Determinant factors of cyberbullying behaviour among Indonesian adolescents

ABSTRACT

This study aims to examine 1) the effect of religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian parenting on self-control; and 2) the effect of religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian parenting on adolescent cyberbullying behaviour, either directly or indirectly through self-control. Participants were 2,763 high school students (M_age = 16 years, SD = 0.95). The majority were from rural areas (65.5%), females (76.7%), and Muslims (98.8%). Path analysis found religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian parenting have direct effects on cyberbullying and indirect effect via self-control. Religiosity and conformity could be protective factors against adolescent cyberbullying behaviour, and conversely, authoritarian parenting could be promotive to adolescent cyberbullying behaviour. Self-control that could be strengthened through religiosity and group-conformity and weakened by authoritarian parenting, could prevent adolescents from engaging in cyberbullying behaviour.

KEYWORDS:

• Religiosity
• conformity
• parenting
• self-control
• high school students

Introduction

Cyberbullying is an intentional, aggressive, and repetitive behaviour, where an individual or group uses an electronic device to threaten other individuals who are not able to defend themselves (Kwan et al., 2020). This problem is not only found in high-income or Global North countries such as Spain (Cortés-Pascual et al., 2020); United Arab Emirates (Abaido, 2020); South Korea (Lee & Yi, 2022). Cyberbullying has also been found in Global South countries, for example, it was reported that forty-nine per cent of internet users in Indonesia had experienced cyberbullying and 31.6% of those tended to ignore cyberbullying perpetrators or known as becoming a bystander (Pratomo, 2019).

Cyberbullying is typically perpetrated by adolescents. As such, the prevalence of cyberbullying perpetrated by high school students, for example, like was reported in Indonesia that 62–82% of cyberbullying perpetrators in seven provinces were high school students (Efianingrum et al., 2021). This prevalence is in line with the global trend where previous studies in European country (Gualco et al., 2022); Dubai (Farooq et al., 2023); and South Korea (Lee & Yi, 2022) also reported the similar findings. Moreover, cyberbullying is also prevalent among middle-school students, which could up to 52% in Indonesia (Astuti & Dewi, 2021; Tjongjono et al., 2019).

Previous studies have reported the potential factors that associated with cyberbullying behaviour, including social media use. Furthermore, intensive access to social media among adolescents poses risk to cyberbullying behaviour as it facilitates adolescents to express unkind words towards the victim (Craig et al., 2020; Larasati & Sunarto, 2020). Consequently, victimized adolescents would feel isolated and lonely, more prone to depression (McLoughlin et al., 2022; Setiadi et al., 2021; Wachs et al., 2022), and lead to suicidal ideation (Visty, 2021). Despite numerous social media use and cyberbullying behaviour among adolescents have been reported, these studies were conducted in the Global North countries that could have different sociocultural backgrounds with countries in the Global South like Indonesia. Therefore, an investigation into cyberbullying behaviour, including the determinant factors among Indonesian adolescents is urgent to complete these existing reports.

Abundant literatures suggested that bullying is a complex problem, which influenced by internal and external factors. The first is religiosity, which is individual’s internal condition that encourages behaviour, attitudes, and actions according to their religious beliefs (Bukhori, 2016). There is a very significant relationship between religiosity and spiritual meaningfulness with cyberbullying behaviour (Safaria & Bashori, 2021). Student who studied religion as a formal discipline in high school reported higher intercultural sensitivity (Cucoș et al., 2023) and the more or higher intercultural sensitivity means less of cyberbullying.

The second is conformity, which is individual tendencies to alter their own views, opinions, or behaviour to match that of the group norms (Yusuf, 2010). Conformity has a significant role to adolescence cyberbullying perpetrator self-control (Velensia et al., 2021). Conformity mediated by perceived social has a positive relation with cyber aggression (Bleize et al., 2021). The higher the conformity, the higher the bullying (Muhopilah et al., 2021).

The third is authoritarian parenting, characterized by imposing strict rules to the child, limiting them to express their own opinions, high level of demandingness and low responsiveness (Hurlock, 2011; King et al., 2016). Authoritarian and strict parenting style show the higher levels of victimization and aggression in bullying and cyberbullying (Gómez-Ortiz et al., 2019). A number of studies also found that authoritarian parenting style has a relation with bullying and cyberbullying (Muhopilah et al., 2021; Young & Govender, 2018; Zurcher et al., 2018).

