No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Cyberbullying among high school students in Japan: Development and validation of the Online Disinhibition Scale
... To date, most research on online trolling has been conducted in North America, Europe, and Australia, with only two such studies conducted in Asia (Cheng et al., 2017;Hong & Cheng, 2018). The strong social norms and collectivistic values of Asian cultures can lead to high emotional suppression, acquiescence, and conformity (Soto et al., 2011;Park et al., 2021), which may be significant predictors of online deviant behaviour (Han et al., 2019;Udris, 2014). Therefore, this study recruited Chinese college students to examine the effect of psychopathy on online trolling and extended previous research by investigating the mediating effect of moral disengagement and the moderating effect of online disinhibition on this relationship. ...
... The Online Disinhibition Scale assesses the extent to which individuals believe that they are less inhibited while interacting or engaging in certain behaviours online (Udris, 2014). Items (e.g., "I don't mind writing insulting things about others online") were rated on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). ...
... Both of these patterns are consistent with previous studies (e.g., Wright et al., 2019;Wang et al., 2020) and can be explained by the online disinhibition effect (Suler, 2004). First, the inherent nature of cyberspace, characterized by anonymity and invisibility, leads to the belief that punishment of antisocial online behaviour is unlikely (Udris, 2014) and promotes harsh commentary, rude language, and even threats (Suler, 2004;Wachs et al., 2019). Moreover, the physical and temporal distance afforded by cyberspace and the absence of social cues in text communication fails to arouse affective empathy and leaves individuals unable to accurately estimate the consequences of aggressive acts (Runions & Bak, 2015). ...
Although psychopathy is a salient risk factor in online trolling, research on how psychopathy relates to online trolling is underdeveloped. This study examined whether moral disengagement mediates the relationship between psychopathy and online trolling and whether this mediation effect is moderated by online disinhibition. A total of 1,123 Chinese college students were evaluated on psychopathy, moral disengagement, online trolling, and online disinhibition. Moderated mediation analysis was performed to examine the relationships among these variables. After controlling for gender and age, the results indicated that psychopathy was positively associated with online trolling and that moral disengagement partially mediated this relationship. Additionally, online disinhibition moderated the relationship between psychopathy and online trolling as well as the relationship between moral disengagement and online trolling. These two relationships were stronger in college students with high level of online disinhibition. These results supported and extended existing research on online trolling and provide useful insights into the intervention and prevention of this antisocial online behaviour.
... Bireylerin çevrimiçi platformlarda geçirdiği süredeki hızla artışın ve sosyal ilişkilerin yoğunluğunun bu platformlara/uygulamalara kaymasının doğal bir sonucu olarak çevrimiçi disinhibisyon etkisi giderek popülerleşen bir kavram haline gelmiştir (Cheung vd., 2021). Birçok araştırmacı çevrimiçi disinhibisyon etkisi değerlendirmeye yönelik ölçme araçları geliştirmeye yönelik çalışmalar yürütmüşlerdir (Cheung vd., 2016;Ruohan, 2022;Schouten vd., 2007;Stuart ve Scott, 2021, Udris, 2014. Bu ölçme araçlarının içinde Udris (2014) tarafından geliştirilen Çevrimiçi Disinhibisyon Ölçeği (ÇDÖ) öne çıkmış ve birçok araştırmada kullanılmıştır (Charaschanya ve Blauw, 2017;Huang vd., 2020;Kurek vd., 2019;Yang vd., 2021;Wright ve Wachs, 2021). ...
... Birçok araştırmacı çevrimiçi disinhibisyon etkisi değerlendirmeye yönelik ölçme araçları geliştirmeye yönelik çalışmalar yürütmüşlerdir (Cheung vd., 2016;Ruohan, 2022;Schouten vd., 2007;Stuart ve Scott, 2021, Udris, 2014. Bu ölçme araçlarının içinde Udris (2014) tarafından geliştirilen Çevrimiçi Disinhibisyon Ölçeği (ÇDÖ) öne çıkmış ve birçok araştırmada kullanılmıştır (Charaschanya ve Blauw, 2017;Huang vd., 2020;Kurek vd., 2019;Yang vd., 2021;Wright ve Wachs, 2021). ÇDÖ'nün farklı kültürlerdeki psikometrik özellikleri ölçme aracının geçerli ve güvenilir bir ölçek olduğuna işaret etmektedir. ...
