Causes of Cyberbullying

Sarah G

EME 2040- 003

Dr. James Hatten

October 2^nd, 2018

 

Annotation #3

Source Reference

Ang, R. P. (2015). Adolescent cyberbullying: A review of characteristics, prevention and intervention strategies. Aggression & Violent Behavior, 25, 35–42. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/10.1016/j.avb.2015.07.011

 

Article Type

Article from Aggression and Violent Behavior (Volume 25)

 

First Citation

“ “(Ang 2015).

 

Brief Summary

Rebecca Ang defines the meaning of cyberbullying and details its applications to today’s youth. Following this, the author refers to statistics from surveys which explains the percentage of cyberbullies identified in a given poll as well as the corresponding numbers of victims. Beyond this, Ang details the consequences of cyberbullying on the victims.

 

Summary

Rebecca Ang, author of, Adolescent cyberbullying: A review of characteristics, prevention and intervention strategies which is found in Volume 25 of Aggression and Violent Behavior discusses the qualities of cyberbullying and the statistics with regards to cyberbullying.

The following descriptions were used to describe cyberbullying:

• Bullying extended through virtual fields
• Anonymity and limited oversight by adult monitors
• Electronic communication technology as a means to deliberately threaten, harm, embarrass or socially exclude another

Cyberbullying is common among all areas of the world. Even the reasons for cyberbullying were found to be similar throughout sixth to tenth grades regardless of race or ethnicity with influence in on both the victim and the offender sides:

• Parental Communication
• Social Isolation
• Classmate relationships

Rebecca Ang also explains the motivations of the offenders to cyberbully which is encompassed in the Routine Activities Theory (featured in the vocabulary and quotes portion of this annotation). Beyond this, Ang predicts that more cyberbullying occurs among youth than what is reported.

 

Significant Quotes

• According to Rebecca Ang, one of the theories that explains what motivates offenders to cyberbully others is called the Routine Activities Theory.

“Routine activities theory (Cohen & Felson, 1979) argues that three key elements must converge in time and space for crime to occur and these are proximity to motivated offenders, a suitable target and inadequate guardianship” (Ang 2015).

• Parental intervention can be the key to lowering the risks of cyberbullying as well as preventing cyberbullying from occurring.

“These results and implications are consistent with social media research findings that parental mediation strategies are crucial in helping children and adolescents recognize the risks and consequences of personal information disclosure along with learning methods of protecting personal information and making discerning choices about what information they can reveal (Liu et al., 2013, Salaway et al., 2008). Because of the varying developmental needs of children and adolescents, doses of active versus restrictive mediation should be varied according to age, developmental level and context. In general, for adolescents, because they have a greater desire and capacity for autonomy, greater use of active mediation strategies relative to restrictive mediation strategies may yield more positive results” (Ang 15)

• One helpful prevention technique for cyberbullying falls in the hands of the companies as Rebecca Ang says:

“Therefore, if policy makers could urge the Internet Service Providers for example, to make their privacy settings and reporting mechanisms more user-friendly and explicit, that could go some way in assisting cyberbullying prevention (O’Neill et al., 2011). Collectively, adopting a multi-systemic approach when considering cyberbullying prevention and intervention would likely result in the most effective outcomes” (Ang 2015).

Evaluation

Strengths: Rebecca Ang’s article was well written and reputable given all of the credible statistics imbedded within her writing.

Weaknesses: The only drawback of this article in my eyes is that it lacked specific ways for people to go about preventing cyberbullying and it instead gave more of a broad overview.

Vocabulary

Routine Activities Theory: argues that three key elements must converge in time and space for crime to occur and these are proximity to motivated offenders, a suitable target and inadequate guardianship

Proactive aggression: a cold-blooded, instrumental aggressive behavior that occurs without apparent provocation, and is motivated by anticipated rewards and outcomes resulting from aggressive acts

Reactive aggression: a hot-blooded, hostile, and impulsive response that functions as retaliation to a real or perceived threat, provocation or frustration.

 

Annotation #4

Source Reference

O, R. M., Dogra, N., Whiteman, N., Hughes, J., Eruyar, S., & Reilly, P. (2018). Is social media bad for mental health and wellbeing? Exploring the perspectives of adolescents. Clinical Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 23(4), 601–613. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/10.1177/1359104518775154

 

Article Type

Article from Clinical Child Psychology & Psychiatry (Volume 23)

 

First Citation

“ “ ( O’ Reilly et al. 2018).

 

Brief Summary

The authors of, Is social media bad for mental health and wellbeing? Exploring the perspectives of adolescents, opened their writing with a background regarding what it means to be an adolescent.

 

Summary

The authors of this article detailed that those who found social media to be a threat the mental wellbeing (particularly adolescents) all were reported to have commonalities in their views of social media. The following three themes were identified and stated in the article:

1) it was believed to cause mood and anxiety disorders for some adolescents

2) it was viewed as a platform for cyberbullying

3) the use of social media itself was often framed as a kind of ‘addiction’.

Many people interview by the author agree that social media negatively effects adolescences (particularly their mental health) but many of them were ill-informed regarding the meaning of the term “mental health”.

