i.e., family
income and paternal and maternal education level), and
left-behind status, a hierarchical sequence of structural
equation model (SEM) was conducted to examine the
associations between traditional and cyber bullying vic-
timization and PIU. Additional analyses on the main effect
between bullying victimization and PIU and the moder-
ating effect of SEL competencies were also conducted,
when traditional and cyber bullying victimization were
composited into a general bullying victimization factor, as
presented in Supplemental Materials.
Traditional Bullying Victimization
After a sequence of SEM, the final model between tradi-
tional bullying victimization and PIU showed robust fit
indices (χ2(213) = 835.11, p < .001, RMSEA = 0.052, 90%
CI = 0.048 − 0.056, CFI = 0.905, SRMR = .049, BIC =
46039.99), as shown as Model 1.2 in Table 1. Upon con-
trolling for the demographic variables, traditional bullying
victimization regressed on PIU with significantly positive
coefficient of .53 (SE = .09), as shown in Model 1.2 in
Table 2.
Cyberbullying Victimization
After the step-by-step SEM, the final model between
cyberbullying victimization and PIU also showed a robust
fit (χ2(175) = 638.47, p < .001, RMSEA = 0.049, 90% CI =
0.045 − 0.053, CFI = 0.924, SRMR = .039, BIC = 44193.72),
as shown as Model 2.2 in Table 1. Cyberbullying victim-
ization regressed on PIU with a significantly positive
coefficient of .31 (SE = .06), as shown in Model 2.2 in
Table 2.
THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN BULLYING VICTIMIZATION AND PROBLEMATIC INTERNET USE: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING (SEL) COMPETENCIES 7

Table 1. Fit Statistics for Hierarchical Models of the Structural Relationship Between Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Competencies,
Traditional Bullying Victimization, Cyberbullying Victimization, and Problematic Internet Use (PIU)
PIU
χ2 (df) RMSEA (90% CI) CFI SRMR BIC
Traditional bullying victimization
Base
Model 1.1 (demographic) 548.286*** (106) .062 (.057, .067) .920 .037 36564.011
Model 1.2 (traditional bullying victimization) 835.107*** (213) .052 (.048, .056) .905 .049 46039.991
Model 1.3 (SEL) 2261.101*** (795) .041 (.039, .043) .915 .047 71274.127
Moderated
Model 1.4 (traditional bullying victimization x SEL) — — — — 71707.646
Cyberbullying victimization
Base
Model 2.1 (demographic) 553.169*** (106) .062 (.057, .067) .919 .037 36783.780
Model 2.2 (cyberbullying victimization) 638.465*** (175) .049 (.045, .053) .924 .039 44193.717
Model 2.3 (SEL) 1914.945*** (719) .039 (.037, .041) .928 .043 69626.687
Moderated
Model 2.4 (cyberbullying victimization x SEL) — — — — 69630.373
Note. SE = standard error. β = standardized coefficient. B = unstandardized coefficient.
*p < .05.
**p < .005.
***p < .001.

Table 2. Coefficients for the Relations Among Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Competencies, Traditional Bullying Victimization (TBV),
Cyberbullying Victimization (CBV), and Problematic Internet Use (PIU)
TBV -> PIU CBV -> PIU
Model 1.1 Model 1.2 Model 1.3 Model 1.4 Model 2.1 Model 2.2 Model 2.3 Model 2.4
Demographic factors
Sex −0.14 (.06)* −0.04 (.06) −0.09 (.06) −0.10 (.06) −0.14 (.06)* −0.08 (.06) −0.13 (.06)* −0.12 (.06)*
Family income level .01 (.06) −0.00 (.05) .01 (.05) .02 (.05) .01 (.06) .00 (.05) .02 (.05) .24 (.05)
Father educational −0.01 (.04) −0.02 (.04) −0.02 (.04) −0.03 (.04) −0.01 (.04) −0.01 (.04) −0.01 (.04) −0.01 (.04)
degree
Mother educational .01 (.04) .03 (.04) .03 (.04) .03 (.04) .01 (.04) .01 (.04) .01 (.04) .01 (.04)
degree
Left-behind status −0.02 (.02) −0.03 (.02) −0.02 (.02) −0.02 (.02) −0.02 (.02) −0.02 (.02) −0.02 (.02) −0.02 (.02)
Non-demographic
Factors
Traditional bullying .53 (.09)*** .45 (.19)*** .50 (.09)***
victimization
(TBV)
Cyberbullying .31(.06)*** .27 (.06)*** .29 (.06)***
victimization
(CBV)
SEL competencies −0.70 (.09)*** −0.71 (.09)*** −0.76 (.09)*** −0.76 (.09)***
Interaction terms
TBV x SEL .48 (.24)*
CBV x SEL .17 (.16)
*p < .05.
