The “net” of the Internet: Risk Factors for Cyberbullying among Secondary-School Students in Greece
Keywords
Cyberbullying
Cybervictimisation
Longitudinal data
Risk factors
Secondary-school students
Publication details
| Year: | 2016 |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10610-016-9303-4 |
| Issued: | 2016 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 22 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Start Page: | 301 |
| End Page: | 317 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Athanasiades C.; Baldry A.C.; Kamariotis T.; Kostouli M.; Psalti A. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research |
| Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
| Topics: | Risks and harms; Online safety and policy regulation |
| Sample: | Four hundred and forty (440) secondary school students (53.9 % boys) participated in the study. They were between 12 and 14 years of age (M = 12.74, SD= .66) and attended the first (50.5 %) and second (49.5 %) grade of the Greek junior high school (which corresponds to the second and third grade of the U.S. middle school). |
| Implications For Parents About: | Parental practices / parental mediation; Parental digital literacy ; Parenting guidance / support |
| Implications For Educators About: | Professional development; School networking; STEM Education |
| Implications For Policy Makers About: | Creating a safe environment for children online |
Abstract
Cyberbullying is one of the most common threats an adolescent might face online with serious negative consequences at the social, emotional and educational level. Despite the intense study of the phenomenon over the past decade, most researchers ask for new directions in research that will focus on risk and protective factors. This study attempted to investigate the predictive effect of internet use, parental mediation, school-bullying and victimisation, gender and empathy on cyberbullying and cybervictimisation in two measurements, 4 months apart. Data collection was conducted using a self-report questionnaire. Four hundred and forty secondary school students, aged 12–14, participated in the study. The students were randomly selected from six public schools located in the Greater Metropolitan Area of Thessaloniki in Greece. Results showed that involvement in traditional bullying as a victim or as a perpetrator is the factor with the highest predictability for cyberbullying and cybervictimisation, which also remains stable across time. This finding points to the urgent need for designing and implementing programmes against all forms of bullying both offline and on line.
Outcome
"Results of this study indicated that a significant number of the participating students, ranging from 5 to 15 %, had been involved in cyberbullying incidents either as victims or as bullies" (Athanasiades et al. 2016: 311)
"At the beginning of the school year (T1), involvement in school victimisation and school bullying were the most important predictors of cybervictimisation and cyberbullying respectively" (Athanasiades et al. 2016: 311)
"Frequent internet use (mainly SNS use) was a risk factor for both cyberbullying and cybervictimisation" (Athanasiades et al. 2016: 312)
"Boys seem to run a higher risk than girls to bully others on line at the beginning of the school year. As for cybervictimisation, there were no differences between boys and girls as predicted (hypothesis 10a)" (Athanasiades et al. 2016: 312)
"Parental mediation predicted cybervictimisation in the second measurement, thus rejecting hypothesis 4b. This may show that students whose parents discuss online safety issues with them run the risk of becoming cybervictims as the school year progresses" (Athanasiades et al. 2016: 313)