Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts

Korean Association of Child Studies (한국아동학회)
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To Use Facebook for Good: Usage, Cyberbullying Involvement, and Perceived Social Support

  • Received : 2016.02.23
  • Accepted : 2016.08.17
  • Published : 2016.08.29
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Abstract

We examined the relationship between the extent of Facebook usage and social well-being with consideration of cyberbullying involvement using a person-oriented approach. Survey data were collected from a sample of 312 secondary students from Grades 7 and 8 in Hong Kong. Levels of cyberbullying involvement, Facebook usage and perceived social support were investigated. Participants were classified into three clusters based on the different levels of Facebook usage and cyberbullying victimization through cluster analyses (i.e., frequent Facebook user/noncyberbullied victim, frequent Facebook user/cyberbullied victim, and uninvolved). Our results showed that frequent Facebook users who are cyberbullied tend to engage in cyberbullying perpetration significantly more than the frequent Facebook users who are not cyberbullied, even when the latter reported higher Facebook usage. This result provides some support for the idea that cyberbullying victimization has additional value on top of the level of usage in explaining one's participation in cyberbullying perpetration. As expected, frequent Facebook users who were not cyberbullied reported the highest perceived social support among the three groups. What is even more interesting is the equal level of perceived social support found between the cyberbullied victims and the uninvolved. Our results suggest that, although limiting adolescents' Internet use might reduce their risks of being involved in cyberbullying, it might also take away the potential benefits they could get from interacting with the online community. Benefits of using the person-oriented approach in the study of cyberbullying are discussed.

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