The connection between bullying others and depression is clear. Less clear are the communicative paths through which being a bully leads to depression. Cyberbullying consists of communicative episodes that transcend modes of communication, contexts, and relationships wherein a social network of communicators pursues a subordinate goal of harming other(s) mentally, emotionally, and/or physically to achieve a hierarchically represented set of superordinate goals. Rooted in this conceptualization, we asked 739 undergraduate students to report on a memorable episode of which 374 met our criteria and reported on sending a series of hurtful messages. We employed close-ended self-report measures, as well as open-ended responses subjected to Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC-22) sentiment analysis, and moderated mediation models. Data suggest four conclusions. First, the extent to which bullies attack for five cyberbullying goals (insecurity, past-harm, highlight-differences, upward-mobility, and revenge) depends on how identifiable a cyberbully feels during the bullying episodes. Second, whereas bivariate associations among the five goals and depression emerged, when considering the full theoretical model, only insecurity goals sustained as an effective predictor of increased levels of depression. Third, anonymous bullies who attack because they are insecure are less depressed than confident and identifiable bullies, but only if they experience negative emotions post-attack. Finally, message severity (assessed via LIWC-22) was (a) an ineffective mediator, (b) not associated with depression or identifiability, and (c) mostly not associated with goals.

中文翻译：

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匿名和不安全的欺凌者比自信和可识别的欺凌者更不沮丧，但前提是懊悔：网络欺凌目标、可识别性和抑郁。


欺凌他人和抑郁症之间的联系是显而易见的。不太清楚成为恶霸导致抑郁的沟通途径。网络欺凌包括超越沟通模式、环境和关系的交际事件，其中交际者的社交网络追求一个从属目标，即在精神、情感和/或身体上伤害他人，以实现一组分层表示的上级目标。植根于这种概念化，我们要求 739 名本科生报告一个令人难忘的事件，其中 374 人符合我们的标准，并报告了发送一系列伤害性信息的情况。我们采用了封闭式自我报告措施，以及接受语言询问和字数统计 （LIWC-22） 情绪分析的开放式回答，以及调节中介模型。数据表明了四个结论。首先，欺凌者为五个网络欺凌目标（不安全、过去的伤害、突出差异、向上流动和报复）而攻击的程度取决于网络欺凌者在欺凌事件中的可识别性。其次，虽然五个目标和抑郁之间出现了二元关联，但在考虑完整的理论模型时，只有不安全目标持续作为抑郁水平增加的有效预测指标。第三，因为没有安全感而攻击的匿名欺凌者比自信且可识别的欺凌者更不沮丧，但前提是他们在攻击后经历负面情绪。最后，信息严重程度（通过 LIWC-22 评估）是 （a） 无效的中介，（b） 与抑郁或可识别性无关，以及 （c） 主要与目标无关。