The role of perceived parenting styles and borderline personality disorder in cyberbullying: mediate empathy

Introduction: cyberbullying is a kind of aggression, deliberate action by a group or individual using electronic communication methods, is defined repeatedly and over time against a victim who can not easily defend himself. Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine the role of perceived parenting styles (authoritarian, authoritative, disregarded, and easy) and borderline personality disorder in cyberbullying through mediating role of empathy. Methods:The tools used in this study included: Lopez's cyberbullying questionnaire, Naghashan's parenting style questionnaire, questionnaire of borderline personality disorder, the empathy questionnaire of Baron-Cohen and Will Wright. The sample consisted of 305 high school male students of Tabriz, who were chosen according to multi-stage cluster sampling method. Results: Path analysis results showed that perceived parenting (Authoritarian, authoritative, indifferent) and borderline personality disorder mediated by empathy can explain the cyberbullying changes. Conclusion: Based on these findings, it can be concluded that cyberbullying can be a reflection of perceived personality disorder and perceived child abusive, dispassionate, and also low level of empathy.