Why does bullying victimization increase the risk of phubbing in adolescents? Roles of depression and social support

The current study was aimed to determine depression as a mediator as well as the social support as a moderator playing in the link of bullying victimization with phubbing. A cross-sectional research on 758 students was conducted using a cluster sampling method in a Chinese public middle school. Levels of bullying victimization, depression, social support and phubbing were self-reported by participants in standard measures. Bullying victimization showed significant positive correlation with depression ( b = 0.35, p < 0.001), and depression also was positively linked to phubbing ( b = 0.36, p < 0.001), after taking sex and age into account. The indirect effect of bullying victimization through depression to phubbing was 0.12. Social support played the protective effect as a moderator on the path from bullying victimization to depression ( b = 0.29, p <0.001). Specifically, the impact of higher bullying victimization on depression risk was less robust in individuals reporting high levels of social support (𝛽 simple =0.15, t = 2.80, p <0.01) than those of a decreased social support (𝛽 simple =0.43, t = 9.22, p <0.001). The relief of depressive symptoms is beneficial for a less negative impact of bullying victimization on phubbing. Targeted intervention programs could focus on social support to ameliorate the adverse sequelae of bullying victimization and minimize the prevalence of mental and behavioral problems by reducing the occurrence of victimization experience.