The Relationship Between Violent Media, Pornography, and Cyber Dating Abuse Among Adolescents

The current study examined the relationship between exposure to violent media and pornography, and the perpetration and experience of sexual cyber dating abuse among adolescents. The study also assessed the relationship between violence-tolerant attitudes with dating abuse outcomes, and examined the mediating role of attitudes in the relationship between violent media and pornography consumption and dating abuse perpetration and victimization. Participants were 113 adolescent boys and girls who reported currently being in a romantic relationship or having been in one during the past year. Participants completed an anonymous paper-pencil survey. Results highlighted pornography and gender as risk factors for the perpetration of sexual cyber dating abuse. Gender moderated the relationship between pornography and perpetration. Violence-tolerant attitudes predicted cyber dating abuse victimization. Contradictory findings were evident for violent media. Implications for school-based dating violence, parenting, and community-based interventions are discussed, as well as policy implications

The Gamer's Mindset: A Retrospective Study Exploring Young Adult Males' Online Gaming Experiences

This study investigated the in-depth experiences of young adult males describing their adolescent online gaming behaviours. Qualitative data was collected from three interviews and five focus groups, with a total of 19 participants ranging in age from 18 to 26. Braun and Clark’s (2006) thematic analysis was used to analyze the transcribed data. Six themes emerged: (1) Reasons for gaming; (2) Understanding gaming culture; (3) The role friendships play in online gaming; (4) The role trash-talking plays in online gaming; (5) Understanding cyberbullying in the context of gaming; and (6) Barriers to not reporting. Participants reported that the concept of gaming culture is too broad an area and that researchers should examine the sub-cultures of games (such as genres) to gain a better understanding of gaming culture. Participants also discussed how online gaming helped form and maintain friendships. Participants revealed that trash-talking, the use of name calling and disparaging, taunting and boastful comments, while perhaps appearing hostile to others, was considered banter and a way of joking around and connecting with friends. Trash-talking was mostly done with friends and rarely done with strangers. Participants regularly trash-talked in certain genres (i.e., first person shooters, sports games, or battle arenas) as well as in certain games (i.e., Call of Duty, Madden, or League of Legends). They considered trash-talking as being normal, and did not consider these behaviours to be cyberbullying. Participants believed that cyberbullying happens in gaming, but rarely. In the gaming community it may be that gamers have their own set of norms that distinguish their behaviour from the common understanding of cyberbullying. Future research should begin investigating specific sub-cultures of gaming as well as examining how cyberbullying does or does not occur in online gaming

Using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) to explore implicit versus self-report attitudes toward bullying with students at post-primary and university levels

The current research sought to develop the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a measure of bullying attitudes amongst Secondary School and University Students in South East Ireland. The research assessed whether IRAP performance differed between University and Secondary School Students; and investigated the impact of picture versus word stimuli on IRAP performance. It also examined whether an educational intervention video affected participant responding on implicit measures by presenting the IRAP at pre and post-intervention. Explicit measures were presented at pre-intervention only and compared across studies. Implicit measures were presented at pre and post-intervention and compared across groups, gender, and IRAP stimuli (words versus pictures). In Study 1, 30 University Students and 30 Secondary School Students were exposed to (i) a word-based IRAP designed to assess attitudes towards toxic (e.g. Just go die/Rot in hell) and innocuous phrases (Go on ya fool/Don’t be daft) pertaining to bullying; (ii) explicit measures including the Bullying Prevalence Questionnaire (BPQ), the Revised Pro-Victim Scale (RPV-S), the Bullying Attitudes Questionnaire Modified (BAQ-MM) and the Cyberbullying Survey (CS) and (iii) an educational intervention video about the negative and lasting effects of bullying. IRAP trial-type analysis for Study 1 revealed statistically significant effects on the Toxic- Abusive and Innocuous-Harmless trial-types. Results revealed no statistically significant differences between data for groups, gender, or between pre and post-intervention responses on the IRAP. Using Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient, statistically significant correlations were found between the Pro-Social subscale of the BPQ and Toxic-Harmless and Innocuous-Abusive IRAP trial types. In Study 2, 30 University Students were exposed to a picture-based IRAP with images pertaining to cyberbullying and the same intervention and explicit measures as in Study 1. Again, participants were exposed to the explicit measures at pre-intervention, and to the IRAP at pre and post-intervention. Trial-type analysis for Study 2 revealed statistically significant effects on the Toxic-Abusive and Innocuous-Harmless trialtypes. Results revealed no statistically significant differences between participants’ pre and post-intervention scores on the IRAP or explicit measures; and no correlations between implicit and explicit measures. Further analysis using a 2x2x4 mixed repeated measures ANOVA found no statistically significant differences between University Students’ responses on a word-based IRAP in Study 1 versus a picture-based IRAP in Study 2. Overall, participant responding on the IRAP showed a statistically significant effect for the Toxic- Abusive and Innocuous-Harmless trial-types. Findings are discussed with reference to the research literature

