Citation

Aizenkot D. Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 2020; 110: e104814.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104814

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The question of what context -private or public - is more vulnerable to cyberbullying is the issue of this study. Research into cyberbullying has recently begun to address the characteristics of cyberbullying in public versus private media contexts, but has yet to determine which is more vulnerable to the phenomenon. The current study included 5,225 elementary and middle school students who completed a questionnaire regarding cyberbullying victimization in their WhatsApp classmates' group and private discourse. Cyberbullying victimization in WhatsApp classmates' discourse was assessed through four types of cyberbullying, i.e., verbal bullying, exclusion, visual bullying, and participation avoidance due to fear of offensive responses. Grade level and gender differences were also examined.

RESULTS indicated that for all grade levels, private context is more vulnerable to WhatsApp cyberbullying compared to public, across three cyberbullying types, i.e., verbal bullying, exclusion, and visual bullying, while the opposite was found for avoidance. No gender differences were found. Implications are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

Classmates; Cyberbullying; Private context; Public context; Social networks; WhatsApp