Stay Safe and Strong: Characteristics, Roles and Emotions of Student-Produced Comics Related to Cyberbullying

Abstract

The present study aimed at giving voice to students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds using a co-participatory approach. Participants were 59 adolescents (52.5% males) aged between 14 and 16 from five European countries who created ten comics to illustrate cyberbullying for a broader audience of peers. We analyzed texts and images according to four primary themes: cyberbullying episodes (types, platforms, co-occurrence with bullying), coping strategies, characters (roles, gender, and group membership), and emotions. The content analysis showed that online denigration on social media platforms was widely represented and that cyberbullying co-existed with bullying. Social strategies were frequently combined with passive and confrontational coping, up to suicide. All roles (cyberbully, cybervictim, bystander, reinforcer, defender) were portrayed among the 154 characters identified, even if victims and defenders appeared in the vignettes more often. Males, females, peers, and adults were represented in all roles. Among the 87 emotions detected, sadness was the most frequently expressed, followed by joy, surprise, anger, and fear. Emotions, mainly represented by drawings or drawings with text, were most often represented in association with cybervictims. The results are discussed in terms of their methodological and practical implications, as they emphasize the importance of valorizing young peoples’ voices in research and interventions against cyberbullying.

Digital Media Used in Education: The Influence on Cyberbullying Behaviors among Youth Students

“…It is worth mentioning that the respondents' views on cyberbullying, cyber harassment, and cyberstalking have ethical ramifications that directly influence students' mental health. Furthermore, no significant gender disparities were identified, which is in line with previous research [56,91,108]. Nonetheless, gender discrepancies were discovered to affect the behavior of a specific cyberbullying occurrence.…”

“…Women and students are especially vulnerable to internet harassment. Furthermore, based on the investigators' definitions of cyber-bullying, cyber harassment, and cyberstalking, it was common in the existing questionnaire literature for student participants to be asked whether they had victimized someone over the internet or if they had been victimized themselves online [56,91].…”

“…Cyberbullies, unlike traditional bullies, may conceal their identities [54]. Traditional bullying is still more common than internet bullying, according to a meta-analytical study based on 80 past studies [55], which may explain why cyberbullying is considered a sub-category of bullying in general [56].…”

The Development of a Multi-Dimensional Coding System to Categorise Negative Online Experiences Including Cyberbullying Behaviors Among Adolescents with Lower Socioeconomic Status

“…The Blurred Lives Project uniquely explored the online experiences of (mostly) 14-to-16-year olds in schools in disadvantaged urban areas in each of the partner countries as well as setting out to understand more about adolescent internet use and online experiences. The project also aimed to facilitate and promote pupil voice through the co-creation of resources and/or recommendations for teachers, pupils, parents/carers, and social networking providers (for further details, see Hamilton et al, 2020;Purdy et al, 2021;Mameli et al, 2022;Willems et al, 2023).…”

Internet use and perceived parental involvement among adolescents from lower socioeconomic groups in Europe: An exploration

“…Furthermore, the survey explored any negative experiences they may have had while using the internet, whether as victims, bystanders, or perpetrators. A second phase of the project used a mixed-methods, coparticipatory approach to involve adolescents by training and empowering them to use their voice as co-researchers to help tackle cyberbullying in their peer groups and schools (see Hamilton et al, 2020;Mameli et al, 2022;Purdy et al, 2021). This article reports findings from the first phase on aspects of internet use and parental involvement in relation to demographic characteristics, across the five participating countries.…”