Social Media Use and Cyber-Bullying: A Cross-National Analysis of Young People in 42 Countries

Craig, Wendy; Boniel-Nissim, Meyran; King, Nathan; Walsh, Sophie D.; Boer, Maartje; Donnelly, Peter; Harel-Fisch, Yossi; Malinowska-Cieślik, Marta; Matos, Margarida Gaspar de; Cosma, Alina; Eijnden, R.J.J.M. van den; Vieno, Alessio; Elgar, Frank J.; Molcho, Michal; Bjereld, Ylva; Pickett, William

doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.03.006

Cited by 218 publications

(162 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Adolescents in Bissau who had experience of using social media were more than twice as likely to have participated in a group that teased others. Social media and other online platforms provide easier access to others, and over time bullying can become normalised and even rewarded with increased social status [79]. Furthermore, the veil of anonymity that the internet and social media can provide can also lead to more bullying, because the lack of face-to-face encounters prevents many of the negative consequences of bullying from occurring.…”

Section: Consequences Of Technology Usagementioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Digital Technology among Adolescents Attending Schools in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

Gunnlaugsson

Whitehead

Baboudóttir

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Digital technology plays an important role in achieving many of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, access is uneven, with 80% of those in high-income countries being online compared to 20% of those in the 47 least developed countries. This study aimed to describe and analyse adolescents’ access to and usage of digital technology in Guinea-Bissau and its implications. In June 2017, a survey with a locally adapted Planet Youth questionnaire was implemented in the capital, Bissau, whereby classes in 16 secondary schools were surveyed on a variety of issues. In total, 2039 randomly selected students participated; the survey included ten questions specifically on the access to and use of digital technology. Half of the respondents had access to desktop/laptops, and one-third used mobile internet daily; about two-thirds had an experience of social media. Explanatory variables included educational institution, parental education, economic situation, and gender. Furthermore, students’ experience of social media was significantly linked to bullying, anxiety, depression, smoking and alcohol consumption. Many adolescents in Bissau have no experience of using digital technology, including for schoolwork. Access improvements are necessary so that young Bissau-Guineans are not to be left behind in developing their capabilities and can benefit from proficiency in the use of digital technologies. At the same time, potential harmful usage of the media requires the implementation of preventive measures.

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Section: Consequences Of Technology Usagementioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Digital Technology among Adolescents Attending Schools in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

Gunnlaugsson

Whitehead

Baboudóttir

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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“…In general, there appear to be negative relationships between ICT (information and communications technology) use and measures of well-being, but often of small effect size [ 13 ]. However, such correlations appear consistent and rather more substantial when measures of very high level or excessive internet use are assessed [ 14 , 15 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Information Technology Use and Cyberbullying Behavior in South Thailand: A Test of the Goldilocks Hypothesis

Sittichai

Smith

2020

IJERPH

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There has been concern about the effects of high levels of internet use on the mental well-being of young people. This has generally been phrased in terms of a displacement hypothesis, that the extent of internet use and mental well-being are directly proportional. This linear model has been contrasted with a Goldilocks Hypothesis, proposed by Przybylski and Weinstein. This supposes that moderate levels of internet use may be the least harmful, conforming to a curvilinear relationship. Here these hypotheses were tested on a sample of 1140 adolescents (42% boys, 58% girls) aged 12–18 years, in 12 schools from Southern Thailand. We first report levels of internet use, and of cybervictimization, taken as one important aspect of mental well-being. We then assess the relationship of four factors of internet use (frequency, time spent, number of places accessed, number of activities) with (a) being a victim of cyberbullying, and (b) being a frequent victim; taking these as indicators of mental well-being. For (a) there was limited evidence of a Goldilocks effect on two out of four measures. For (b) the evidence did support a Goldilocks effect for all four measures, but these were under-powered analyses and the findings did not reach statistical significance. If substantiated on larger samples, a curvilinear relationship between aspects of internet use and cyberbullying would suggest a ‘safe zone’ for adolescent internet use, bringing its benefits while minimizing risks of cyberbullying. In the future, similar research should use larger sample sizes or longitudinal measures when exploring nonlinear trends and include other aspects of mental well-being.

