The Sequential Mediating Roles of Emotional Clarity and Self-Concept Clarity in the Relationship Between Cyberbullying Victimization and Depression Among Adolescents

This study investigated whether emotional clarity and self-concept clarity sequentially mediated the association between cyberbullying victimization and depressive symptoms among adolescents.The sample comprised 300 middle school students in South Korea's capital region.Cyberbullying victimization was assessed using a cyberbullying victimization scale, depressive symptoms using the Center for Epidemiological Studies depressive symptoms Scale (CES-D), emotional clarity using the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS), and self-concept clarity using the Self-Concept Clarity Scale (SCCS).Data were analyzed using SPSS 23.0 and Model 6 of the PROCESS Macro.Pearson correlations were calculated to identify the associations among the study variables, followed by regression-based mediation analysis with 5,000 bootstrap samples to estimate the indirect effects.The results showed that cyberbullying victimization was positively correlated with depressive symptoms and negatively correlated with emotional clarity and self-concept clarity.Emotional clarity and self-concept clarity were also negatively correlated with depressive symptoms.Furthermore, emotional clarity and self-concept clarity sequentially mediated the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and depressive symptoms.Specifically, greater cyberbullying victimization was associated with lower emotional clarity; lower emotional clarity was associated with lower self-concept clarity, which, in turn, was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms.These findings suggest that interventions aimed at enhancing emotional clarity and self-concept clarity may help alleviate depressive symptoms associated with cyberbullying victimization among adolescents.