The fourth is self-control, which is the capacity to determine one’s own behaviour according to values, morals, or rules applied in the society so that the behaviour is acceptable by the society (Tangney et al., 2004). Self-control acts as a mediator between aggressive behaviour and cyberbullying behaviours (Peker & Yildiz, 2021). Low self-control is a significant predictor of cyberbullying and can be exacerbated by criminal opportunities, but only if those opportunities are measured by social media use (Stults & You, 2022).

This framework led to our research question, ‘How religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian parenting contribute to cyberbullying behaviour among adolescents in Indonesia. Therefore, this study has two aims, including 1) to examine the effect of religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian parenting on self-control that represent one’s basic value of living, social peer environment, family environment, and one’s character, respectively; and 2) to simultaneously examine the effect of religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian parenting on adolescent cyberbullying behaviour, either directly or indirectly through self-control. We hypothesized that religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian parenting has direct effect on cyberbullying and indirect effect through self-control. Therefore, based on the exposure of explained theories and conceptual framework, we formulated these hypotheses: 1) self -control mediating the relationship between religiosity and cyberbullying; 2) self -control mediating the relationship between conformity and cyberbullying; and 3) self-control mediating the relationship between authoritarian and cyberbullying parenting.

Materials and methods

Research design

This is a quantitative study with a cross-sectional design aiming to provide a comprehensive snapshot of the situation at a specific point in time, aiding in the understanding of current variable relationships. Cyberbullying behaviour is the dependent variable while religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian parenting are the independent variables. The relationships among independent and dependent variables are mediated by self-control, which will also become the dependent variable for the three independent variables, as well as the independent variable for cyberbullying behaviour. This research design was approved by the Medical and Health Research Ethics Committee (MHREC) Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing Universitas Gadjah Mada – Dr. Sardjito General Hospital (KE/FK/1161/EC/2021).

Sample and sampling technique

This study was conducted among upper-level (high school) students across Indonesia, considering 1) The high prevalence of bullying in Indonesia (i.e. Indonesia is ranked first for bullying problems (sindonews.com, 2017); 2) High school-aged students are experiencing significant psychological development in their adolescence period, which can be marked by emotional dysregulation and lack of self-control; 3) Religious faith among adolescents are not consistent, at times adolescents show strong faith while in other times doubts and decreasing in faith are common, because adolescence is considered as a sensitive period of religiosity development. In this period they build capacities for abstract thought, hypothetical reasoning, and meta-cognition that contribute to religious identity exploration and commitment (Daradjat, 1996; Schnitker et al., 2021); and 4) Students’ behaviours are easily influenced by their peers, even when they do no align with their views, in order to feel accepted by the group (Levianti, 2008).

The research participants were high school students (including Madrasah Aliyah/Islamic-based high school, regular high school, and vocational high school) throughout Indonesia, which the total number was estimated to be 4.971.127 in year 2020 (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2020). A minimum sample of infinite population was required for 664 with 1% error level (Isaac & Michael, 1995). Participants were recruited through convenience sampling of high schools in Indonesia, due to mobility restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic when the data collection took place (November 2021-February 2022). The inclusion criteria to be eligible as participants were: 1) Active students of higher education in Indonesia and 2) aged between 14–18. Students were excluded if they were: 1) No longer active as a student and 2) age over 18 or under 14.

Instruments and data collection

The used instruments were the Religiosity Scale, Self-Control Scale, Peer Group Scale, Cyberbullying Behavior Scale, and Authoritarian Parenting Scale that explained further in the following paragraphs and Supplement 1. The Religiosity Scale and Cyberbullying Behavior Scale were adapted from an English version; therefore, a series of translating process was completed, including forward translation, synthesis translation, back-translation, expert judgement, and readability test. Data were collected through online survey platform (Google Form), where the link was distributed via online and social media networks as well as student communities and high school teacher networks throughout Indonesia.

Religiosity Scale

The Religiosity Scale (α=.86) was adapted from The IIUM Religiosity Scale/IIUMRelS (Mahudin et al., 2016), which consists of 10 items comprising three religious aspects: Islam (physical acts/human activities), Iman (the mindset/understanding about God), and Ihsan (spirit/actualization of virtue and kindness). Although these religious aspects use Islamic terminologies, the scale is still appropriate for research involving participants with diverse religious backgrounds, as the items have been adapted to accommodate different religions (i.e. ‘I am pleased with what I have’). With permission from the original author, two items were added to the scale: ‘I ask my friends to speak about the greatness of God’ and ‘I ask my friends to always remember God’. Participants were asked to rate to what extent they agree to each item using a 4-point Likert scale (1=Strongly Disagree, 4=Strongly Agree).