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“…In contrast, it is also possible to find negative associations between the use of digital technologies and personal well-being or mixed associations (Odgers, 2016;Przybylski and Weinstein, 2017;Orben and Przybylski, 2019;Young et al, 2020). Thus, there is literature that indicates that the use of the Internet by schoolchildren is often associated with risks related to loneliness (Song et al, 2014;Ho et al, 2017), social anxiety (Buyukbayraktar, 2020;Traş and Gökçen, 2020), cyberbullying (Devine and Lloyd, 2012;Casas et al, 2013;Viner et al, 2019;Craig et al, 2020;Garaigordobil et al, 2020), unsafe sexual behaviors (McBride, 2011;Vannucci et al, 2020), and psychological pathologies (Borzekowski, 2006;McBride, 2011). Other works suggest that a high use of social networks and online games are related to low subjective well-being (Devine and Lloyd, 2012) or addictive behaviors (García-Oliva et al, 2017;Marengo et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Added to this open discussion is the fact that, in order to advance in the understanding of the phenomenon, it is essential to analyze the different social contexts where adolescents develop, considering a broad perspective to understand better how this relates to the use of digital technologies, subjective well-being, belonging, and social integration (Helsper et al, 2015;Helsper, 2017;Helsper and van Deursen, 2017;Livingstone et al, 2017;Boer et al, 2020). For this reason, recent research in the field no longer focuses solely on what happens inside schools but in all social spaces in which children and adolescents interact (Craig et al, 2020), both concrete and virtual. Particular emphasis is placed on screen time and Internet use, particularly on social networks (Büchi et al, 2019;George et al, 2020), at different times of the day, both school and personal time (Beyens et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediation of Problematic Use in the Relationship Between Types of Internet Use and Subjective Well-Being in Schoolchildren

et al. 2021

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Subjective well-being is a broad category of phenomena that includes people’s emotional responses, domain satisfactions, and global judgments of life satisfaction. This research investigates how schoolchildren’s subjective well-being is affected by the different types of technology use, in personal contexts, and, concurrently, whether these effects are different when the use of technology is problematic. The central hypotheses are as follows: (1) the use of the Internet affects the subjective well-being of schoolchildren negatively only when this use is problematic and (2) the effect on subjective well-being is different according to the type of Internet use. To respond to the objectives of the research, a survey was applied to 15-year-old adolescents (2,579 cases), distributed in 330 public schools, beneficiaries of a government program for the delivery of personal computers and Internet for a year. The different uses of the Internet were measured using frequency scales by type of activity (social, recreational, and educational). Problematic use scale measured the perception of negative consequences of the intensity of Internet use on a daily basis. Subjective well-being was measured by the Personal Well-Being Index-School Children (PWI-SC). Subsequently, for analytical purposes, three simple mediation models were created, whose dependent variable was PWI-SC, while its independent variables were Internet use scales differentiated by purpose (social, recreational, and educational) and problematic use as a mediating variable, as well as attributes of the subjects and their social environment, which were incorporated as control variables. The main results show that only if Internet use is expressed as problematic does it negatively affect subjective well-being. On the contrary, when the use of the Internet is not problematic, the effect is positive and even greater than the simple effect (without mediation) between these two variables. This finding is relevant, since it allows us to provide evidence that suggests that, when studying the effect that the intensity of the Internet, firstly, one must consider the mediating effect exerted by the network’s problematic use and, secondly, that not all types of use have the same impact. Therefore, it is useful to enrich the discussion on subjective well-being and social integration of schoolchildren in the digital age.

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Social Media Use and Cyber-Bullying: A Cross-National Analysis of Young People in 42 Countries

Cited by 218 publications

References 35 publications

Use of Digital Technology among Adolescents Attending Schools in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

Use of Digital Technology among Adolescents Attending Schools in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

Information Technology Use and Cyberbullying Behavior in South Thailand: A Test of the Goldilocks Hypothesis

Mediation of Problematic Use in the Relationship Between Types of Internet Use and Subjective Well-Being in Schoolchildren

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