Cyberbullying Victimization in Adolescents as Related to Body Esteem, Social Support, and Social Self-Efficacy

The authors examined cyberbullying victimization in the context of issues of key importance to youth: body esteem, social support, and social self-efficacy. Research has found that traditional peer-bullying victimization is significantly correlated with low body esteem in Western societies, especially pertaining to weight (R. Puhl & J. Luedicke, 2012). Studies have also found a relationship among bullying victimization, appearance-related bullying, low body esteem, and psychosocial difficulties among youth (L. E. Park, R. M. Calogero, A.F. Young, & A. Diraddo, 2010). However, the emergence of cyberbullying, characterized by its own special features (P. K. Smith et al., 2008), has raised a salient need to explore the relationship between cyber victimization and body esteem, no less important with social framework, because both are key components in adolescents' lives that may be associated with cyberbullying victimization. The authors examined these relationships among 204 Israeli adolescents 14–16 years old. The results indicate a noteworthy prevalence (45%) of cyber victims. Cyber victimization is significantly correlated with low body esteem and low social support and social self-efficacy. Low body esteem and low social support predicted the probability of being a cyber victim. The results extend the knowledge about potential personal and social risk factors for cyber victimization during adolescence. Implications for specific intervention programs are discussed.

The findings of this study (Shemesh & Heiman, 2016) revealed significant rates of cyber victimization: 45% of the participants reported being cyber victims. they found a highly significant correlation between traditional and cyber victimization. The results show negative correlations between cyber victimization and body esteem, social support, and social self-efficacy. More specifically, cyber victimization was correlated significantly negatively with body esteem, in general and with two subscales: the general evaluation of body image and the subscale of weight. In addition, cyber victimization was correlated with low social support (total and family and friends support) and low social self-efficacy. Low levels of body esteem and low levels of social support predicted the probability of being a cyber victim, whereas social self-efficacy and gender did not predict the dependent variable