Cybervictimization among preadolescents in a community-based sample in Canada: Prevalence and predictors

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To examine the prevalence and predictors associated with cybervictimization among preadolescents in a community-based sample from Canada.METHODS: Data were drawn from a cohort of 5783 students of grades 5-8, aged 9-14 from 109 elementary schools at the Saskatoon Health Region, Saskatchewan of Canada based on the Student Health Survey in the year of 2010-2011. Multivariate logistic regression with the generalized estimating equation was used to determine the individual and contextual factors associated with self-reported cybervictimization. RESULTS:Of the 5783 school children, 5611 (97.0%) responded to the question regarding cybervictimization. Among those respondents, 572 (10.2%) reported being cyberbullied at least once in the past four weeks. The students most likely to be victimized by cyberbullying were girls, students in grades 7 and 8 compared with grade 5, Aboriginal students compared to non-Aboriginal students, those who had lived part of their life outside of Canada compared with those who lived all of their life in Canada, those who reported drinking alcohol in the past, those who reported very elevated depressive symptoms, those who were traditionally bullied, those who had low self-esteem, and those who had a poor relationship with their parents. School-level variation in cyberbullying victimization is negligible. School neighbour-level deprivation is not significant after adjusting for individual-level characteristics and parent-child relationship.CONCLUSION: Our findings identified important characteristics of preadolescents with higher susceptibility to cybervictimization in a Canadian setting, which can be used to develop intervention strategies for mitigating cybervictimization among the study population.KEY WORDS: Cyberbullying victimization; ecological systems theory; psychological factors; traditional bullying La traduction du résumé se trouve à la fin de l'article.Can J Public Health 2017;108(5-6):e475-e481 doi: 10.17269/CJPH.108.5878C yberbullying is a new recent form of bullying or harassment using electronic means to aggressively and intentionally harm someone repeatedly and over time, where a power imbalance exists between cyberbullies and the victims.1,2 With computers and mobile phones now a part of everyday life for youths, there are a multitude of ways for students to engage in cyberbullying, including the use of email, blogs, websites, chat rooms, mobile phones, instant messaging, webpages, text messages, and online games. Through these media, harmful messages can reach large audiences in a short span of time.Youths who are cyberbullied are more likely to experience psychiatric problems, substance use, offline victimization, delinquency and aggression. 3,4 In Canada, cyberbullying recently became a priority on the policy agenda following the suicides of two teenagers. 5 These highly publicized cases of cyberbullying have attracted extensive media attention both nationally and globally. Given these serious consequences for cybervictimization of youths, understand...

Influence of Family Variables on Cyberbullying Perpetration and Victimization: A Systematic Literature Review

“…The results of the analyzed studies on abuse, neglect, rejection, poor relationships, and family dysfunctions (Bjereld et al 2017;Chen et al 2018;Hong et al 2018;Mobin et al 2017;Stavrinides et al 2018) achieved a significant level of agreement in their positive relationship with the involvement in cybervictimization. The findings of these studies on poor parent-child relationships are similar to previous outcomes (e.g., Gomes-Franco-Silva and Sendín-Gutiérrez 2014; Lereya et al 2013).…”

“…Finally, Bjereld et al (2017) concluded that cyberbullied children had poorer relationships with their parents. Similarly, the findings of Mobin et al (2017) suggested that children who had a poor relationship with their parents were more likely to be cybervictims.…”

“…al. 2017;Boniel-Nissim and Sasson 2018;Charalampous et al 2018;Chen et al 2018;Doty et al 2017;Giménez et al 2017;Gómez et al 2017;Govender and Young 2018;Ho et al 2017;Hong et al 2018;Hood and Duffy 2018;Larrañaga et al 2016;Lee and Shin 2017;Mobin et al 2017;Sasson and Mesch 2017;Stavrinides et al 2018;Vale et al 2018;Vazsonyi et al 2017;Wright 2017;Zurcher et al 2018). However, there were 6 more studies (17%) which took into account dynamic variables(Bevilacqua et al 2017;Beyazit et al 2017;Buelga et al 2017;Garaigordobil and Machimbarrena 2017;Le et al 2017;Shams et al 2017).…”

Prevalence and psychosocial predictors of cyberaggression and cybervictimization in adolescents: A Spain-Ecuador transcultural study on cyberbullying

“…Self-esteem is a feeling towards oneself depending on its characteristics and can be positive or negative [38]. In the last years, the number of studies based on the relation between cybervictimization and self-esteem in adolescents has increased [39][40][41][42]. Additionally, it has been observed that cybervictimization has a negative connection with self-esteem [39,40,43].…”

“…In the last years, the number of studies based on the relation between cybervictimization and self-esteem in adolescents has increased [39][40][41][42]. Additionally, it has been observed that cybervictimization has a negative connection with self-esteem [39,40,43]. Cybervictims show lower levels of self-esteem, sense of belonging to school and commitment with it [42], fact that is more accentuated in girls than in boys [17].…”