Self-Control Scale

The Self-Control Scale (α=.81) consists of 10 items categorized into inhibition and initiation aspects (i.e. ‘I find it difficult to stop bad habits’), adapted from the Brief Self-Control Scale/BSCS) (de Ridder et al., 2011). The adaptation and validation into Indonesian were conducted by Arifin and Milla (2020) (Arifin & Milla, 2020). Participants were asked to rate their agreement to each item using a 5-point Likert scale (1=Strongly Disagree, 5=Strongly Agree).

Peer Group Scale

The Peer Group Scale (conformity) (α=.95) was adapted from previous research (Mawardah & Adiyanti, 2014), consists of informative and normative aspects with 43 items in total (i.e. ‘I am willing to go home late so that my friends like me’). Participants were asked to provide a response using a 5-point Likert scale to indicate to what extent each item describes them (1=Very Much, 5=Not at all).

Cyberbullying Behavior Scale

The Cyberbullying Behavior Scale (α=.64) was adapted to Indonesian from the cyberbullying perpetration subscale of the European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire (ECIPQ) (Brighi et al., 2019). This scale consists of seven items, for example ‘I said unpleasant things or I offended someone online’. Participants were asked to evaluate their experience in the last six months, using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from ‘never’ to ‘more than once a week’.

Authoritarian Parenting Scale

The Authoritarian Parenting Scale (α=.90) was adapted from the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ) (Robinson et al., 1995), which has been validated in Indonesian (Fahiroh et al., 2019). This scale measures paternal and maternal authoritarian parenting style, according to several aspects namely verbal hostility, corporal punishment, non-reasoning, punitive strategies, and directiveness. An example item is ‘I often have arguments with my father’ and ‘My mother and I often have disagreements’. Participants were asked to respond to items using a 5-point Likert scale (1=Never, 5=Always).

Data analysis

Data were analysed using path analysis model and performed using R software. Path analysis is an expanded regression model to test two causal models or more (Garson, 2008), and in this study it was utilized to test the effect of an intervening variable or mediation, namely the self-control variable. The analysis results will be examined to determine which effect, the direct effect or indirect effect, is stronger. Therefore, mediation effect which may strengthen or weaken the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable can be established (Ghozali, 2005). The procedure for mediation analysis involves four regression analyses (Baron & Kenny, 1986) as visualized in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Steps of path analysis model.

Results

The participants represented 19 out of 34 Indonesian provinces. Data were gathered from a total of 2,815 participants, however, 52 participants were aged above 18 years and thus excluded from further analyses. Therefore, the total included sample were 2,763 respondents, aged between 14 and 18 years (M = 16.3, SD = 0.9), and predominantly regular high school students. The majority of participants were female (76.7%), living in rural areas (65.5%), and of Islam religious background (98.0%). Descriptive statistics of the measured variables can be seen in Table 1.

Table 1. Demographics and descriptive statistics information (N = 2763).

Variables	f (%)/M (SD)
Age	16.3 (0.95)
Types of high school
Vocational high school/SMK	451 (16.3%)
Islamic high school/MA	474 (17.1%)
Regular senior high school/SMA	1838 (66.5%)
Province
Outside Java Island (16 provinces)	173 (6.3%)
Within Java Island (6 provinces)	2590 (93.7%)
Residence
Rural	1809 (65.5%)
Urban	445 (16.1%)
Big Cities	509 (18.4%)
Religion/belief
Agnostic/atheist/others	0 (0%)
Local beliefs	3 (0.1%)
Buddhism	7 (0.2%)
Islam	2709 (98.4%)
Roman Catholic	15 (0.5%)
Confucianism	3 (0.1%)
Christian	26 (0.9%)
Sex
Male	643 (23.3%)
Female	2120 (76.7%)
Religiosity (total)	42.6 (4.79)
Islam	13.8 (2.23)
Iman	18.4 (1.94)
Ihsan	10.4 (1.45)
Self-control (total)	33.1 (7.20)
Inhibition	20 (4.49)
Initiation	13.1 (3.29)
Peer group (conformity) (total)	172 (28.8)
Informative	75.3 (12.9)
Normative	96.4 (17.0)
Cyberbullying behavior	9.03 (2.54)
Authoritarian parenting (total)	32 (11.3)
Father	31 (13.6)
Mother	32.9 (11.9)

Note. SMK = Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan, MA = Madrasah Aliyah, SMA = Sekolah Menengah Atas. Islam = physical acts/human activities, Iman = the mindset/understanding about God, Ihsan = spirit/actualization of virtue and kindness. f = frequency, M = Mean, SD = Standard deviation.

