Background. Cyberaggression is widespread phenomenon in the online environment, that doesn’t cause direct physical harm but has a lasting negative impact on the psychological state of participants.
Objective. The study analyzes the relationship between offline and online aggression, the prevalence of various types of cyberaggression among adolescents and youth and their emotional experience, as well as parents' awareness of it.
Design. The study comprises of 3395 participants: 1554 adolescents aged 12-17, 736 young people aged 18-30, and 1105 parents of adolescents aged 12-17 from 8 federal districts of Russia. Respondents answered questions about the relationship between online and offline aggression, the collision with cyberaggression and emotional response to it.
Results. The school is ahead of the Internet as a space of encounter with hostile situations. Most respondents believe that people are more likely to experience hostile situations in real life than online. Most adolescents face different types of cyberaggression. Adolescents are more likely to encounter flaming, trolling and cyberhate, and less likely to encounter cyberbullying and cyberstalking. Youth is more likely to encounter flaming. The least emotionally significant situations are flaming and cyberhate. Trolling causes strong feelings in every third adolescent, cyberstalking in every fifth, cyberbullying in every second. At the same time, parents are not aware of their children's experience with cyberaggression and the intensity of their experience.
Conclusion.The spread of various types of cyberaggression and the emotional response to them require the development of differentiated approaches to the prevention of various situations of cyberaggression and the development of specific coping strategies in the collision with them.
Sections: Psychology of virtual reality;
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Keywords: cyberaggression; adolescents; youth; flaming; cyberhate; trolling; cyberstalking; cyberbullying
Available Online 06.10.2020
Table 1. Gender and age characteristics of respondents in different samples
|
Groups |
Male (%) |
Female(%) |
No gender listed (%) |
Mean age ± Standard deviation |
|
Adolescents aged 14-17 years |
484 (47.0%) |
535 (52.0%) |
10 (1.0%) |
15.47±1.09 лет |
|
Adolescents aged 12-13 years |
240 (45.7%) |
279(53.1%) |
6 (1.1%) |
12.42±0.58 лет |
|
Youth |
300 (40.8%) |
436(59.2%) |
0 (0%) |
23.33±3.90 лет |
|
Parents |
214 (19.4%) |
877(79.4%) |
14 (1.3%) |
41.21±5.63 лет |
Table 2. Risk level assessment in different places
|
Subjective risk level assessment (on a scale of 1 to 7) |
Adolescents aged 14-17 years |
Youth |
Parents |
F-test |
Effect size η2 |
|||
|
Mean |
Standard deviation |
Mean |
Standard deviation |
Mean |
Standard deviation |
|||
|
In the world |
5.09 |
1.54 |
4.96 |
1.33 |
5.15 |
1.37 |
3.92* |
0.00 |
|
In the country |
4.67 |
1.50 |
4.59 |
1.32 |
4.58 |
1.39 |
0.92 |
0,00 |
|
In the city |
4.24 |
1.49 |
4.15 |
1.37 |
4.35 |
1.30 |
4.08* |
0.00 |
|
On the street |
4.21 |
1.52 |
4.11 |
1.38 |
4.42 |
1.29 |
12.13** |
0.01 |
|
On the Internet |
3.53 |
1.72 |
3.67 |
1.51 |
4.56 |
1.44 |
24.96** |
0.08 |
|
At school |
3.01 |
1.51 |
3.22 |
1.34 |
3.17 |
1.23 |
7.05** |
0.01 |
|
At home |
1.89 |
1.30 |
1.95 |
1.08 |
1.92 |
1.04 |
0.48 |
0.00 |
Significance level * - p<0.05, ** - p<0.01.
Fig. 1. Encounter with unpleasant, painful, hostile situations in different places, %
Fig. 2. Frequency of answers to the question about where unpleasant, painful or hostile situations a person experiences more strongly – online or offline, %
Fig. 3. Amount of types of cyberaggression encountered in different roles by representatives of different age groups, %
Fig. 4. Cyberaggressive types spread among different age groups, %.
Fig. 5. Frequency of encounter with flaming, %
Table 3. Comparison of adolescents, youth, and parents groups in terms of frequency of encounters with different types of cyberaggression and emotional reactions to them.
|
Frequency of different types of cyberaggression and emotional reactions to them |
Flaming |
Trolling |
Cyberhate |
Cyberstalking |
Cyberbullying |
|||||
|
Pearson χ2 |
Cramer's V |
Pearson χ2 |
Cramer's V |
Pearson χ2 |
Cramer's V |
Pearson χ2 |
Cramer's V |
Pearson χ2 |
Cramer's V |
|
|
How often have you encountered |
648.06** |
0.23 |
210.22** |
0.13 |
186.04** |
0.12 |
169.00** |
0.12 |
165.21** |
0.12 |
|
How strongly upset were you |
230.51** |
0.14 |
604.90** |
0.22 |
533.36** |
0.21 |
147.58** |
0.12 |
82.91** |
0.09 |
** - p<0.01
Fig. 6. Emotional reaction to flaming: how badly would you be upset if you got into the situation of flaming in the leading role, %
Fig. 7. Frequency of encounter with trolling, %
Fig. 8. Emotional reaction to trolling: how badly would you be upset if you got into the situation of trolling as a “victim”, %
Fig. 9. Frequency of encounter with cyberhate, %
Fig. 10. Emotional reaction to cyberhate: how badly would you be upset if you got into the situation of cyberhate as a “victim”, %
Fig. 11. Frequency of encounter with cyberstalking, %
Fig. 12. Emotional reaction to cyberstalking: how badly would you be upset if you got into the situation of cyberstalking as a “victim”, %
Fig. 13. Frequency of encounter with cyberbullying, %
Fig. 14. Emotional reaction to cyberstalking: how badly would you be upset if you got into the situation of cyberbullying (hate groups) as a “victim”, %
Table 4. Experience of facing various types of cyber aggression in males and females
|
Experience of encountering cyberaggression |
Flaming |
Trolling |
Cyberhate |
Cyberstalking |
Cyberbullying |
|
|
Adolescents aged 14-17 years |
Male |
63.0% |
60.3% |
58.9% |
37.4% |
46.5% |
|
Female |
65.1% |
68.1% |
51.2% |
45.3% |
43.9% |
|
|
Pearson χ2 |
0.47 |
6.53* |
5.99* |
5.70* |
0.67 |
|
|
Cramer's V |
0.02 |
0.08 |
0.08 |
0.08 |
0.03 |
|
|
Adolescents aged 14-17 years |
Male |
49.8% |
56.8% |
49.4% |
28.3% |
32.3% |
|
Female |
51.8% |
58.0% |
47.3% |
30.4% |
39.6% |
|
|
Pearson χ2 |
0.21 |
0.07 |
0.22 |
0.26 |
2.87 |
|
|
Cramer's V |
0.02 |
0.01 |
0.02 |
0.02 |
0.07 |
|
|
Youth |
Male |
69.6% |
49.0% |
53.5% |
26.7% |
30.7% |
|
Female |
69.0% |
42.4% |
50.3% |
35.9% |
24.2% |
|
|
Pearson χ2 |
0.03 |
3.12 |
0.71 |
6.89** |
3.79 |
|
|
Cramer's V |
0.01 |
0.07 |
0.03 |
0.10 |
0.07 |
|
* - p<0.05, ** - p<0.01.
Soldatova G.Ur., Rasskazova E.I., Chigarkova S.V Types of cyberaggression: adolescents and youth experience. National Psychological Journal, [Natsional’nyy psikhologicheskiy zhurnal], (13)2, 3-20.