Adolescents’ emotional distress and attributions for face-to-face and cyber victimization: Longitudinal linkages to later aggression

Two studies examined early adolescents’ attributions and emotional distress based on social context (i.e., face-to-face versus cyber), utilizing ambiguous social situations (Study 1; N = 439; 223 girls) and hypothetical unambiguous victimization scenarios (Study 2; N = 414; 212 girls). The relationship of attributions and emotional distress to face-to-face and cyber aggression one year later was also examined. Feelings of sadness and anger as well as hostile, self-blame, and aggressor-blame attributions were more often elicited from face-to-face victimization than cyber victimization. Sadness and anger were linked positively to later face-to-face and cyber aggression. Anger mediated the relationship between attributions (i.e., hostile, aggressor-blame, self-blame) and face-to-face and cyber aggression.