The effects of religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian parenting on self-control (indirect effect) were significant at p < .01. Religiosity led to an increase of self-control with a standardized coefficient of 0.30. Conformity also had a positive path to self-control with a standardized coefficient of 0.22. Meanwhile, the path between authoritarian parenting and self-control was negative with a standardized coefficient of −0.07, meaning that authoritarian parenting led to a decrease in self-control. Path analysis (path b) also found a negative pathway from self-control to cyberbullying, with a coefficient of −0.25 (p < 0.01).

Analysis of direct effects of the independent variables (religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian parenting) on the dependent variable (cyberbullying) showed religiosity led to a decrease of cyberbullying behaviour at a coefficient of −0.15 (p < 0.01). Conformity was not found to have significant effect on cyberbullying (p = 0.14). Finally, authoritarian parenting was found to have a significant effect on increasing cyberbullying with a coefficient of 0.13 (p < 0.01). To identify the mediating role of self-control, the indirect effects of each independent variable on the dependent variable via the mediator variable need to be evaluated (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Mediation diagram of all variables.

There was an indirect effect of religiosity on cyberbullying with a standardized coefficient of −0.15 (p < 0.01) and indirect effect via self-control mediation, with a standardized coefficient of −0.07 (p < 0.01). Conformity has an indirect effect on cyberbullying through self-control with a standardized coefficient of −0.05 (p < 0.01). Conformity also had an effect on cyberbullying (−0.03, p < 0.05). These demonstrate that self-control variable partially mediated the relationship between conformity and cyberbullying. Meanwhile, authoritarian parenting had a direct effect (0.13, p < 0.01), as well as an indirect effect on cyberbullying via self-control (0.02, p < 0.01). Authoritarian parenting also had an effect in decreasing self-control with a standardized coefficient of −0.07 (p < 0.01).

Discussion

This research was guided by an understanding that cyberbullying could be caused by the variability of religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian parenting. Moreover, the variability of adolescent self-control may also affect their cyberbullying behaviour. In addition to its direct effect on cyberbullying, self-control also mediates the effect of religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian on cyberbullying behaviour. In other words, religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian parenting all have effects on cyberbullying behaviour, both directly and indirectly through self-control. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effects of religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian parenting on self-control and cyberbullying, both directly and indirectly (via self-control) simultaneously. The study was intended to address the limitations of past research which have treated independent variables separately or have not assessed dependent variables simultaneously. The effects and dynamics amongst the variables will be discussed in the following subsections.

Religiosity has direct and indirect effect on cyberbullying via self-control

Religiosity has a direct effect on cyberbullying behaviour as well as indirect effect via self-control, which aligns with several past research. Those studies found negative relationship between religiosity and bullying behaviours among students at an Islamic boarding school (Hasanah, 2016); a significant relationship between religiosity and bullying behaviours among elementary school students (Suciati & Soeharto, 2018); a significant and negative relationship between religiosity and tendency of bullying behaviours among adolescents (Umasugi, 2013) as well as cyberbullying (Arianti et al., 2019; Sani & Alashti, 2020). The increase of religiosity will reduce the tendency to cyberbullying (Sani & Alashti, 2020). The current finding also supports previous research in Israel, which found cyberbullying behaviour was less likely to occur among students in religious schools compared to those in secular schools (Tesler et al., 2019).

We found religiosity did not only have a direct effect on cyberbullying, but also an indirect effect via self-control. This supports previous research among Islamic mentoring programme participants where religiosity contributed 26.7% in explaining self-control (Ela et al., 2017). It was assumed that individuals with high religiosity believe that God watches every action and behaviour they commit, hence they also tend to have high self-monitoring which triggers higher self-control than those with low religiosity (McCullough & Willoughby, 2009). In addition, self-control could increase when an individual adopts religious values into their daily lives (Wood, 2012). When individual self-control functions optimally, they are able to resist urges to engage in aggressive behaviours such as cyberbullying, and if individuals have low self-control they are more likely to commit cyberbullying (de Ridder et al., 2011; Stults & You, 2022). Self-control is one aspect of emotional regulation, which contributes negatively to reducing cyberbullying tendencies (Adiyanti et al., 2020; Chen et al., 2017). This shows that individuals are less likely to commit cyberbullying when they have good self-control and emotional regulation. Furthermore, individual religiosity has been positively associated with well-being (Daulay et al., 2022), which can prevent maladaptive emotions and behaviours.