Exploring cyberbullying in Saskatchewan

Cyberbullying is a problem that has emerged as a byproduct of modern day technologies. This novel form of peer aggression occurs when one or more individuals use a technological medium for the purposes of threatening or harming others. Given that cyberbullying is a relatively new problem in Canada, research remains in its preliminary stages. Previous studies conducted in large urban centers in Alberta and Quebec have suggested that cyberbullying frequently occurs among middle years students. However, the characteristics of cyberbullying among rural students and students from other Canadian provinces are yet to be determined. For these reasons, the purpose of this study was to explore cyberbullying amongst students from rural and urban schools in Saskatchewan. More specifically, this study investigated the following questions:1.To what extent did youth experience cyberbullying? 2.What were the characteristics of cyberbullying?3.How did students respond to cyberbullying? 4.To what extent did parents and teachers become involved with cyberbullying incidents? Furthermore, how did students think these adults should have responded?To answer these questions, 396 students from a large public school division in central Saskatchewan completed an anonymous paper pencil questionnaire. Among the grades 7 to 9 students sampled, 34.6% admitted they cyber-bullied others and 49.5% said they were victims of cyberbullying. Further, the majority (69.4%) of the students reported that they knew someone who had been cyber-bullied. No significant differences were found between urban and rural students’ experiences with cyberbullying. However, significant gender differences were found as well as significant correlations between cyberbullying involvement and student grade level, frequency of computer use, school size, and school type. Unfortunately, the majority of cyber-bully victims and bystanders chose not to report the incident to adults. Victims of cyberbullying reported a variety of negative outcomes, especially anger and sadness. Students offered many suggestions for the prevention and intervention of cyberbullying. In particular, students thought teachers should educate their class about cyberbullying and parents should talk to their children about the issue

The Impact of Ostracism on Stigma Consciousness and Rejection Sensitivity

Previous research indicates that ostracism is a pervasive social phenomenon that affects four fundamental psychological needs (Zadro, Williams, & Richardson, 2004). The current study seeks to examine whether or not females experience heightened levels of stigma consciousness or gender-based rejection sensitivity through exposure to ostracism via Cyberball from outgroup members (e.g., males). Stigma consciousness was measured through the Stigma Consciousness Questionnaire (SCQ; Pinel, 1999), while rejection sensitivity was measured through the Gender-Based Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (London, Downey, Romero-Canyas, Rattan, & Tyson, 2012). Fifty-four female participants composed the final sample. Results indicate that previous research was replicated, in that significantly lower levels of the four needs were reported. Changes in stigma consciousness levels from pre- to post-test did occur, but were marginal. No significant results were found with regards to gender-based rejection sensitivity. Limitations and directions for future research will be discussed

Celebrity abuse on Twitter: the impact of tweet valence, volume of abuse, and dark triad personality factors on victim blaming and perceptions of severity

Celebrities are increasingly utilizing social media platforms to establish their brand and interact with their fan base, but in doing so they often become the targets of online abuse. While such abusive acts are known to cause severe consequences in the general population little is known about how celebrity abuse is perceived by observers. This study investigated observers' impressions of the severity of online abuse on Twitter, the blame attributed to celebrities for the abuse they received, and the role of the dark triad of observers' personality factors (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) in these decisions. We manipulated celebrity tweet content (negative, neutral, positive) and the volume of abusive comments (high, low) the tweets received. Celebrities received more blame the more negative their initial tweet was, and incidents were perceived as least severe following a negative tweet with a high volume of abuse. Observer impressions were influenced by their dark triad personality factors. Following negative tweets, as observer narcissism increased, victim blame increased and perceived severity decreased. Following positive tweets, as observer psychopathy increased, perceived severity decreased. Results are discussed in the context of the Warranting Theory of online impression formation and the ramifications for celebrity social media use are explored

