Bystanders’ behaviours and associated factors in cyberbullying

Abstract

BackgroundCyberbullying is presently an alarming problem worldwide due to its impact on the emotions, behaviour and psychological well-being of not only the victims, but the bullies themselves and also bystanders.AimThis study aims to investigate bystanders’ behaviours in cyberbullying and associated factors.MethodsThis research is a cross-sectional study of 578 secondary school students in Bangkok, Thailand. Simple random sampling was used to select four secondary schools. Data were collected through online questionnaires which included four sections: (1) demographic data, (2) bystanders’ behaviour in cyberbullying (cyberbullying experience and attitude towards cyberbullying were included in this section), (3) parental attachment (Inventory of Parent Attachment-Revised), and (4) self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale-Revised).ResultsIt was found that most occurrences of bystanders’ behaviour were: (a) willing to intervene or help victims (34.6%), (b) ignoring the cyberbullying (28%) or (c) partaking in cyberbullying (26.3%). Participants who either were victims of cyberbullying or knew of cyberbullying happening to friends or relatives and had high parental attachment would intervene more than those who never had such experiences. Participants who knew of cyberbullying happening to the general public had tendencies towards ignoring the cyberbullying. Participants who indicated they were bullies and had positive attitude towards joining in tended to partake in the cyberbullying more than those who were not.ConclusionFactors relating to the behaviours of bystanders in cyberbullying should be further explored to provide support in the discouragement of ignoring and averting participation in cyberbullying. Secure parental attachment is one important factor that should be instilled during childhood years.

Cyberbullying Among School Adolescents in an Urban Setting of a Developing Country: Experience, Coping Strategies, and Mediating Effects of Different Support on Psychological Well-Being

“…It should be noted that the attitude against cyberbullying played an important role among adolescents in the "Intervene" group. This finding was consistent with previous studies on both cyberbullying and traditional bullying (Yang and Kim, 2017;Panumaporn et al, 2020). Therefore, campaigns to motivate adolescents to intervene in cyberbullying are critical to diminish this behavior and its impacts.…”

“…As expected, we found that the majority of observers were in the group "Intervene" who responded to the cyberbullying acts by reporting these behaviors or helping victims. This result was similar to the study in Thailand showing that most observers belonged to the "Intervene" group (Panumaporn et al, 2020). However, our study was different from study results in Belgium, where the authors show that most adolescents belonged to the "Ignore" group when observing cyberbullying behaviors (Van Cleemput et al, 2014).…”

“…Indeed, using the Cyberbullying Test, which was a valid scale to measure cyberbullying (Garaigordobil, 2017), was advantageous to our study compared with other prior research. This measure contains 15 cyberbullying behaviors, enabling us to capture more comprehensive aspects that participants might suffer or observe during the recall period than other previous studies (Hellfeldt et al, 2019;Livazović and Ham, 2019;Chi et al, 2020;Panumaporn et al, 2020).…”

“…Cyberbullying is also associated with the onset of substance use, traditional and cyberbullying perpetration, and delinquency (Mitchell et al, 2007;Wong et al, 2014;Chan and Wong, 2020;Estévez et al, 2020). These consequences have been observed in all perpetrators, victims, and observers of cyberbullying (Beckman et al, 2012;Wong et al, 2014;Panumaporn et al, 2020).…”

Ciberacoso entre observadores de un colegio de Colombia

“…Al mismo tiempo, a menudo no se perciben como participantes reales, aunque emprenden acciones que contribuyen al hostigamiento (Kraft, 2011). El factor clave es la percepción del anonimato en línea tanto del ciberagresor como de la cibervíctima y el observador (Panumaporn et al, 2020), ya que facilita la desindividuación y la disminución de la responsabilidad (Sarmiento et al, 2019). Esto lleva a la desinhibición en Internet, que consiste en la pérdida de autocontrol y la ausencia de restricciones en el comportamiento social, típico de la interacción directa (Song & Oh, 2018).…”