1 Faculty of Education, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
2 Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2019 Apr;22(4):243-248. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2018.0339. Epub 2019 Mar 8.
Cyberbullying has captured attention around the globe with research taking place in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. However, few of these studies have compared children and adolescents from countries with diverse cultural backgrounds, with research on Middle Eastern countries remaining scarce. To examine the influence of culture, gender, and participant roles in cyberbullying (bystander vs. perpetrator) on children and adolescents' moral evaluations of hypothetical cyberbullying events, participants read and evaluated four vignettes. Three sets of data were collected in Canada (n = 100), China (n = 100), and Iran (n = 101). Participants (N = 300; 49 percent male) were between 8 and 16 years of age (M = 11.73; standard deviation = 0.76). Two vignettes considered the perspective of a perpetrator, whereas the two others considered the perspective of a bystander. A repeated-measures analysis of variance showed that youth from Iran evaluated cyberbullying events less negatively than Canadian and Chinese youth. Regardless of culture, females evaluated cyberbullying events more negatively than males. Persian youth evaluated cyberbullying less negatively than Canadian and Chinese youth. With age, participants attributed less shame to cyberbullying behaviors. However, Chinese and Persian youth attributed more hubristic pride than Canadian youth with age. Also, Canadian and Chinese children rated perpetrator behaviors more negatively than their Persian counterparts. However, bystander behaviors were similarly negatively rated across cultures. This study breaks new ground by examining moral evaluations of cyberbullying according to participant role, culture, and gender. Findings from this study may be helpful to educators and policymakers to strengthen moral and diversity education in schools to help mitigate cyberbullying events.
网络欺凌已经引起了全球的关注，北美的、南美的、欧洲的和亚洲的都有研究。然而，这些研究中很少有将来自文化背景各异的国家的儿童和青少年进行比较的，关于中东国家的研究则更为稀缺。为了考察文化、性别和参与者角色（旁观者与施害者）对儿童和青少年对假设性网络欺凌事件的道德评价的影响，参与者阅读并评价了四个情景。在加拿大（n=100）、中国（n=100）和伊朗（n=101）收集了三组数据。参与者（N=300；49%为男性）年龄在 8 至 16 岁之间（M=11.73；标准差=0.76）。两个情景考虑了施害者的视角，而另外两个情景则考虑了旁观者的视角。重复测量方差分析显示，伊朗的青少年对网络欺凌事件的评价比加拿大和中国的青少年更不消极。无论文化背景如何，女性对网络欺凌事件的评价都比男性更消极。与加拿大和中国的青少年相比，波斯青少年对网络欺凌的评价更不消极。随着年龄的增长，参与者对网络欺凌行为的羞耻感减少。然而，随着年龄的增长，中国和波斯青少年的傲慢自大型骄傲比加拿大青少年更多。此外，加拿大和中国的儿童对施害者的行为评价比他们的波斯同龄人更消极。然而，旁观者的行为在不同文化中都被同样消极地评价。这项研究根据参与者的角色、文化和性别来考察网络欺凌的道德评价，这是一个新的突破。这项研究的结果可能对教育工作者和政策制定者有所帮助，他们可以加强学校的道德和多样性教育，以帮助减少网络欺凌事件。
