The longitudinal relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and the university student cyberbullying related online aggression

Cyberbullying-related online aggression is an important online interpersonal problem among university students. Prior studies suggest that childhood psychological maltreatment is associated with later aggression and maladaptive online behavior, but the possible indirect association through current global happiness and the exploratory direct-path interaction involving difficulty describing feelings require cautious testing. This study examined the association between retrospectively reported childhood psychological maltreatment and cyberbullying-related online aggression, including a statistical indirect association through subjective well-being.

Using convenience-based cluster recruitment through course classes, this study conducted a two-wave prospective survey among university students from six collaborating universities in southern, southwestern, and central China. The first wave, administered in June 2025, collected retrospective reports of childhood psychological maltreatment before age 16 together with current subjective well-being and difficulty describing feelings. The second wave, administered in January 2026 (approximately seven months later), assessed cyberbullying-related online aggression during the past six months.

A total of 2,019 valid matched cases were retained, with a mean age of 18.97 years. SPSS and AMOS were used for descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and an observed-variable mediation model with an exploratory direct-path interaction. Models adjusted for gender, age, grade, only-child status, paternal educational level, and maternal educational level.

Percentile bootstrap resampling with 5,000 resamples was used to estimate indirect effects and confidence intervals; HC3, ordinal-logistic, and binary-logistic sensitivity checks were conducted for the exploratory interaction. Childhood psychological maltreatment was positively associated with cyberbullying-related online aggression (beta = 0.279, p