The relationship between self-esteem and cyberbullying: A meta-analysis of children and youth students

This study aims to reveal the relationship between self-esteem and cyberbullying by using meta-analysis. We identified 61 articles with 49,406 student participants. The results provide strong evidence regarding the link between self-esteem and cyberbullying. In addition, the meta-analysis has found that factors such as self-esteem measurements, participants’ culture, sample size, and participants’ age all moderated this relationship. The betas between self-esteem and cyberbullying is stronger in studies that used RSES (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale) and weaker in studies that used other measures. The betas coefficient was larger for participants in Asia than those in the U.S. and Europe. Compared to “N < 200″ and “N > 800″, the betas coefficient was larger in “200 < N < 800″. As the participants’ age increased, the betas coefficient between self-esteem and cyberbullying was smaller. Implications of this meta-analysis are discussed.