The three aspects of religiosity (Mahudin et al., 2016) could explain how religiosity affect cyberbullying directly and indirectly via self-control. Ihsan refers to the inner dimension, a sense that God witnesses their behaviours even when the behaviours are covert. This is related to how an individual exercise control over themselves from inappropriate behaviours. Furthermore, the iman aspect describes one’s belief in God and the resurrection day where all individuals will be judged for all behaviours, including cyberbullying. The capacity to resist or ability to have control over negative inner urges is known as inhibition which is a part of self-control aspects (de Ridder et al., 2011). In addition, individuals who possess good iman and ihsan would ensure that their actions are oriented towards the afterlife, which is known as initiation and also an aspect of self-control (de Ridder et al., 2011). Highly religious individuals also possess greater self-regulation, they are able to control themselves both in behaviour and speech (Minton, 2018; Watterson & Giesler, 2012).

Conformity has direct and indirect effect on cyberbullying via self-control

Conformity had negative association with cyberbullying, which suggests that conformity has a positive meaning such that it may become a protective factor against cyberbullying. Conformity towards peer pressure during adolescence can be helpful or unhelpful, because on the one hand conformity is important for social norm formation and social stability (Cremene & Cremene, 2021; Santrock, 2007). Adolescents want to spend time with their peers, more so than when they were younger, because of the pressure to fit in with their peers’ standards. Nevertheless, conformity could also lead individual to change their personal opinions and behaviour, also engage in problem behaviours as they are influenced by their environment (Mulyadi et al., 2016; Wijenayake et al., 2020). This shows that negative influences from peers would lead to negative behaviours and vice versa.

One of the steps to conformity is normative influence (Vaughan & Hogg, 2018), which leads individuals to meet the positive expectations of others in order to gain social approval or avoid social rejection. Thus, when an individual is surrounded by positive peers, behaviours that are regarded as appropriate in the society will be approved. Whereas, behaviours that are seen as socially acceptable, including aggressive behaviours such as cyberbullying, will be rejected.

In adolescent conformity, a ‘fear of missing out’ (FoMO) phenomenon may emerge, which is the worry that individuals experience if they do not follow certain popular activities. Social media, which has become crucial in social interactions, is believed to fuel FoMO. With regards to cyberbullying, adolescent conformity would intersect with the FoMO experience, such that the adolescent believes that being a bullying perpetrator gives a sense of shared identity with their peers who are cyberbullying perpetrators (Rahardjo & Mulyani, 2020).

Conformity has an indirect effect on cyberbullying via self-control, which contradicts past research that found conformity led to cyberbullying intentions or behaviours (Febriyani & Indrawati, 2017; Kim et al., 2020; Mawardah & Adiyanti, 2014; Nadiaputri, 2017). In the current study, it is possible that the cognitive control process of self-control contributes to the mechanism of effect, such that the information an individual receives from their peers to engage in certain behaviours will go through their cognitive systems. Self-control involves impulse control as well as behaviours that are long-term oriented (Arifin & Milla, 2020). This illustrates how individuals would evaluate their peer environment and in line with the normative and informative aspects of conformity (Mawardah & Adiyanti, 2014; Stephan & Stephan, 1985) which are also reflected in the study of social distancing among adolescents in West Timor (Kiling et al., 2022).

Furthermore, one’s societal environment is one example of external factors that may encourage self-control (Basuki & Prastiti, 2014), in which case peers are the dominant societal environment for adolescents. The more an individual values themselves as being part of a group and want to be accepted by others, the more they tend to avoid any behaviour that may separate them from the group (Branscombe & Baron, 2017). Conformity can be associated with problem behaviours that an individual engages due to the influence of their environment (Mulyadi et al., 2016; Wijenayake et al., 2020). This shows how negative peer influences would lead to negative behaviours, whereas positive peer influences would lead to positive behaviours.

