Cyberbullying: A Sociological Approach (original) (raw)

Cyberbullying …… Some Reflections: From Childhood to Adulthood

Depression and anxiety are two mental illness associated with cyber surfers. In our twenty first century society, new technologies dominate and also novel psychological illnesses have emerged. Cyberbullying is a behaviour mostly associated with young people and has become increasingly more problematic. On the other hand, recent studies have shown how technology is extremely useful in the work of psychologists. It is this stark duality of technological/cybernautic vs stimulation of positive aspects of new technologies that is thrown into discussion in this work. Cyberbullying is a highly interactive bullying behaviour which is a growing concern within Portuguese schools. Children or adolescents make up rumours and present them online, where the school population can view and comment on the rumors. Their goal is to covertly attack and ruin the reputation of the victim. This shows how social networks can be misused; a behaviour, which curiously occurs in younger children and has started to be seen in adults as well. At the psychological level, it is a devastating attack on a child, who is still immature, as well as on a teenager who has not yet reached his or her full development. There are few psychologists in Portugal and they need to exist in greater numbers in schools, companies, and hospitals to help reduce the damage of this new psychological phenomenon. Otherwise, these new generation of cyberbullies will go on to universities and work contexts - adopting similar behaviour. This is clearly not the future we want for our society. Key Words: Cyberbullying, psychology, technology, children, adolescents, adulthood.

The Perception of Cyberbullying by Adolescents in Rural and Urban Spain

ICOMTA 2021. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, 2021

Cases of bullying have become more serious from the use of information and communication technologies, especially with an immersion in social networks-creating the situation of cyberbullying. The objectives of our study are to analyze the relationship between cyber-victims and cyber-aggressors with respect to the use of Information and communication technology (ICT) and, finally, to identify the distribution by sex, type of center, and academic level of cases of cyber-bullying. The results we obtained show a significant relationship between cybervictims and the lack of parental supervision. Men are frequent aggressors within sexual cyberbullying, while women are equally aggressors in terms of identity usurpation, ignoring or marginalizing a partner especially in urban centers with no connection to academic level. In short, prevention policies must be incorporated into the classroom with the participation of students and teachers in order to mitigate this type of behavior in schools.

Cyberbullying among Spanish secondary school students: a national survey

A nation-wide study funded by Spanish Ombudsman's Office-Unicef surveying a representative sample of 3,000 secondary students accross Spain explored their experiences as possible victims, aggressors or observers of bullying via mobile phone and the Internet, and the effect of demographic variables and the relationship between tra-ditional bullying and cyberbullying are presented. Results showed 5.5 % of victims of traditional bullying being also cybervictims; 5.4% of aggressors of traditional bullying being cyberbullies; 25% of observers of different kinds of bullying witnessing cyberbullying. Data support other studies findings: more girls than boys among cybervictims; more victims, aggressors and witnesses of traditional bullying experiencing cyberbullying, compared to students non-involved in traditional bullying; many cybervictims being traditional victims, and many cyberaggressors being traditional bullies. Impli-cations of findings for theory of peer relationships and inte...

Cyber-Victimization and Cyber-Aggression among Portuguese Adolescents

International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning, 2016

This study aims to clarify how the quality of the family environment is related to the involvement in cyberbullying behaviors, either as a cyber-victim or as a cyber-aggressor, via a cross-sectional research design. With this purpose a diagnostic questionnaire with questions about both the quality of family environment and cyberbullying was conceived and administered to 3525 adolescents attending 6th, 8th and 11th grades at several schools in Portugal. The results suggested that two family aspects seem to be equally important in protection against cyberbullying: perception of family support and perception of rules within the family. A hierarchical regression analysis reveals that lack of family support is more predictive of cyber-victimization and that a lack of family rules is more predictive of cyber-aggression. The authors discuss the implications for the well-being of adolescents, as well as the challenges that parents face in the supervision of adolescents' use of digital t...