Bully versus victim on the internet: The correlation with emotional-social characteristics

Cyberbullying is a repeated violent behavior aimed at hurting another person directed by an individual or a group towards the victim using technological means such as a computer or a mobile phone (Kowalski, Morgan, and Limber, 2012). The current study examined the phenomenon of cyberbullying among children and youth in Israel. The purpose of was to examine the correlation between bully and victim, and emotional-social aspects—social support, sense of loneliness and sense of self-efficacy— that constitute risk factors and protective factors. The study involved 1,094 elementary, middle school and high school students, who completed four questionnaires that addressed cyber-bullying and the social and emotional aspects: Social support, loneliness, self-efficacy and personal well-being. It was found that the less social support the students have, the lower their sense of self-efficacy; the lonelier they feel and the more they experience a lower sense of well-being, the greater the likelihood that they will participate in cyberbullying, mainly by sending offensive pictures or videos.

In the current study (Eden, Heiman & Olenik-Shemesh, 2014) it was found a link between loneliness, sparse social support and cyberbullying. Moreover, the current findings present emotional-social characteristics between the perpetrator and the cyber-victim. Thus, a negative correlation was found between the victims and cyberbullying , and between social support, self-efficacy and well-being. Those who suffer from cyberbullying sense less social support, selfefficacy and lower well-being than those who are not affected, and vice versa. It also found a positive connection between cyberbullying and a sense of loneliness. Students who suffered from cyberbullying feel lonelier than those who do not. A negative correlation was found between cyberbullying by means of pictures / videos, and social support and self-efficacy. Connections were found between the emotional-social variables of the students, and participation / the frequency of online harassment. The lower the student’s social support, the lower the level of self-efficacy; the lonelier they feel, and experience a lower sense of well-being – the more they tend to participate in cyberbullying; that is to say, to be more violent and bullying on the network. The lower the student’s sense of social support, the more likely they are to be violent on the network, by sending hurtful pictures or videos via cell phone. correlations were found between emotional-social variables and participation in F2F bullying, which is more characteristic of students with low social support, a high level of loneliness, with low self-efficacy and a relatively low sense of well-being.