Differences between peer victimization in cyber and physical settings and associated psychosocial adjustment in early adolescence

Abstract

The increasing use of cyberspace as a social networking forum creates a new medium for youth to become victims of peer aggression. This study used factor analysis techniques to conÞrm whether survey questions about frequency of cyber victimization formed a distinct latent construct from questions about relational and overt victimization information in a large (N = 1, 665) sample of middle school students. A secondary goal was to relate experiences of cyber victimization to symptoms of depression and social anxiety. Results indicate that cyber victimization is separate latent factor from overt and relational victimization. Experiences of cyber victimization were weakly associated with symptoms of social anxiety, but not depression. These results signify that cyber victimization deserves future empirical and clinical attention. C 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Social Networking and the Social and Emotional Wellbeing of Adolescents in Australia

“…While the majority of young people report feeling safe online, social networking sites, such as Facebook provide an easy opportunity for young people to harass, criticize, and exclude each other with a peer audience (Barnett, 2009;Dempsey, Sulkowski, Nichols, & Storch, 2009;Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008;Willard, 2007). These researchers outlined some dangers that online bullying can have beyond physical bullying.…”

“…These researchers outlined some dangers that online bullying can have beyond physical bullying. For example, online bullying is more invasive than face-to-face bullying, taking place anywhere at anytime, without allowing the target person to remove him or herself from the situation, and the predator may have access to a greater number of individuals (Dempsey et al, 2009). …”

Measures of aggression and victimization in portuguese adolescents: Cross-cultural validation of the Revised Peer Experience Questionnaire.

“…Though the investigation of the psychometric properties of the RPEQ having been limited to this small and age-restricted sample, it has been vastly applied and has served as a solid foundation to the study of aggression and victimization, along with prosocial behavior. Namely, the RPEQ has been used with participants ranging from 11 years and attending the 6 th grade (e.g., Dempsey, Sulkowski, Nicholos, & Storch, 2009) to participants attending the 12 th grade (e.g., Prinstein et al, 2001), and for comparisons between boys and girls (e.g., Prinstein, et al, 2001), even if the adequacy of its measurement model has not been validated to such a wide age-range, nor have gender invariance analysis been conducted.…”

„Cyberbullying“ unter Jugendlichen

“…des Bullying und der Persönlichkeiten zu erfassen, andererseits Strukturen im Netzwerk sowie Folgeerscheinungen des Bullying und des Cyberbullying darzustellen. Wegen der Komplexität und Dynamik des Problems und der zumindest zweiseitigen Pathologie sind nur Instrumente, die beide Seiten erfassen, empfehlenswert ("cyber aggression" und "cyber victimization", [22]). …”