Cyberbullying among Children and its Comparison to Traditional Forms of Peer Violence

In addition to traditional forms of peer violence (physical, verbal, relational, sexual, economic and cultural), children are increasingly involved in cyberbullying through electronic media. We present a literature review on peer violence in order to determine the similarities and specifics of cyberbullying, in comparison with traditional forms of peer violence. Similarities of these forms of bullying are manifested in the overlap of core elements in most conceptualizations of peer bullying and the correlation between being involved in the electronic and the traditional bullying perpetration, as well as in the correlation between both types of bullying victimization. On the other hand, some studies suggest that cyberbullying utterly differs from traditional forms of peer bullying in crucial elements of conceptual definitions of bullying, possible anonymity of perpetrators, wide audience and high spatio-temporal accessibility of violent content. In addition, we compare risk and protective factors for the involvement in traditional and electronic violence among peers (on individual, family, school and peer level). Despite the fact that the prevalence of traditional forms of peer victimization still exceeds the electronic forms of violence, both worldwide and in Croatia, due to cyberbullying specifics, it is essential for the current bullying prevention programs to implement certain activities specifically aiming at reducing cyberbullying among children

Parenting practices as risk or preventive factors for adolescent involvement in cyberbullying: Contribution of children and parent gender

Literature points out the role of parenting on adolescent cyberbullying involvement. However, it is necessary to clarify how gender affects this relationship. The aim of this study has been to examine the relation between the adolescents’ perception about parenting practices, and their involvement in cyberbullying, bearing in mind both girls’ and boys’ gender and progenitors’ gender. The sample comprised 2060 Spanish secondary school students (47.9% girls; Mage = 14.34). Two-way ANOVA and binary logistic regression analyses were carried out. An effect of the interaction between sex and cyberbullying roles in maternal affection and communication, inductive discipline, and psychological control, as well as paternal promotion of autonomy and psychological control, was found. In general, it can be observed that the more negative results were found in cyber-aggressors, especially when this role is assumed by girls. The results of logistic regression analysis suggest that parenting practices explain better cyberbullying involvement in girls compared to boys, finding some important differences between both sexes regarding protective and risk factors. These findings highlight the importance of parenting practices to explain cyberbullying involvement, which supports the necessity of including family among the addresses of intervention programs.Gobierno de España PSI2016-74871-RGobierno de España PSI2015-64114-REuropean Research Council H2020 grant number 75517

The Structure of Cyber and Traditional Aggression: An Integrated Conceptualization

abstract: ABSTRACT The phenomenon of cyberbullying has captured the attention of educators and researchers alike as it has been associated with multiple aversive outcomes including suicide. Young people today have easy access to computer mediated communication (CMC) and frequently use it to harass one another -- a practice that many researchers have equated to cyberbullying. However, there is great disagreement among researchers whether intentional harmful actions carried out by way of CMC constitute cyberbullying, and some authors have argued that "cyber-aggression" is a more accurate term to describe this phenomenon. Disagreement in terms of cyberbullying's definition and methodological inconsistencies including choice of questionnaire items has resulted in highly variable results across cyberbullying studies. Researchers are in agreement however, that cyber and traditional forms of aggression are closely related phenomena, and have suggested that they may be extensions of one another. This research developed a comprehensive set of items to span cyber-aggression's content domain in order to 1) fully address all types of cyber-aggression, and 2) assess the interrelated nature of cyber and traditional aggression. These items were administered to 553 middle school students located in a central Illinois school district. Results from confirmatory factor analyses suggested that cyber-aggression is best conceptualized as integrated with traditional aggression, and that cyber and traditional aggression share two dimensions: direct-verbal and relational aggression. Additionally, results indicated that all forms of aggression are a function of general aggressive tendencies. This research identified two synthesized models combining cyber and traditional aggression into a shared framework that demonstrated excellent fit to the item data.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Educational Psychology 201

