Self-esteem and family ties are important considerations when analysing cyberbullying. The facilitating function of self-esteem in the relationships between parenting and cyberbullying, however, is poorly understood. The study's two objectives were to examine the relationship between self-esteem, parental acceptance or coercion, and parenting styles, as well as the relationship between these factors and being a cybervictim or cyberaggressor, and to determine whether selfesteem acts as a mediator in this relationship. The sample consists of 3026 Spanish adolescents aged 12 to 18 (51.5% girls and 48.5% boys). The study is cross-sectional, retrospective ex-post, and includes a variety of assessments. Because of their parents' high levels of compulsion and imposition and poor levels of connection and acceptance with their sons and daughters, cybervictims and cyberaggressors have low self-esteem. Self-esteem was found to mediate the relationship between parental involvement/acceptance and being a cybervictim, as well as the relationship between the father's involvement and being a cybervictim. Participants whose parents were authoritarian obtained significantly lower scores in self-esteem and higher scores in cybervictimization/cyberaggression, whereas those whose parents were indulgent obtained significantly higher scores in self-esteem and lower scores in cybervictimization/cyberaggression. Preventing cyberbullying can be greatly aided by having a healthy level of self-esteem, high parental acceptance and participation, and a parenting style that uses reasonable amounts of compulsion and discipline.
