Motivation for cyberhate among Ukrainian youth

While research on cyberhate has focused largely on prevalence and exposure, motivation underlying cyberhate perpetration remains under-researched. This study examines revenge and proactive motivations for cyberhate perpetration among Ukrainian youth during the ongoing war. Guided by the general aggression model, social identity theory, and social cognitive theory, we explored the mediating roles of revenge and proactive motivation in the association between cyberbullying victimization and cyberhate perpetration. Using exploratory structural equation modeling on survey data from 4149 youth aged 10–25, we found that victimization was significantly associated with cyberhate perpetration, partly through revenge motivation. Proactive motivation was related to victimization but was not significantly associated with cyberhate perpetration. Findings highlight the role of revenge motivation in cyberhate behaviors. In this war-affected population, the nonsignificant proactive pathway suggests that cyberhate may differ from forms of online aggression driven by entertainment or social reward.