Wright Michelle F
1 Department of Psychology, Child Study Center, Pennsylvania State University , University Park, Pennsylvania.
2 Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University , Brno, Czech Republic .
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2017 Jun;20(6):355-361. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2016.0693.
Research is increasingly revealing that adolescents utilize electronic technologies to promote and/or maintain their social standing among their peer group. Little is known about whether adolescents' perceptions of popularity-motivated behaviors, characteristics, and relationships in cyberspace are associated with popularity-motivated cyber relational aggression. It is also unclear how gender might impact these associations, especially considering that adolescent girls and boys differ in regard to the type of behaviors, characteristics, and relationships they believe contribute to popularity. To this end, this study examined the potential moderating effect of gender on the association between adolescents' perceptions of popularity-motivated behaviors, characteristics, and relationships in cyberspace and their engagement in popularity-motivated cyber relational aggression over 1 year, from seventh to eighth grade. There were 217 eighth graders (51 percent female; M age = 12.13) from three middle schools in a large Midwestern city in the United States included in this research. They completed questionnaires on their popularity-motivated behaviors, characteristics, and relationships in cyberspace and their perpetration of popularity-motivated cyber relational aggression during the seventh grade. One year later, they completed the perpetration of popularity-motivated cyber relational aggression questionnaire. The results revealed that the association between popularity-motivated behaviors, characteristics, and relationships in cyberspace and the perpetration of popularity-motivated cyber relational aggression was stronger for girls, while such an association was not found for boys. These findings indicate the importance of considering cyberspace as an environment in which adolescents can enhance their social standing among peers from their school.
研究越来越多地表明，青少年利用电子技术来提升和/或维持他们在同龄人群体中的社会地位。对于青少年在网络空间中对受受欢迎程度驱动的行为、特征和关系的认知是否与受受欢迎程度驱动的网络关系攻击行为相关，人们知之甚少。同样不清楚的是，性别会如何影响这些关联，尤其是考虑到青少年女孩和男孩在他们认为有助于受欢迎程度的行为、特征和关系类型方面存在差异。为此，本研究考察了性别对青少年在网络空间中对受受欢迎程度驱动的行为、特征和关系的认知与他们在七年级到八年级这一年中参与受受欢迎程度驱动的网络关系攻击行为之间关联的潜在调节作用。本研究纳入了美国中西部一个大城市三所中学的217名八年级学生（51%为女生；平均年龄 = 12.13岁）。他们完成了关于自己在网络空间中受受欢迎程度驱动的行为、特征和关系以及他们在七年级时实施受受欢迎程度驱动的网络关系攻击行为的问卷。一年后，他们完成了关于实施受受欢迎程度驱动的网络关系攻击行为问卷。结果显示，在网络空间中受受欢迎程度驱动的行为、特征和关系与实施受受欢迎程度驱动的网络关系攻击行为之间的关联对女孩来说更强，而在男孩中未发现这种关联。这些发现表明，将网络空间视为青少年可以提升他们在学校同龄人中社会地位的环境的重要性。
