Adolescent involvement in face-to-face and cyber victimization: can personal well-being mediate social-emotional behavior?

loneliness, self-efficacy, and subjective well-being as related to students’ experiences as victims of cyber and face-to-face bullying. Participants included 902 students from 18 different Israeli schools, aged 10–18 who completed self-report questionnaires. Results revealed that social loneliness fully affects the experience of cyberbullying through the mediation of well-being. Greater social loneliness decreases the perception of well-being and therefore the probability of cyber victimization increases. Furthermore, social efficacy increases personal wellbeing, which decreases the likelihood of experiencing cyberbullying. In addition, students experiencing social and emotional loneliness were more likely to be victims of cyber- and face-to-face bullying than students who were not lonely. Age was found to be an overall indicator for the probability of exposure to bullying and being a victim. The current findings suggested that boys who are more socially effective perceive their well-being higher than girls, and these higher perceptions lead them to a higher immunity to, or a lower experience of cyber bullying. This indirect effect is fully operated through the mediators. Boys experience greater social and emotional loneliness than girls, but perceive their well-being more highly than girls. Boys also experience more face-to-face victimization, but not more cybervictimization compared to girls.

Heiman, shemesh and Liberman (2017) found that examination of students’ involvement in bullying indicates that 27% of school students were involved in cyberbullying, whereas 46% of the sample experienced face-to-face bullying. the study results indicated that the two scales of cyber bullying and face-to-face bullying are significantly and positively inter-correlated. Results revealed that adolescents experiencing social and emotional loneliness were more likely to be cyber and face-to-face victims, than adolescents who were not lonely. Social loneliness fully affects the cyber-victimization experience through the mediation of perceived SWB. Therefore, it appears that an increase in social loneliness decreases the perception of well-being, and increases the probability of cyber-victimization. Furthermore, social self-efficacy increases perceived SWB, which decreases the likelihood of experiencing cyber-victimization. Age was found to be an overall indicator of exposure to bullying and being a victim. The older participants reported lower emotional loneliness and lower perceived well-being. As for boys, they experienced higher social and emotional loneliness compared to girls, and perceived their SWB higher than girls. Boys also experienced more face-to-face victimization, but not more cyber-victimization compared to girls. the findings suggest that boys who are more socially effective perceive their SWB higher than girls, and that these higher perceptions lead them to a higher immunity to, or lower experience of cyberbullying. Findings also show that perceived well-being mediated for cyber-victimization but not for face-to- face bullying. Face-to-face victimization is directly associated with age (younger children), gender (boys) and social and emotional loneliness. The present study model also shows that both genders were experiencing cyber-victimization. The results highlight the importance of positively perceived well-being among adolescents, in order to decrease their cyber vulnerability; it appears that strong and positive social mutual interaction with peers might serve as a protective factor for cyber-victimization