Cyberbullying Incidents Among African American Female Middle School Students

Recent research has shown an increase in cyber bullying acts against middle and high school students. The National Center of Education Statistics (2010) reported that cyberbullying incidents increased 73% between the years of 2007 and 2009. In 2011, 75% of cyberbullying victims were adolescents (National Center of Education Statistics, 2013). Using data collected from the Pew Research and American Life Project, the study examined the prevalence of cyber bullying acts against African American female adolescents compared to Caucasian male and female adolescents and African American male adolescents. Additionally, the study reported the cyber bullying incident that occurred most frequently as either directly using texting or indirectly using social media websites. Past research studies have shown a prevalence of cyber bullying acts against Caucasian females. The participants in this study were 737 adolescents 12-17 years old. The results suggested that a prevalence of cyber bullying acts against African American female students occurred at a significantly lower rate than Caucasian female and male students but a significantly higher rate than African American male students and Hispanic male and female students. Additionally, indirect cyberbullying incidents occurred significantly more frequently than direct cyberbullying incidents

Cybervictimization as a Predictor of Aggression and Cyberbullying among Adolescents: Examination of Potential Risk and Protective Factors

The current study examined how cybervictimization is related to aggression outcomes among adolescents. The current study also examined various potential risk and protective factors, including depressive symptoms, anger rumination, impulsivity, social support, and gender. It was hypothesized that the relation between cybervictimization and aggression or cyberbullying would be intensified when levels of depressive symptoms, impulsivity, and anger rumination were higher and that the relation between cybervictimization and aggression or cyberbullying would be attenuated when levels of social support were higher. Gender was examined as a research question, with no specific directionality hypothesized. The data for the current study were collected from parents and adolescents via an internet survey site. In total, 144 adolescents (69 males, 75 females, M = 14.90 years) and their parents (recruited from the community) completed the survey and were included in the study. Moderated multiple regression analyses were used to examine the effects of the various moderators on the relation between cybervictimization and aggression or cyberbullying. No significant interactions involving anger rumination or impulsivity were found. However, significant interactions involving depressive symptoms, social support, and gender were found when investigating the relation between cybervictimization and aggression or cyberbullying. The finding that cybervictimization relates to aggression and cyberbullying differentially, depending on gender and levels of depression and social support, could be particularly valuable when treating aggression and/or cyberbullying in adolescents, emphasizing a need to target mood and relational concerns

Investigating the Conditional Adaptiveness of Adolescents’ Aggression from an Evolutionary Perspective

Growing evidence supports the evolutionary perspective characterizing aggression as a strategy to achieve proximate adaptive benefits which can indirectly and probabilistically contribute to ultimate evolutionary goals (survival and reproduction). However, aggression may only be adaptive under certain conditions. Therefore, this dissertation investigated various conditions that may affect the adaptiveness of adolescent aggression, namely aggression characteristics (aggressive form, function, and anonymity), target characteristics (power of victim relative to the perpetrator), and perpetrator characteristics (experience of victimization and gender). Study 1 used a person-oriented approach to investigate how proactive and reactive cyber aggression and concurrent experiences of cyber victimization were associated with evolutionarily relevant social advantages and disadvantages in a community sample. Study 2 examined differential associations between aggression involvement and evolutionarily relevant aggressive functions, considering variations in aggressive form, the target’s power relative to perpetrator, and the perpetrator’s gender in a school-based sample. Finally, in a school-based sample, Study 3 investigated (1) how the associations between anonymous perpetration and evolutionary functions of aggression varied by aggressive form and the perpetrator’s gender, (2) how the target’s power and the perpetrator’s gender related to adolescents’ use of anonymous perpetration in each aggressive form, and (3) differential associations between anonymous victimization and victims’ perceptions of harm as a function of aggressive form and gender of the victim. Results suggest that adolescents’ aggression was linked to evolutionarily relevant aggressive functions motivated by competitive (e.g., aggression deterrence, intrasexual competition), impression management (seeking status and mates), sadistic (enjoyment), and reactive (impulsive response to real/perceived threats) functions, and to social advantages (social dominance, dating behaviour) for aggressors who used reactive aggression less frequently. However, aggression involvement was differentially associated with evolutionary motives based on the form, function, or anonymity of aggression, target characteristics, and perpetrator characteristics. Moreover, aggression was associated with costs, especially for cyber aggressor-victims who frequently aggressed reactively, and for victims of anonymous aggression. Thus, adolescents’ aggression may be conditionally adaptive for a narrow range of functions, depending on the characteristics of the aggression, target, and perpetrator. By highlighting the conditional adaptiveness of adolescent aggression, this research may inform efforts to improve interventions addressing aggression