**p < .005.
***p < .001.

Moderating Roles of SEL Competencies on the
Associations between Bullying Victimization and PIU
Traditional Bullying Victimization as the Focal
Independent Variable
When the moderating roles of SEL competencies were
examined in Model 1.4 in Table 2, the overall SEL latent
variable significantly moderated the association between
traditional bullying victimization and PIU (β = .48, SE =.24).
The magnitude of the positive association between tradi-
tional bullying victimization and PIU was intensified
among students who endorsed higher SEL competencies.
In other words, stronger SEL competencies exacerbated
the negative effect of traditional bullying victimization on
PIU. Significant two-way interaction effects with post-hoc
probing of the moderation effect of SEL competencies was
conducted, as shown in Figure 3. The moderating roles of
SEL competencies were all significantly positive on the
level of 1 standard deviation below (β = 0.32, SE = .10,
p<.05), above (β = 0.40, SE = .11, p<.001), or at the mean
(β = 0.36, SE = .10, p=.001). Due to the fact that traditional
bullying victimization and cyberbullying victimization
shared a correlation coefficient of 0.30 with p<.001, cyber-
bullying victimization was also controlled as covariates in
the moderation models. After each SEL competencies was
calculated as a moderator in the SEM models, as shown
in Table 3 and Figures 4–6, social awareness (β = .43, SE
= .19), relationship skills (β = .47, SE = .17), and self-aware-
ness (β = .53, SE = .18) were found to be significant
8 School Psychology ReviewDOI: 10.1080/2372966X.2023.2263812

Table 3. Coefficients for the Moderating Effects of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Competencies Subscales on Relations Among
Traditional Bullying Victimization (TBV) and Problematic Internet Use (PIU)
TBV -> PIU
Demographic factors
Sex −0.07 (.06) −0.06 (.06) −0.12 (.06)* −0.04 (.06) −0.08 (.06)
Family income level .01 (.05) .00 (.05) −0.01 (.05) .00 (.05) .00 (.05)
Father educational degree −0.03 (.04) −0.03 (.04) −0.03 (.04) −0.03 (.04) −0.02 (.04)
Mother educational degree .03 (.04) .04 (.04) .02 (.04) .03 (.04) .02 (.04)
Left-behind status −0.02 (.02) −0.02 (.02) −0.03 (.02) −0.03 (.02) −0.01 (.02)
Cyberbullying victimization .30 (.11)** 0.32 (.11)** .28 (.11)* .031 (0.1)** 0.32 (.11)**
Non-demographic factors
Traditional bullying victimization (TBV) .38 (.11)*** .38 (.11)** .34 (.11)** .44 (.12)*** .34 (.10)**
SEL subscale: responsible decision-making −0.61 (.08)***
SEL subscale: relationship skills −0.37 (.06)***
SEL subscale: self-management −0.50 (.06)***
SEL subscale: social awareness −0.26 (.07)***
SEL subscale: self-awareness −0.53 (.07)***
Interaction terms
TBV x SEL subscale: responsible decision-making .39 (.26)
TBV x SEL subscale: relationship skills .47 (.17)**
TBV x SEL subscale: self-management .21 (.19)
TBV x SEL subscale: social awareness .43 (.19)*
TBV x SEL subscale: self-awareness .53 (.18)**
*p < .05.
**p < .005.
***p < .001.

Figure 3. Moderating Effects of SEL Competencies in the Association Between Traditional Bullying Victimization and PIU

promoters of the association between traditional bullying
victimization and PIU.