... Çevrimiçi Disinhibisyon Ölçeği (ÇDÖ). Udris (2014) tarafından gelirtirilen ÇDÖ, bireylerin çevrimiçi disinhibisyon düzeylerini ölçmeyi amaçlayan bir ölçme aracıdır. ÇDÖ, 5'li Likert tipinde puanlanan 11 maddeden oluşmaktadır ve iki boyutlu (yararlı disinhibisyon ve toksik disinhibisyon) bir yapıya sahiptir. ...
The Internet is defined as interactive network systems that enable quick communication
through computer connection and network and allow the person to send and receive the
number of information that they want to multiple recipients. The TCP/IP protocol
(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), comprised of international network words,
and the Internet, which is connected by many computer networks, is a worldwide
communication system that is developing and growing continuously. Rapid progress and
change in science and technology; facilitated the fulfilment of the need for direct, fast and
secure access to information. The Internet, the most important innovation of information
technology, which is easy for almost everyone from children to adults, has quickly influenced
people. So, one has become a mass media that affects family and social life in
multidimensional terms.
The increasing developments, particularly of mass media over the last two centuries,
demonstrate how technology has entered the everyday lives of individuals and, over time,
modern mass media have become virtually indispensable elements. Internet use has become
an important part of daily life in our country as well as in the world. This study aims to
investigate the factors affecting the frequency of Internet use by individuals living in Turkey.
The study used a micro data set from the 2021 Information and Communication Technology
Usage Survey in Households conducted by Turkey Statistical Institute. The research's
sampling method is a 2-stage stratified cluster sampling. The study uses generalized ordered
logistics regression analysis to identify factors associated with the frequency of Internet use of
individuals.
... Bireylerin çevrimiçi platformlarda geçirdiği süredeki hızla artışın ve sosyal ilişkilerin yoğunluğunun bu platformlara/uygulamalara kaymasının doğal bir sonucu olarak çevrimiçi disinhibisyon etkisi giderek popülerleşen bir kavram haline gelmiştir (Cheung vd., 2021). Birçok araştırmacı çevrimiçi disinhibisyon etkisi değerlendirmeye yönelik ölçme araçları geliştirmeye yönelik çalışmalar yürütmüşlerdir (Cheung vd., 2016;Ruohan, 2022;Schouten vd., 2007;Stuart ve Scott, 2021, Udris, 2014. Bu ölçme araçlarının içinde Udris (2014) tarafından geliştirilen Çevrimiçi Disinhibisyon Ölçeği (ÇDÖ) öne çıkmış ve birçok araştırmada kullanılmıştır (Charaschanya ve Blauw, 2017;Huang vd., 2020;Kurek vd., 2019;Yang vd., 2021;Wright ve Wachs, 2021). ...
... Birçok araştırmacı çevrimiçi disinhibisyon etkisi değerlendirmeye yönelik ölçme araçları geliştirmeye yönelik çalışmalar yürütmüşlerdir (Cheung vd., 2016;Ruohan, 2022;Schouten vd., 2007;Stuart ve Scott, 2021, Udris, 2014. Bu ölçme araçlarının içinde Udris (2014) tarafından geliştirilen Çevrimiçi Disinhibisyon Ölçeği (ÇDÖ) öne çıkmış ve birçok araştırmada kullanılmıştır (Charaschanya ve Blauw, 2017;Huang vd., 2020;Kurek vd., 2019;Yang vd., 2021;Wright ve Wachs, 2021). ÇDÖ'nün farklı kültürlerdeki psikometrik özellikleri ölçme aracının geçerli ve güvenilir bir ölçek olduğuna işaret etmektedir. ...
... Çevrimiçi Disinhibisyon Ölçeği (ÇDÖ). Udris (2014) tarafından gelirtirilen ÇDÖ, bireylerin çevrimiçi disinhibisyon düzeylerini ölçmeyi amaçlayan bir ölçme aracıdır. ÇDÖ, 5'li Likert tipinde puanlanan 11 maddeden oluşmaktadır ve iki boyutlu (yararlı disinhibisyon ve toksik disinhibisyon) bir yapıya sahiptir. ...
Aile içi şiddet küresel bir sorundur ve şiddetin bireylerde uzun vadeli olumsuz etkileri
olabilmektedir. Bu bağlamda şiddetin travmatik etkilerini iyileştiren terapiler hem birey hem
de toplum ruh sağlığı açısından önem kazanmaktadır. Göz Hareketleriyle Duyarsızlaştırma ve
Yeniden İşleme (EMDR) yaklaşımı aile içi şiddet olgularında travmanın etkilerini azaltmada
etkin rol alabilir. Araştırmanın amacı; EMDR terapi yaklaşımının, aile içi şiddetin sonucu
olarak kadın danışanda ortaya çıkan travma tepkilerini iyileştirmedeki etkisini incelemektir.