This study also found a high score on normative aspect of conformity, which would mean that the participants strongly argued that need to feel accepted by the group was fundamental to the role of group influence surrounding them, which could also be an indicator of cognitive ability of individuals to process information so that certain events or behaviours can be interpreted and evaluated (Averil, 1973). Wijenayake et al. (2020) found that cyberbullying carried out through online media was influenced by informational aspects and also normative influences. Participants in this study who were part of a group that encourages positive behaviours would conclude that they should follow the same positive behaviours and avoid engaging in problem behaviours such as cyberbullying in order to be accepted by the group. In other words, the information they receive and their cognitive ability to process the information and normative standard, interact and will lead their behaviour.

Authoritarian parenting has direct and indirect effects on cyberbullying via self-control

Parenting style was found to have an effect on cyberbullying, both directly and indirectly via self-control, which aligns with past studies (Charalampous et al., 2018; Makri-Botsari & Karagianni, 2014; Safaria & Bashori, 2021; Tao et al., 2022). The previous research also found significant effect of parenting and cyberbullying behaviour; in particular, authoritarian parenting had a larger effect on cyberbullying relative to other parenting styles (Ramadhan & Coralia, 2018) because authoritarian child-rearing style is a risk factor for cyberbullying through verbal hostility (Fahiroh et al., 2019; Waller et al., 2018). Aggressive tendencies towards their social environment may emerge in a child as a form of modelling from their parents’ behaviour towards them (Borecka-Biernat, 2022; Hurlock, 2011). This may indicate that parental verbal hostility towards the child was modelled into cyberbullying. Moreover, ineffective parenting practices, such as hitting, could raise emotional problems and eventually lead to problem behaviour. Therefore, encouraging positive parenting practices is important to prevent long-term psychological problems for the child (Jannah et al., 2022).

Due to the cognitive and emotional nature of the adolescence, cyberbullying (as negative behaviour) may impact adolescent’s future lives and personality (Abaido, 2020). Therefore, parents should create a safe environment at home through a healthy parenting style, because the development of student’s behaviour and personality is formed in the family as primary environment. The student that comes from a negative family climate may likely to show the negative and deviant behaviours, like cyberbullying (Safaria, 2015).

Practical implications

Findings from this study can be used as a practical guidance for stakeholders to tackle cyberbullying problems among adolescents. Two practical recommendations would be: 1) improving religious teachings for adolescents, which is expected it will be followed by self-control; and 2) striving to adopt more effective parenting styles as opposed to authoritarian parenting, for example, providing opportunities for adolescents to make their own decision with parental supervision (authoritative parenting).

Limitations and strengths

The study sample was limited to upper-level students, which could not fully capture cyberbullying phenomenon among younger adolescents. Nonetheless, this study has its strengths; the sample was representative of more than 50% of all provinces in Indonesia. In addition, this study presented a novel finding in which conformity had negative effect on cyberbullying, but also positive effect through self-control.

Conclusion

This study investigates the effects of religiosity, conformity, and authoritarian parenting on cyberbullying among upper-level students aged 14–18 years old in Indonesia, with self-control as the mediator. It was found that the three independent variables had direct as well as indirect effects on cyberbullying through self-control. It can be concluded that religiosity and conformity were protective factors that prevent adolescents from perpetrating cyberbullying, whilst authoritarian parenting may lead to cyberbullying behaviour. Similarly, self-control can be strengthened by religiosity and group conformity, and weakened by authoritarian parenting. This means, adolescents with strong ability to self-control are unlikely to perpetrate cyberbullying.

Availability of data and material

Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on request and the instruments used to collect data are available as Supplements.

Authors’ contributions

BB, NAHN, KZ, AL contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by BB, AW, DD. Data analysis was performed by BB, AW, AL. The first draught of the manuscript was written by BB, NAHN, KZ. All authors commented and provided critical feedback. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics approval

This study was approved by the Medical and Health Research Ethics Committee (MHREC) Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing Universitas Gadjah Mada – Dr. Sardjito General Hospital (KE/FK/1161/EC/2021).

Acknowledgments

The authors thank to Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo Semarang, participants, teachers, and parents for their support in conducting this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2023.2295442

Additional information

Funding

This research is funded by Universitas Islam Negeri Semarang based on Rector’s Letter Decree (Surat Keputusan Rektor) Number 1491/Un.10.0/R/R/HK.01.02/7/2021 about the grants of BOPTN in research, community service and research publication in 2021.