Cyberbullying Victimization as the Focal
Independent Variable
When the moderating roles of SEL competencies on the
association between cyberbullying victimization and PIU
were examined, as shown in Model 4.2 in Table 2, the
overall SEL latent variable had no significant moderating
effect on the association between cyberbullying victim-
ization and PIU. When examined further, all five SEL
subscales also had no significant moderating roles on
the relationship between cyberbullying victimization
and PIU.
THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN BULLYING VICTIMIZATION AND PROBLEMATIC INTERNET USE: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING (SEL) COMPETENCIES 9

Figure 4. Moderating Effects of Social Awareness in the Association Between Traditional Bullying Victimization and PIU

Figure 5. Moderating Effects of Self-Management in the Association Between Traditional Bullying Victimization and PIU

DISCUSSION students. Both traditional bullying and cyberbullying

victimization were positively associated with PIU. Overall
The present study examined the relationships between SEL competencies were found to be protective factors
SEL competencies, traditional bullying and cyberbullying against PIU. SEL competency and three other SEL com-
victimization, and PIU among Chinese high school petencies subscales (i.e., relationship skills, social
10 School Psychology ReviewDOI: 10.1080/2372966X.2023.2263812
Figure 6. Moderating Effects of Relationship Skills in the Association Between Traditional Bullying Victimization and PIU
awareness, and self-awareness) were found to moderate
the relationship between traditional bullying victimiza-
tion and PIU.
Associations Between Bullying Victimization
and PIU
Traditional Bullying Victimization
The findings supported the hypothesis that traditional
bullying victimization was associated with more PIU. The
results were consistent with previous research, where
Chinese adolescents who experienced more frequent peer
victimization tended to report higher levels of PIU (e.g.,
Hsieh et al., 2019; Huang et al., 2016). Meanwhile, PIU
was also found to be a predictor of traditional bullying
victimization (Zsila et al., 2018). Researchers have demon-
strated that adolescents who were victimized under tradi-
tional bullying reported being incapable of making friends
and experienced more feelings of loneliness than nonbul-
lied youths (Fullchange & Furlong, 2016). Therefore, bul-
lying victims might seek more online support to cope with
their loneliness.
Meanwhile, consistent with the compensatory Internet
use theory, PIU was considered as a maladaptive coping
strategy that diminishes negative emotions and distress
that stem from peer victimization experiences (Hsieh
et al., 2016). When bullied adolescents try to “get
through” their days, given the convenience of the Internet,
the Internet becomes a shield that they can go for comfort
for regulating their mood (Caplan, 2005), mainly from
traumatic social experiences. It has been found that one
of the most common underlying reasons for PIU is to
reduce negative emotions and feelings of isolation
(Caplan, 2010). Therefore, adolescents who were victim-
ized by traditional bullying would be more likely to
immerse themselves in perceived safe cyberspace for
social support and reality substitutes, which put them at
a higher risk for PIU.
Cyberbullying Victimization
In line with the hypothesis, the current finding showed
that adolescents who experienced more frequent cyber-
bullying victimization were more likely to have PIU.
Previous research has found that Chinese students who
reported being victimized via cyberspace had higher like-
liness of exposure to violent video games (Lam et al.,
2013), which is likely to increase their risk of PIU.
Meanwhile, it is likely that students who reported cyber-
bullying experiences also experienced traditional victim-
ization in a longitudinal study (Burton et al., 2013; Zsila
et al., 2018). Cyberbullying victimization shares many
similar features with bullying victimization, such as both
being traumatic social events for youths. Consistent with
the compensatory Internet use theory, cyber victim youths
were more likely to use the Internet as a way to escape from
their stress, as they may find the Internet use to be a com-
pensatory activity to reduce their negative emotions
(Gámez-Guadix et al., 2012). Therefore, similar to the
THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN BULLYING VICTIMIZATION AND PROBLEMATIC INTERNET USE: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING (SEL) COMPETENCIES
positive relationship between traditional bullying victim-
ization and PIU, cyberbullying victimization was also
positively associated with PIU in the current sample.