Çalışmada, olgu sunum yöntemi kullanılmıştır. 34 yaşındaki aile içi şiddete maruz kalmış,
psikiyatrik tanı varlığı bulunmayan kadın danışan ile sekiz EMDR seansı yapılmıştır.
Seansların ardından bir de kontrol seansı yapılmıştır. Terapi öncesi ve sonrası yapılan
ölçümler kıyaslandığında terapi sonrasında danışandaki TSSB ve depresyon puanlarında
kayda değer miktarda iyileşme saptanmıştır. EMDR terapisi; aile içi şiddetin travmatik
etkilerini iyileştirmede ruh sağlığı uzmanları tarafından uygulanabilir. Ruh sağlığı
profesyonelleri EMDR terapi yaklaşımı konusunda bilgilendirilebilir ve eğitilebilirler.
... A variety of measures and methods have previously been used to examine the large range of proposed internet features and affordances 8,[11][12][13][14] . For example, Schouten and colleagues 11 measured the perceived relevance of nonverbal cues and controllability online, and Kamalou et al. 15 examined control over self-presentation and personal information as features of online settings that may contribute to perceptions of online safety. ...
... However, available measures tend to be brief, specific to instant messaging or particular online platforms, and are thus not suitable for generalized use. Further, some measures fail to separate individuals' perceptions of digital environments from their resulting behaviors, or from disinhibition (e.g., "It is easier to communicate online because you can reply anytime you like" 14 ), and thus confound the relationships between such constructs. This may be because the available literature on internet features and affordances lacks clarity, and 'features' and 'affordances' are terms often used interchangeably. ...
... An initial pool of 28 items that measured perceptions of the internet as related to invisibility, anonymity, and control online were developed from the literature 4,5,11,14 and codesigned with a sample of university students 9 . Participants were asked to indicate their agreement with the items along a 5-point scale (1 = Strongly disagree to 5 = Strongly agree). ...
With the pervasive nature of social media and Internet use among young adults, researchers have begun to explore experiences of online disinhibition, defined as reductions in restraint in online versus face-to-face settings. In contributing to this literature, this study aimed to test whether perceptions of the Internet as a place where one has the ability to be invisible, anonymous, and exercise control over interactions promotes greater online disinhibition. A sample of Australian young adults (N = 687; 59.8 percent female; Mage = 19.45 years, SD = 2.07) were included in the study. The sample was split to enable exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on the measures of Internet perceptions, with results finding two subfactors; (a) perceptions of the ability to be protected, invisible, or feel safe online (labeled protection), and (b) perceptions of control over interactions and self-presentation online (labeled control). Links between perceptions of protection and control, and online disinhibition were then examined, before testing social anxiety as a moderator of these links. Results demonstrated that perceptions of protection, but not control, significantly predicted online disinhibition in young adults. Furthermore, this relationship was moderated by social anxiety such that young adults high in both social anxiety and perceptions of protection reported the highest online disinhibition. This study highlights novel perceptions of online contexts, illustrates their links with online disinhibition, and demonstrates how social anxiety may interact with perceptions of protection in predicting online experiences.
... This sense of disinhibition is often more formally discussed as the Online Disinhibition Effect [6]. It is worth noting that there are two components of this effect, benign disinhibition (i.e., promotes openness, kindness, and generosity) and toxic disinhibition (i.e., promotes rude language, hatred, and threats) [6], [7]. These components are interrelated and have both been associated with dark participation online, such as flaming and cyberbullying [7]- [9]. ...
... It is worth noting that there are two components of this effect, benign disinhibition (i.e., promotes openness, kindness, and generosity) and toxic disinhibition (i.e., promotes rude language, hatred, and threats) [6], [7]. These components are interrelated and have both been associated with dark participation online, such as flaming and cyberbullying [7]- [9]. However, toxic disinhibition has been found to be more influential at predicting dark participation over time [7]. ...
... These components are interrelated and have both been associated with dark participation online, such as flaming and cyberbullying [7]- [9]. However, toxic disinhibition has been found to be more influential at predicting dark participation over time [7]. More recent work has also noted the potential roles of victimization, attitude, and behavioral control in perpetrating dark participation within these spaces [10]. ...
... Embedded in theories of aggressive behaviour on the internet, we propose the concept of the online disinhibition effect (ODE) to offer a chance to theoretically address TB. The ODE already showed its explanatory potential in neighbouring contexts of cyberbullying (CB) (Cheung et al., 2016;Lowry et al., 2017;Udris, 2014) and explained substantial shares of variance in a unified theory of TB (Kordyaka et al., 2020). Additionally, previous research identified different antecedent variables of the ODE (i.e. ...
