The Role of Perceived Social Injustice and Care Received from the Environment in Predicting Cyberbullying and Cybervictimization

This paper examines the prediction of experiencing and committing cyberbullying on the basis of perception of injustice and care received from the environment. The study involved 481 (51.1% female and 48.9% male) seventh and eighth grade students from Croatian elementary schools. The average age of the respondents was 13.8 years. The questionnaires applied were General information questionnaire; Scale of exposure to peer bullying in virtual world; Scale of frequency of bullying in virtual world; The presence of caring- a protective factor for the individual and the Questionnaire on perception of social injustice. The respondents reported they were more often victims than perpetrators of cyberbullying, and that they perceived care of the adults, but also social injustice, as being in a relatively high level. When it comes to dimensions of social injustice, they perceive inequality before the law, not accepting social norms, and general injustice as being higher than injustice in school and family. The results have shown that students who perceive less care from the environment and greater general injustice are more often perpetrators of cyberbullying. Therefore, a greater perception of social injustice and lack of support from the environment were found to be statistically significant predictors for cyberbullying and cybervictimization.

"95.4% of students own a computer, and 86.7% of them has opened profiles on social networks. The results show that the respondents spend a lot of time on the Internet (M=2.290; SD=3.196), more with friends and acquaintances (M=4.021; SD=7.085), and less with strangers (M=0.494; SD=1.934). This data suggests that the respondents on average do not differ significantly when it comes to owning a computer, having profiles on social networks and time spent using Internet for communication purposes, from their peers in Croatia and other countries in the EU." Bilić, 2014, 108-109 "The largest number of the respondents had been exposed to violence on social networks (24.4%), 20.7% of them had experienced it once or twice during the school year and 3.8% has been experiencing it once or twice a week, which actually enters the zone of abuse based on criteria determined by Olweus. After social networks, the respondents had most often been exposed to violence on Web sites where unpleasant and untrue information or photos of them had been published, 17,2% had experienced that form of violence once or more times (13.3%), while some experience it very often (4%). The respondents have stated that they experience violence (threats, insults, false accusations) less over e-mail or SMS messages, with 17% of respondents being exposed to this kind of violence. The smallest number of the respondents has experienced violence through blogs, forums and chat, maybe because social networks have suppressed these forms of communication. As expected, according to the testimonies of the surveyed students, they admit being violent toward their peers in virtual world significantly less. However, most of them stated that they had exposed their peers to unpleasant situations on social networks (13.5%), and sent them messages via phone or e-mail (12.7%), and that they had posted unpleasant content and inappropriate photos on web sites (10%). The smallest number of them stated they had used a blog, forum or a chat to share untruths and therefore hurt some of their peers." Bilić, 2014, 110 "The results clearly show that all students mainly pointed out the inequality before the law that the law is not applied equally to all, and especially that the government does not punish those who robbed it and got rich unfairly during the war, transition and privatization, and that the society in general does not sanction crime, which suggests the law being ineffective." Bilić, 2014, 111 "The result that students who perceive higher general injustice in society are more often victims of cyberbullying, can be explained in two ways: their personal perception of social injustice, but also a possibility that their perception of general injustice is determined by the conditions they live in, and which can easily lead them to a position of victim." Bilić, 2014, 113