Citation

Peled Y, Medvin MB, Pieterse E, Domanski L. Heliyon 2019; 5(12): e03048.

Affiliation

Westminster College, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e03048

PMID

31890969

PMCID

PMC6928304

Abstract

We examined how normative beliefs about cyberbullying influenced the choice of electronic aggression in hypothetical peer-to-peer scenarios. Data was collected from 1097 Israeli and 1196 U.S. students in grades 5^th-10^th, who completed self-report surveys examining normative beliefs about cyberbullying, aggressive cyberstrategies, face-to-face verbal and relational aggression, and access to electronic devices. Israeli students had higher levels of all aggression measures than U.S. students, but access to electronic devices was similar across the two countries. Normative beliefs about cyberbullying were positively associated with verbal and relational aggression. In Israeli, normative beliefs in boys were higher than girls in 5^th and 6^th grade, similar in 7^th and 8^th grade, and then higher again in 9^th and 10^th grade. In the U.S., boys had higher normative beliefs about cyberbullying than girls, and older students had higher beliefs than younger students.

FINDINGS using logistic regression indicated that normative beliefs about cyberbullying were predictive of Cyber-aggression even when taking into account grade, country, gender, access to electronic devices, and face-to-face relational aggression. Cyber-aggressive strategies were more likely to be present at the highest level of normative beliefs. Ways to change student beliefs using a social cognitive perspective are discussed.

© 2019 The Authors.

Language: en

Keywords

Cross-cultural; Cyberaggression; Digital media; Individual differences; Interpersonal relations; Media sociology; Media use; Normative beliefs; Psychology; Social information processing; Sociology; Well-being