... Additionally, previous research identified different antecedent variables of the ODE (i.e. dissociative anonymity, invisibility, asynchronicity, solipsistic introjection, dissociative imagination and minimization of authority) that have never been tested in the context of toxicity in video games (Udris, 2014). We assume that using the ODE antecedent variables is a suitable approach to offer specific points of reference on a level of video game design. ...
... The ODE already illustrated its potential to explain aggressive behaviour in digital communities. Accordingly, individuals involved in CB showed higher levels of disinhibition (Udris, 2014); social media use combined with anonymity facilitates CB in digital communities (Lowry et al., 2016), and mechanisms of moral disengagement were identified (Runions and Bak, 2015). Both concepts (i.e. ...
Purpose:
The purpose of this paper is to investigate toxic behaviour (TB) that significantly harms individuals’ gameplay experience in multiplayer online video games. Multiplayer online video games allow to simultaneously interact with others in real time. They can be considered as digital communities unifying a group of players within a video game. TB is characterized by spreading a bad mood (e.g. upsetting and insulting) leading to unsatisfying outcomes in team-based multiplayer environments.
Design/methodology/approach:
Using mixed methods, the authors show that handling TB should be addressed more firmly on a level of game design. First, the authors test the explanatory power of the online disinhibition effect (ODE) and its antecedents on TB using a quantitative survey (N = 320) and structural equation modelling. Specifically, the authors show that dissociative anonymity, asynchronicity, solipsistic introjection, dissociative imagination and minimization of authority have a mediated effect through toxic disinhibition as predictors of TB. Second, the authors conduct a focus group workshop (N = 10) with experts from diverse disciplines to derive design principles on a level of game design.
Findings:
The results indicate that transparency and imminent feedback are still underutilized elements in game design that can significantly buffer several forms of TB. By developing a heuristic prototype and exemplary design principles in subsequent categories, the authors address all relevant in-game scenarios. With this study, the authors provide researchers and practitioners helpful insights on how to increase the well-being and safety of gaming communities.
Originality/value:
ODE already showed its explanatory potential in the neighbouring context of cyberbullying. Embedded in theories of negative behaviour on the internet, the authors propose a holistic and theory-driven approach to handle TB on a level of game design. The authors’ insights allow for a better understanding of an innovative entity of the dark side of technology diffusion and adverse side effects linked to it.
... Importantly, affordances can impact users' positive and negative experiences with technology (Fox & Tang, 2014;Mao, 2014). For example, research indicates that the inability to observe nonverbal indicators of disapproval online can drive some users to engage in negative behaviors (e.g., discrimination) and show bias (e.g., prejudice and stereotyping) that they are unlikely to exhibit in-person (Udris, 2014). Sociotechnical affordances therefore shape online behavior due to the unique possibilities they offer users (Suler, 2004). ...
... Suler (2004) developed the online disinhibition effect to explain why online users loosen "normative and social constraints of behavior" that are otherwise unacceptable in the offline world. While the online disinhibition effect is not inherently negative, it can manifest as toxic disinhibition, which includes activities such as gendertrolling, flaming, and cyberbullying (Dillon & Bushman, 2015;Udris, 2014). Suler (2004) argued that users engage in these behaviors because there are often no "real world" consequences for the offender in online environments. ...
... Online Disinhibition. Participants responded to an 11-item measure of online disinhibition (Udris, 2014). The Online Disinhibition Scale measures disengagement from the social constraints of behavior in online environments through two subscales: benign disinhibition (comfort with openly sharing information in online settings; α = .80) ...
The present studies examined whether masculinity threat and anonymity impacted men's support and use of gender harassment in social media. Using survey and experimental methods, this research evaluated men's endorsement and perpetration of gender harassment in Twitter and Facebook across three studies (NStudy1 = 258; NStudy2 = 94; NStudy3=216). Study 1 found that men’s stress about masculinity failures was negatively related to harassment endorsement in Twitter. In Study 2, public shame about masculinity failures played a key role in men’s responses to masculinity threat. Following masculinity threat, men who expressed concern that others would perceive them as insufficiently masculine reported greater harassment endorsement in Twitter. Study 3 showed that the relationship between masculinity threat and anonymity impacted men’s behaviors in Facebook. Masculinity-threatened men who were anonymous shared more sexist memes compared to masculinity-threatened men who were identified. Additionally, among masculinity-threatened men, men who reported fearing backlash about their masculinity failures shared more sexist memes. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that gender and anonymity are important factors in men’s endorsement and perpetration of gender harassment in social media.