However, because the present study used cross-sec-
tional data instead of longitudinal analysis, it is likely that
such a significant association between cyberbullying vic-
timization and PIU was contributed from the other direc-
tion by the possibility that PIU adolescents were more
likely to experience cyberbullying victimization due to
their greater exposure to the risks of being online (Leung
& Lee, 2012). It was found that individuals who reported
PIU were especially intrigued to use the Internet as a plat-
form to build interpersonal relationships and spend a tre-
mendous amount of time online, which resulted in greater
exposure to online risks (Caplan, 2005; Gámez-Guadix
et al., 2013).
Moderating Roles of SEL Competencies on the
Associations Between Bullying Victimization
and PIU
This study tested the moderating roles of SEL on the asso-
ciation between bullying victimization and adolescents’
PIU. The significant moderating roles of SEL and three
subdomains were only observed on the relationship
between traditional bullying victimization and PIU, but
not between cyberbullying victimization and PIU. Even
though SEL competencies and SEL subdomains func-
tioned as positive moderators in the association between
traditional bullying victimization and PIU, we also wanted
to highlight that SEL competencies and subdomains was
negatively associated with PIU in regression models (SEL:
β = -0.34, p<.001; self-management: β = -0.36, p<.001;
responsible decision-making: β = -0.34, p<.001; social
awareness: β = -0.17, p<.001; self-awareness: β = -0.32,
p<.001; social relationship: β = -0.28, p<.001). The results
showed that overall SEL competencies do function as a
protective factor against PIU. However, when considering
bullying victimization as the predictor and SEL compe-
tencies as moderators in the model, we found SEL com-
petencies tended to strengthen the relationship between
bullying victimization and PIU, which indicates that the
interaction between SEL competencies and bullying vic-
timization played a different role on PIU.
Traditional Bullying Victimization as the Focal
Independent Variable
In the present sample, Chinese adolescents’ overall SEL
competencies were found to significantly moderate the
positive association between traditional bullying victim-
ization and PIU. However, the finding was inconsistent
with the diathesis-stress model, which rejected the
11
hypothesis. Instead, the result showed that the magnitude
of the positive linkage between bullying victimization and
PIU was intensified among adolescents with higher overall
SEL competencies. First, it is important to note that overall
students with high SEL in general were less likely to be
victimized and to experience PIU. However, the moder-
ating effect of SEL showed that once they were victimized,
they were more likely to suffer from PIU. It was likely that
when facing bullying victimization, students with high
SEL were more likely to attribute the difficulty to their own
problems and experience more emotional distress. It was
possible that adolescents with higher SEL competencies
were more likely to experience a greater sense of disap-
pointment, self-blaming, or shame. Such psychological
distress was likely to lead to a higher risk of maladjust-
ment, including using more problematic Internet to escape
from reality. It was also possible that students who reported
a higher level of SEL competencies were more likely to be
aware or sensitive to the distress related to the negative
bullying victimization experiences, which might result in
more adverse outcomes, such as higher levels of PIU symp-
toms (Silman & Dogan, 2013). However, due to the nature
of the study to be cross-sectional, future research is needed
to test out such assumptions.
When the core SEL competencies were examined as
moderators, social awareness, self-awareness, and relation-
ship skills were also found to amplify the positive
relationship between bullying victimization and PIU. Self-
management and responsible decision-making were not
found to have significant moderating roles on the associ-
ation between bullying victimization and PIU.
The moderating roles of social awareness and relation-
ship skills on the association between bullying victimiza-
tion and PIU were partially consistent with the previous
study conducted among Taiwanese primary school stu-
dents (Hsieh et al., 2019). They found that emotional intel-
ligence (i.e., emotion appraisal and emotion regulation)
did not significantly buffer the impact of bullying victim-
ization on PIU. However, they found that social awareness
was found to exacerbate the negative impact of peer vic-
timization on PIU, which was consistent with the finding
of the present study. Overall, from the present sample, we
observed social awareness to be a strong protective factor
of PIU. However, it is likely that once students who perceive
themselves as being good at understanding others’ behav-
ior experienced bullying, they were more likely to blame
themselves for the cause of being victimized, which resulted
in a emotional discomfort, leading to using Internet as an
escape (Hsieh et al., 2019; Silman & Dogan, 2013).