Bystander helping in response to a staged incident of cyberaggression

2012 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.The recent emergence of cyberbullying as a serious problem stands as a reminder that basic principles of social psychology should be retested and re-evaluated in emergent contexts to demonstrate their enduring value. This study sought to test the applicability of Darley & Latane's (1968) Bystander Effect in a chat-room environment. Participants were admitted to a chat-room ostensibly for a series of informal debates which a researcher would record and analyze later as part of an observational study in online communication patterns. Chats included one participant and either 2 (control condition) or 4 (bystander condition) non-participant characters (NPCs) whom the participant was led to believe were other participants. The researcher assigned two of the NPCs to debate informally and then left. In both conditions, the two NPCs engaged in discussion, until one began bullying the other by persistently attacking him with insults, even after the victim voiced distress and asked the attacker to stop. In the bystander condition, the two additional NPCs remained logged in throughout the bullying episode, but took no action to support or discourage the bullying. Participants, free to comment or contact the researcher, demonstrated a clear inclination towards altruism, but the bystander effect was still evident. Participants in the bystander condition were significantly less likely to intervene by attempting to defuse the conflict in the chat, defending the victim, attacking the bully, or contacting the researcher about the problem, OR = 0.39, p = .03, 95% CI [0.17, 0.90], n = 111. Participant suspicion and methodological constraints limit the conclusions that can be drawn from this study, but it supports speculation that the bystander effect may be present but less inhibitory in an online environment

The Investigation of Helping Behavior in the Virtual World

In the recent wake of media reports of peer victimization and its deleterious effects, this study sought to create a personality profile of the individual who is able to resist social, personal and group pressures in order to help a victim of bullying behavior. This research is based on findings from a study by Dr. Elizabeth Midlarsky on rescuers and bystanders during the Holocaust (Midlarsky, Fagin-Jones and Nemeroff, 2006). The present study examined the differences in personality variables of individuals who were either rescuers or bystanders in a peer bullying situation that occurred in the virtual medium of Second Life. Additionally, due to the novel nature of this experimental medium, this study also examined the utility of Second Life as a mechanism for creating realistic psychological experiences. Independent variables included the following personality variables: locus of control, social responsibility, altruism, morality, autonomy, tolerance, risk taking, and empathy, and the participant's experience in the virtual medium was assessed by: realism of the scenario, realism of the world and immersion. The dependent variable was whether or not the participant intervened in the animated scenario by helping the victim. This study featured a unique experimental design that utilized a virtual experimental space to examine a psychological question. After completing pre-test test measures of personality factors, participants were given a cover story that asked them to explore a virtual university campus. Immediately following the participant's response, post-test questions assessed knowledge of the bystander effect, peer victimization experiences, and the experience of the participant in the virtual world. Debriefing sessions also ascertained personal reactions of each participant. Findings indicated that people reporting more immersion in the Second Life scenarios were more likely to intervene on behalf of the bullied person. In accordance with Midlarsky, Fagin-Jones and Nemeroff (2006), the rescuers in this study exhibited higher levels of empathy when compared to bystanders. However, no significant differences were found for other personality correlates of altruism. Instead, relationships were found among participants who intervened in the animated scenario and those who reported finding the virtual scenario a realistic representation of a peer victimization incident. Several important differences between the Midlarsky, Fagin-Jones and Nemeroff (2006) studies and this study account for the differential results. Most notable is that this study is a one-time reaction to an event in a virtual world which presented only a possible emotional risk to the rescuers and victims. On the other hand, Holocaust rescuers typically risked their lives continually, over an extended time period. While the personality profiles of the bystanders and rescuers in a realistic, traumatizing incident was not ascertained, the significant effect of empathy accords with the existing body of altruism research

The development of the Cognitive and Affective Empathy Scale for younger Children CAES-C, and its adapted version for Adolescents (CAES-C/A); and an evaluation of the Support Group Method and Circle Time

