Childhood emotional trauma and cyberbullying perpetration among emerging adults: a multiple mediation model of the role of problematic social media use and psychopathology

Research suggests that a small minority of social media users experience problems as a result of their online use. The purpose of the present study was to examine the association of cyberbullying perpetration and problematic social media use with childhood emotional trauma, Cluster B (narcissistic, histrionic, antisocial, and borderline) personality traits, dissociative experiences (DEs), depression, and self-esteem in a nonclinical undergraduate sample. A total of 344 university students volunteered to complete a questionnaire that included measures on the aforementioned dimensions. Thirty-eight percent of the participants had emotional neglect and 27% had emotional abuse, while 44% of them demonstrated at least one cyberbullying perpetration behavior. Results indicated that cyberbullying perpetrators had higher scores on problematic social media use, dissociative experiences, Cluster B traits, depression and childhood emotional trauma, and lower on self-esteem. Path analysis demonstrated that, while adjusting for gender and age, childhood emotional trauma was directly and indirectly associated with cyberbullying perpetration via Cluster B traits. Moreover, depression and dissociation were directly associated with problematic social media use. The findings of this study emphasize the important direct role of childhood emotional trauma and pathological personality traits on cyberbullying perpetration

Sticks and Stones? Recognising and Optimally Responding to ‘eRage: A Growing Educational Challenge

Demand for online education, which provides students with the ability to study around their work and family commitments, has increased considerably in recent years and is expected to grow further. However, there are key differences between online and on-campus education that give rise to unique and complex challenges for online educators. One potential challenge is apparent greater volatility of online students that can see online educators experience greater levels of instructional dissent. We have termed this phenomenon ‘eRage’—students communicating electronically with staff in a rude, antisocial manner to express disagreement or contradictory opinions regarding classroom issues. This chapter will examine the challenges of online education that could contribute to eRage; briefly examine the literature pertaining to instructional dissent and provide recommendations for online educators to manage this somewhat overlooked and clandestine issue moving forward

I Do It Because I Feel that…Moral Disengagement and Emotions in Cyberbullying and Cybervictimisation

Few studies have jointly explored the role of factors such as the use of social media, the personality characteristics of young people, the use of thinking mechanisms aimed at moral disengagement, and the emotions experienced in relation to cyberbullying and cybervictimisation behaviour. The analysis presented here, carried out through a questionnaire distributed online and filled in by 655 Italian high school students, allowed to highlight the relationships between these variables. In particular, it emerged that the phenomena of cyberbullying and cybervictimisation are related to the time spent online and to the mechanisms of moral disengagement, which in turn are related to the personality trait of agreeableness. Emotions experienced are most clearly positive in cases of cyberbullying and negative for the victims. This correspondence, however, is reversed in bullies who resort more to thoughts aimed at moral disengagement and feel more negative emotions. The same reversal seems to occur in the victims who, in correspondence with an increased use of the mechanisms of moral disengagement, report to feel more positive emotions