Extending the Current Theorization On Cyberbullying: Importance of Including Socio-Psychological Perspectives

Despite an abundance of research from multiple perspectives and disciplines, to date cyberbullying research has been fragmented and is often conducted atheoretically, using theories borrowed from general psychology and/or criminology, or considers only individual-level explanations such as demographics, personalities, and psychological conditions which may be insufficient to fully understand and explain the behaviour. Social psychological approaches that examine the everyday power relations in children\u2019s lives and the study of identity, relationships, and belonging systems may provide meaningful context and a more holistic perspective. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the positive impact of applying identity theories and a sociological perspective to the study of cyberbullying. This paper provides an overview of cyberbullying, followed by examples of how general psychological theories and theories borrowed from criminology and aggression have been applied to cyberbullying, including a cyberbullying-specific theory. Several key theories of identity that could be employed in the study of cyberbullying are then identified. Lastly, the utility of using a socio-psychological perspective using social identity theory and social network analysis to study of cyberbullying is explored. In order to manage cyber violence, we need to act on multiple levels, including individual, relational, organizational, and community levels

Psychological Impact of Cyberbully Victimization among College Students

With the growth of technology, bullying has expanded into the technological realm. Labeled cyberbullying, individuals are utilizing technology, such as cell phones and the Internet, to bully and harass others with the intention of causing harm. Most cyberbullying research has been conducted with elementary, middle, and high school-aged students in countries such as Finland, Canada, Taiwan, and Australia. The purpose of this study was to expand prevalence, psychological impact, and coping strategy research with college-student victims of cyberbullying in the United States. 799 college students from a mid-Atlantic university were surveyed via the Internet. It was found that 8.6% of that sample endorsed being a victim of cyberbullying; 8.7% of females and 8.4% of males. On the Symptom Checklist-90-R, the 69 victims were higher than 69 matched control participants in depression, anxiety, phobic anxiety, and paranoia, as well as were elevated on global severity index and positive symptom distress index scales. Victims endorsed frequently experiencing emotional consequences, such as feeling frustrated, stressed, sad/hurt, or angry. Victims had significantly more suicidal planning and attempts, as well as suicidal ideations. They also more frequently threatened suicide than control participants. In response to cyberbully victimization, female and male victims both told someone they were being victimized, avoided friends or peers, got revenge, and stopped going to events they once enjoyed. Female victims more frequently avoided Internet/cell phones and males more frequently drank alcohol/used illegal drugs as a result of their victimization. The results of this study indicated that cyberbullying is occurring in a college sample and having a negative impact upon victims

Prevalence and correlates of cyberbullying perpetration : findings from a German representative student survey

Based on a survey of 9512 ninth-grade students conducted in Lower Saxony in 2013, this paper examines the prevalence of cyberbullying perpetration and the correlates of this behavior. Binary logistic multilevel regression was used in order to analyze correlates of sexual and psychological cyberbully perpetration. In the preceding semester, 2.4% of the adolescents were perpetrators of psychological cyberbullying and 0.4% bullied someone online sexually. Low levels of empathy, frequent consumption of violent media, and being victims of aggressive online behaviors are correlated with the risk that a child will become a bully. Female adolescents are less likely than boys to engage in sexual cyberbullying perpetration, but they are more likely to engage in psychological cyberbullying perpetration. Only a small share of adolescents engage in sexual and psychological cyberbullying perpetration. Both behaviors differ in their correlates, however being a victim of aggressive online behaviors increase the risk for perpetration of both behaviors, respectively