Self-awareness also amplified the relationship between
bullying victimization and PIU. According to the
theory of objective self-awareness (Duval & Wicklund,
1972), when self-awareness increased, the process of
12 School Psychology ReviewDOI: 10.1080/2372966X.2023.2263812
self-evaluation was also increasingly engaged, which led
to the comparison of one’s present condition with their
aspiration. They argued that such comparison was likely
to lead an individual to notice any real-ideal discrepancies,
which impaired one’s self-esteem (Ickes et al., 1973).
Therefore, when faced with bullying situations, the exter-
nal threats, including degradation, became conflicted with
one’s ideal aspiration on their social relationships. Such
discrepancy might elicit defensive strategies (Hsieh et al.,
2019). Adolescents who had high self-awareness and expe-
rienced more bullying were more likely to go online to
regain and maintain their positive self-image, making
them more likely to have PIU.
However, contrary to the hypotheses and previous stud-
ies (e.g., self-management [Li et al., 2010]), responsible
decision-making and self-management were not moder-
ators between traditional bullying victimization and PIU
among Chinese adolescents. It is likely that adolescent
decision-making capacity and self-control were found to
be generally lacking in emotionally salient situations
(Cohen-Almagor, 2018), which resulted in responsible
decision-making and self-management being less likely to
act as either buffer or promoter when adolescents faced
bullying. However, there has been no previous research
testing the moderating effect of responsible decision-mak-
ing on the association between bullying and PIU. Future
studies are recommended to replicate this study on another
sample of adolescents to understand the roles of respon-
sible decision-making and self-control skills in bullying
victimization and PIU.
Cyberbullying Victimization as the Focal
Independent Variable
Unlike traditional bullying victimization, SEL competen-
cies and all five SEL competencies subscales had no sig-
nificant influence on the positive association between
cyberbullying victimization and PIU. This finding indi-
cates that the functions of SEL competencies might vary
depending on the forms of bullying victimization and
likely supports researchers’ argument that cyberbullying
has little in common with traditional bullying (Hemphill
et al., 2012; Law et al., 2012). The present study also pro-
poses the possibility of extending beyond traditional SEL
framework into considering Internet-based SEL. The tra-
ditional SEL framework was established based on in-per-
son social emotional competencies, such as social
relationship being defined as getting along with students
at school or in the community. For example, in the current
measures, the modified DSECS-S asked students to rate
their SEL competencies in the school context, with the
prompt of “Please choose one answer that best shows how
you feel about each Item. At my school, [Item].” However,
a student’s in-person social relationship might be different
from that in cyberspace. Therefore, it is likely that the cur-
rent SEL scale might not be applicable across different
contexts (i.e., at school vs. in virtual space). Previous stud-
ies found that adolescents who had PIU reported positive
peer relationships. They viewed the Internet as a way of
enhancing their peer relations (Lin & Tsai, 2002; Yang &
Tung, 2007). Therefore, it is likely that students who
reported cyberbullying victimization might perceive their
social skills and social-awareness skills differently if they
were asked to rate their general SEL competencies. Future
research might consider broadening the context of SEL
measures and might even compare whether there is a dif-
ference in SEL competencies between real life and virtual
settings.
Limitations and Future Directions
Some limitations need to be acknowledged. First, the
traditional victimization scale of the OBVQ-C only had
two items to represent each physical, verbal, and social
victimization domain. According to the true-score the-
ory, it was indicated that more items should lead to better
construct representation, and increasing the number of
items was the primary way to enhance measurement reli-
ability (Marsh et al., 1998; Emons et al., 2007). Therefore,
to ensure the reliability of the measures, future studies
might consider using measures that have more than two
items to represent subscales. Second, the internal consis-
tency and split-half reliabilities of the verbal victimiza-
tion subscale did not reach the acceptable range.
Although the subscale is not individually used in the
analysis, the overall bullying victimization score might
not be reliable to represent the bullying victimization
structure for this sample. Future study needs to be cau-
tious when interpreting the results on bullying victim-
ization. Third, data were only used for a one-time point.
The cross-sectional study cannot infer a causal relation-
ship between predictor, moderator, and outcomes.
