Adolescent cybervictimization – Who they turn to and their perceived school climate

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand how adolescent cybervictims perceive their school climate and whether telling school community members, such as teachers, play a significant role in these perceptions. Another objective was to understand whether age and gender played a significant role in the relation between whom cybervictims told and their perceived school climate. The Cybervictims Scale for Adolescents and Children and the Perceived School Climate Scale were applied to 3525 Portuguese students of whom 218 were cybervictims attending 6th, 8th, and 11th grades. Results showed that even though adolescent cybervictims reported cybervictimization more to friends and parents, those who told teachers about their experience, tended to report more positive perceptions of their school climate. Gender and age did not play a significant role in the relationship between cybervictimization and perceived school climate. Implications of the findings are discussed with regards to the role of teachers and in‐service training in preventing cyberbullying.

The Influence of School Climate and Empathy on Cyberbystanders’ Intention to Assist or Defend in Cyberbullying

“…Studies on these factors are required to foster environments in schools that contribute to an increase in bystander behavior supporting the victims and discouraging the perpetrators of c y b e r b u l l y i n g . A l t h o u g h r e s e a r c h f o c u s i n g o n cyberbystanding behavior is still limited, according to result from traditional bullying and bullying bystander research, one can assume that an interplay of personal and environmental factors is relevant for bullying and bystanding behaviors and that-on the person level-especially skills are relevant that are necessary for the understanding of and interaction in social situations, such as perspective taking and empathy (e.g., Ettekal et al 2015;Gini et al 2007), "self-oriented personal competencies" (Zych et al 2019a, p. 4), or affect-and empathy-related variables (e.g., Trach and Hymel 2019).…”

Família e escola: Perspetivas sobre a utilização de meios tecnológicos e segurança

“…Os resultados obtidos acerca dos meios pelos quais os estudantes utilizam a Internet são semelhantes ao estudo de Sozio et al (2015) Destacamos neste sentido, a relevância da monitorização por parte da família e da escola, como ainda sobre a importância da existência de regras acerca da utilização dos meios tecnológicos, de um modo geral, uma vez que os estudantes não estão isentos dos possíveis riscos como o comportamento aditivo em relação à Internet (Park et al, 2008), como ainda de outros tipos de situações que podem provocar diversos danos à saúde e ao desenvolvimento biopsicossocial dos adolescentes, como por exemplo o envolvimento em situações de cyberbullying (Veiga Simão et al, 2017).…”

“…Em contrapartida, outras investigações revelam que a forma como os adolescentes utilizam a Internet e que os recursos tecnológicos acabam por apresentar consequências negativas ao longo do desenvolvimento dos mesmos (e.g., Wright, 2017). Em termos de riscos, importa destacar os comportamentos aditivos em relação ao uso da Internet (Park, Kim, & Cho, 2008) e ainda o envolvimento em situações de cyberbullying (Veiga Simão et al, 2017). Numa investigação conduzida por Navarro, Serna, Martínez e Ruiz-Oliva (2013), os resultados indicam que o uso da Internet, especificamente a comunicação online, aumenta a probabilidade de vitimização do cyberbullying.…”

“…Relativamente ao cyberbullying, um estudo recente de Veiga Simão et al (2017) revelou que 15% dos estudantes foram vítimas de cyberbullying. Estes resultados devem ter em consideração a tendência dos implicados no fenómeno tenderem a subestimar o seu envolvimento no mesmo (Francisco, Veiga Simão, Ferreira, & Martins, 2015).…”

The Effectiveness of Safe Surfing Intervention Program in Reducing WhatsApp Cyberbullying and Improving Classroom Climate and Student Sense of Class Belonging in Elementary School

“…Cyberbullying has been negatively associated with classroom climate (Aizenkot & Kashy-Rosenbaum, 2018; Veiga Simão et al, 2017) and student sense of class belonging (Ferrer-Cascales et al, 2019). Moreover, scarce recent studies have shown that anti-cyberbullying intervention programs have improved classroom climate (Aizenkot & Kashy-Rosenbaum, 2018; Ferrer-Cascales et al, 2019) and student sense of belonging (Ferrer-Cascales et al, 2019) in addition to reducing cyberbullying.…”