Adolescents’ online anger and aggressive behavior: Moderating effect of seeking social support

Although anger tends to lead to aggressive behavior, the underlying processes that moderate this relationship are largely unknown. Our aim with this study was to explore the relationship between adolescents’ online anger and cyber aggression and the moderating effect of seeking online social support. Participants were 509 Chinese adolescents who completed anonymous questionnaires about seeking social support, online anger, and online aggression. Cyber aggression had a significant negative correlation with seeking social support and a significant positive correlation with online anger. This direct association between online anger and cyber aggression was moderated by seeking social support online, such that the positive relationship between online anger and cyber aggression was significant only among adolescents low in seeking online social support. These results suggest that seeking online social support can mitigate cyber aggression among adolescents in the context of mild online anger.