The author continued to explain some of the negative attributes or results or poor mental wellbeing as being the following:

• Suicidal Tendencies
• Stress
• Low Self-Esteem
• Depression

The article went on to explain other social media related issues such as trolling and the addictiveness of technology. Adolescent children were interviewed about their understanding of the addictiveness of technology and none of the interviewed children denied being addicted. While these young people did note the truth in the addictive side of technology, they refused to recognize trolling as a regular occurrence stating that it was simply negative people.

 

Significant Quotes

• Sometimes the negative effects of social media are easier to seen in others than in oneself.

“Participants expressed generally consistent negative views about the potential impact of social media on mental health …. the overwhelming consensus among participants was that social media was dangerous for adolescent mental health in a broad sense, mostly referring to the mental health of others rather than their own” ( O’ Reilly et al. pg. 605).

• Social media is an avenue for cyberbullying that is reported to affect nearly a quarter of the US population.

A recent scoping review of international studies on cyberbullying showed a median prevalence of 23%, with social media being the main platform, alongside social networking and other applications (Hamm et al., 2015). Cyberbullying was an issue that participants talked about considerably and felt was a real risk to young people’s mental health and wellbeing. (O’ Reilly et al. pg. 606)

• Beyond being cyberbullied, in the interviews conducted by the author it was discovered that in a general sense, social media has a negative effect on society.

“Participants expressed the view that they felt social media was a risk to mental wellbeing. They identified stress, low self-esteem, depression and suicidal ideation as likely negative consequences of social media” ( O’ Reilly et al. pg. 604).

 

Evaluation

Strengths: The article seemed to be well researched and factual. I appreciated the addition of the interview responses with adolescents.

Weaknesses: The article seemed to portray social media from a one-sided point of view. The positives of social media were barely touched on if at all. Also, when the authors discussed the misconceptions to the term “mental well-being” they never went on to give the formal definition or this term. Instead they detailed what it is not by using the misconceptions of those they interviewed.

 

Vocabulary

Adolescence: is a significant period of psychological, biological and social change for young people as they adjust to their emergent needs and develop new skills, responsibilities and intimate relationships.

 

Annotation #5

Cyberbullying in Hong Kong Chinese students: Life satisfaction, and the moderating role of friendship qualities on cyberbullying victimization and perpetration.

Source Reference

Leung, A. N. M., Wong, N., & Farver, J. M. (2018). Cyberbullying in Hong Kong Chinese students: Life satisfaction, and the moderating role of friendship qualities on cyberbullying victimization and perpetration. Personality & Individual Differences, 133, 7–12. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/10.1016/j.paid.2017.07.016

 

Article Type

Article from Personality & Individual Differences (Volume 133).

 

First Citation

“ “ (Leung 2018).

 

Brief Summary

Angel Leung discusses the correlation between friendship qualities and cyberbullying in the article. Information is given in the form of studies and concluding results to confirm the data that has been collected. In this article, cyberbullying was also compared to the broad sense of the term bullying.

 

Summary

One of the significant discoveries made in this cyberbullying study in Hong Kong was that the majority of those who have participated in cyberbullying have been males. While this fact was not different from their prominence in other forms of bullying, the author did emphasize the oddity of this statistic considering cyberbullies can hide behind a screen and therefore this statistic is not well known.

Another important point made by Leung was that many cyberbullies hide behind the pretense of being the victims’ friend in order to get close to them. While this is true it is also true for cyberbullies to commit the act of cyberbullying because of the peer rejection they face on a day to day basis. The reasoning behind this statistic is because males tend to have different reactive aggressions than females.

Social status is irrelevant in the world of social media and cyberbullying, regardless of what class a person belongs to, they can be a victim of cyberbullying. Another negative side this is that social media provides cyberbullies with a large pool of opportunity to gain support in their cyberbullying efforts.

 

Significant Quotes

• It was discovered that cyberbullying typically is committed by those who have experienced cyberbullying themselves. This cycle of negativity is perpetual.

“Similar to previous studies, cyberbullying victimization was strongly correlated with cyberbullying perpetration. These results indicate that the co-occurrence of perpetration and victimization is robust in the cyberspace” (Leung 2018).

• Cyberbullying varies from other forms of bullying because it is more public but also more anonymous.

“In traditional bullying, victims tend not to perpetrate bullying because of power imbalances (e.g., Slonje, Smith, & Frisén, 2013). Victims are typically at a lower social standing… Therefore, the act of retaliating would expose them to a great danger but with small effect. However, in the cyber context, due to the unique characteristics of cyber-communication which includes delayed feedback, anonymity, and a lower risk to be confronted with the reactions or consequences of bullying others, the perceived risk for the cyberbullied-victims to retaliate online is much lower” (Leung 2018).

• Cyberbullying can be more impactful than regular bullying because of the ability to easily gather other people to attack others on a social forum.

“Instead, internet literacy and related expertise seem to contribute to the power imbalance found in cyberspace (e.g., Vandebosch and Van Cleemput, 2008, Ybarra and Mitchell, 2004). In the cyber community, if individuals can find alliances and form groups to purposefully cyberbully others, they can achieve the power imbalance needed for bullying” (Leung 2018).

 

Evaluation

Strengths: This article was well researched and seemed to reveal many unknown facts to me about cyberbullying

Weaknesses: The problem with this article was the format of the data. Many of the statistical findings were detailed in a graph or chart rather than verbal form making it difficult for the reader to incorporate intro research