Previous research has documented the bidirectional rela-
tionship between cyberbullying victimization and PIU
(Chang et al., 2015b; Liu et al., 2021). Therefore, it is
likely that PIU is the precursor of cyberbullying victim-
ization in the present study. Future study is suggested to
conduct a longitudinal study to replicate the study design
for more rigorous findings and identify the cross-lagged
path model between cyberbullying victimization and
PIU. Fourth, the measures were based on students’
self-report. For example, high scores on SEL competen-
cies might not reflect participants’ actual competencies.
Therefore, future study is recommended to use multi-in-
formant data to increase the predictive value.
THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN BULLYING VICTIMIZATION AND PROBLEMATIC INTERNET USE: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING (SEL) COMPETENCIES
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS
The present study extends the previous literature that
addressed the detrimental outcomes of bullying and
cyberbullying victimization on adolescents’ maladaptive
online behaviors and reveals the promoting roles of their
social-emotional attributes in this process. Overall, stu-
dents’ bullying and cyberbullying victimization experi-
ences were related to more frequent PIU and high SEL
competencies were related to low PIU among Chinese
adolescents. Nonetheless, higher self-perceived SEL com-
petencies, social awareness, self-awareness, and social
relationships intensified the association between bullying
victimization and PIU. Previous research has argued that
bullying prevention is entirely congruent with SEL because
the development of core social and emotional skills among
students could help foster an inclusive, respectful, and safe
school environment that mitigates bullying incidents.
Therefore, SEL competencies overall are protective factors
against PIU. At the universal level, bullying prevention
programs, classroom lessons with a cognitive-behavioral
focus, and SEL curriculums and programs are considered
to be beneficial to prevent adolescents’ PIU. Second, when
helping victimized students with high SEL, it might be
helpful for school psychologists to acknowledge the stu-
dents of frustration and shame and help them conduct
belief analysis to help them understand that it is not their
fault to experience bullying. From a cultural perspective,
the present study was conducted within a collectivistic
cultural system, particularly among a student sample from
relatively rural and low SES communities traditionally
with low mental health literacy. Chinese adolescents who
experienced bullying victimization were more likely to be
concerned with losing face (Jiang & Leung, 2012). This
might be particularly evident among students with high
level of self-awareness and social awareness, who tend to
focus more on their and others’ emotions and behaviors.
Therefore, the concern about losing face and threatening
their self-images is likely to make them further avoid
social situations and seek maladaptive internet coping
strategy. Thus, it might be necessary first to examine and
help Chinese adolescents be aware of their SEL compe-
tencies. When experiencing bullying situations, school
mental health professionals need to help the students to
acknowledge the fact that it should not be their faults and
because of their gift with high SEL, self-awareness, and
social awareness, they might be experiencing more emo-
tions and feelings than others did, so that we could help
them be aware of the discrepancy and shed a light on their
strengths of high SEL, in order to prevent at-risk online
behaviors as a negative coping when facing bullying
victimization.
13
DISCLOSURE
The authors report there are no competing interests to
declare.
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENTS
Chun Chen, PhD, NCSP, is an assistant professor in the
Department of Applied Psychology, School of Humanities and
Social Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong,
Shenzhen. Her research interests focus on school climate,
bullying victimization, cross-cultural differences, and social-
emotional learning competencies.
Chunyan Yang, PhD, is an associate professor of school psy-
chology in the College of Education, University of Maryland,
College Park and was previously in the Berkeley School of
Education at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research
interests focus on understanding how school members (e.g.,
students, teachers, parents) interact with their living contexts
(e.g., school, family, community, culture) to find their resilience
in face of a variety of risk factors in school settings, such
as bullying, teacher-targeted violence and mental health
challenges.
Qian Nie, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at Southwest
University in China and also a visiting scholar at the University
of California, Berkeley (2019–2020). Her research interests
focus on the longitudinal influence of school climate on aca-
demic achievement, mental health outcomes, psychological
suzhi and bullying.
Zhaojun Teng, PhD, is a professor in the Faculty of Psychology
at Southwest University in China. His general research interests
are video game use and adolescents’ behavioral outcomes, and
his specific research interests are violent video game effects on
adolescents’ aggression, bullying, and cyberbullying.