This thesis argued that empathy is a two-dimensional dispositional trait, dependent upon aspects of an individual’s socialisation and dispositional temperament; and as a pro-social emotion influenced by the nature and closeness of an individual’s relationship towards a specific peer. It focussed upon peer relationships across everyday interactions and bullying behaviours were assessed by the Participant Role Scale. Five studies were conducted. Study 1 investigated the development and the reliability of the Cognitive and Affective Empathy Scale for Younger Children (CAES-C) using test-retest methodology. There were two main factor loadings of empathy; one (affective) and two (cognitive). Girls scored higher levels of empathy than boys and were more cognitively empathetic to same gender peers. Study 2 measured bullies, bully-victims and non-bullying roles (victims, outsiders and defenders) empathy levels. It found that defenders had higher cognitive empathy levels than victim-bullies and combined bullying roles. Study 3 used an adaptation of the CAES-C with adolescents (CAES-C/A). Findings corresponded to Study One, with two main factors of affective and cognitive empathy. Studies 4 and 5 investigated the effectiveness of two anti-bullying interventions, an adaptation of the Support Group Method, and Circle Time, using the CAES-C/A as an outcome measure. It found girls had higher cognitive empathy towards same gender peers, as in Study 1 and more likely to have a greater understanding of another girls social and situational perceptions. Both interventions were effective in enhancing cognitive and developing affective empathy. However, results indicated especially in younger ages and for opposite gender peers that affective empathy was predominately a dispositional trait, dependent upon the emotionality and temperament of a specific individual; and cognitive empathy was a more fluid construct which had a greater chance of being heightened. In conclusion the CAES-C and CAES-C/A allowed a useful baseline measure of empathy

Understanding bullying in three inclusive secondary schools in Johannesburg : a wellness perspective

This research is about bullying in schools. The aim of the study was to investigate how the problem of bullying is understood in schools, its causes, types, effects, general patterns and strategies to curb this bullying problem in schools derived from the bioecological theory, through interviewing teachers, learners and principals at secondary school level. Qualitative approach and a case study were used. This qualitative research was conducted at three inclusive secondary schools in Johannesburg North District in Gauteng province in South Africa through engaging eighteen learners in Grade Eleven and Twelve in focus groups. One focus group composed of six learners was conducted at each of three participating schools. Nine teachers, three from each of the three participating schools were involved in semi- structured interviews to solicit data on how they understand bullying, its causes, types, effects, general patterns and ways of addressing bullying in schools. Three principals, one from each of the selected schools also participated in this study. All the participants participated in this research through invitation to voluntary participation after being made aware of the purposes of the study by the researcher. Thus, a purposive sample of three principals, nine teachers and eighteen learners was used by the researcher. Semi- structured interviews and focus group interviews were used as research instruments in this study. Teachers and principals were engaged in semi- structured interviews and learners were involved in focus group interviews. The bio- ecological theory and the wellness theory were used as theoretical frameworks in this research to understand bullying, its causes, types, effects and general patterns, so as to come up with strategies to address bullying that target the learners’ social contexts rather than the learners themselves as is with the case with the psychological model. Before conducting this research, the researcher obtained ethics clearance from the University of South Africa’s ethics committee, clearance was also obtained from Gauteng Department of, clearance from Johannesburg North District as well as acceptance letters from participating inclusive secondary schools. The researcher also obtained assent from the eighteen Grade eleven and twelve learners who participated in this study. Assent was also obtained from parents of learners who participated in this research. Consent was also obtained from the nine teachers and three principals who participated in this research. After conducting focus group discussions and semi- structured interviews with teachers and principals, the researcher transcribed data verbatim for the purposes of analysing it. After transcribing data, it was colour coded, then categorised and categories were further fused into themes which were discussed in chapter five in relation to literature reviewed in chapter two. Some interesting findings were discovered in this research. Lack of resources, violence and violent video games were found to be causes of bullying in schools. ‘Gangsterism’ and peer influence were said to be general patterns of bullying in schools. Low academic performance and absenteeism were said to be effects of bullying in schools. Physical bullying, verbal bullying, emotional bullying, social bullying, sexual bullying, teacher- learner bullying, learner to learner bullying, gender based bullying and cyber bullying were said to be some types of bullying prevalent in schools. Working with various stakeholders in education such as organisations like Love Life, S.E.N.C.A, South African Police Services and Community Based Youth Centres as well as other professionals like social workers, psychologists and specialist teachers was found to be helpful address bullying in schools. Findings also indicated that involving parents and community leaders in school activities assist to address bullying in schools. Installing cameras and suggestion boxes, reporting all forms of bullying installing cameras, bullying awareness campaigns, training staff and having bullying lessons in the school timetable were mentioned effective methods of eradicating all forms of bullying in all schools. However, the study recommends that, teachers and principals be staff developed on issues related to how bullying is understood in schools in relation to its causes, types, effects, general patterns and strategies to stop it in school.Inclusive EducationM. Ed. (Inclusive education