... El grupo de adolescentes, los denominados "nativos digitales" desde su nacimiento integraron los medios tecnológicos a su vida adquiriendo una serie de habilidades y diferenciándose de las generaciones anteriores (Barrio Del y Fernández, 2016), a su vez a través de expansión de los dispositivos móviles incrementaron su capacidad de socializar, al conocer y hacer nuevos amigos, han rediseñado sus interacciones cotidianas y emocionales (Calvo, 2015), incidiendo potencialmente en la formación de la identidad psicológica (Reig y Vilches, 2013). El empoderamiento tecnológico, la libertad en el ciberespacio y las nuevas formas de interacción poseen sus ventajas pero también sus riesgos, disfunciones y daños en los "nativos digitales; En la cibercultura el adolescente adopta estrategias adaptativas o desadaptativas que impactan en su identidad, en su interacción en el ciberespacio, se comunica, se expresa, intercambia emociones adoptando identidades diferentes en cada situación online (Arab y Díaz, 2015); en el feedback virtual puede surgir el efecto de desinhibición que alimenta un clima de toxicidad en las interacciones por la falta de la capacidad empática de los adolescentes (Udris, 2014) y el uso problemático de redes acompañado de problemas de inadaptación (Martínez, Moreno, & Musitu,2018),estas formas inadecuadas de usos de las tecnologías han propiciado la aparición del ciberacoso y cibervictimización que son una extensión de la violencia y victimización escolar, pero con características particulares. ...
... Las actitudes hacia las normas sociales y a la autoridad institucional constituye otro factor de ajuste en la conducta de los chicos en los sistemas escolares y sociales en donde participan, el adolescente percibe el internet como un espacio sin normas jurídicas y experimenta una total libertad para realizar acciones delictivas en la red (Oliveros et al., 2012). Los adolescentes implicados en ciberacoso generalmente están envueltos en comportamientos delictivos y en transgresiones ante la autoridad (Buelga, Iranzo, Cava & Torralba, 2015;Ortega et al., 2016), la actitud negativa a las figuras de autoridad promueve la desinhibición en el mundo virtual facilitando las conductas violentas en los espacios virtuales (Romero et al., 2019;Udris, 2014), pero a su vez los adolescentes utilizan internet para enviar mensajes en contra de sus profesores (Mendoza, 2012), desvalorizando y criticando a las figuras de autoridad. Las dinámicas disruptivas favorecen las prácticas de riesgo de los adolescentes en un contexto global, flexible y con incertidumbre (Navarro y Pastor, 2018). ...
... Los adolescentes que viven climas negativos en sus familias presentan mayor predisposición a involucrarse en conductas disruptivas en el mundo virtual (Makri & Karagianni, 2014), perciben internet como un espacio sin normas jurídicas y experimentan una total libertad para realizar acciones delictivas en la red (Oliveros et al., 2012). Los adolescentes implicados en ciberacoso generalmente están envueltos en comportamientos delictivos y en transgresiones ante la autoridad (Buelga et al., 2015;Ortega et al., 2016;Ortega, Buelga, Cava y Torralba, 2017 ;Romero et al., la actitud negativa a las figuras de autoridad promueve la desinhibición en el mundo virtual facilitando las conductas violentas a través de las TICs (Udris, 2014); a la vez, los adolescentes utilizan internet para enviar mensajes en contra de sus profesores (Mendoza, 2012), desvalorizando y criticando a los modelos de autoridad. La actitud transgresora hacia los preceptos sociales y la conducta violenta son las variables de mayor ponderación explicativa en el ciberacoso , el alto ciberacosador se percibe con menos conductas prosociales y recursos personales (Gómez, Romera y Ortega, 2017). ...
... El grupo de adolescentes, los denominados "nativos digitales" desde su nacimiento integraron los medios tecnológicos a su vida adquiriendo una serie de habilidades y diferenciándose de las generaciones anteriores (Barrio Del y Fernández, 2016), a su vez a través de expansión de los dispositivos móviles incrementaron su capacidad de socializar, al conocer y hacer nuevos amigos, han rediseñado sus interacciones cotidianas y emocionales (Calvo, 2015), incidiendo potencialmente en la formación de la identidad psicológica (Reig y Vilches, 2013). El empoderamiento tecnológico, la libertad en el ciberespacio y las nuevas formas de interacción poseen sus ventajas pero también sus riesgos, disfunciones y daños en los "nativos digitales; En la cibercultura el adolescente adopta estrategias adaptativas o desadaptativas que impactan en su identidad, en su interacción en el ciberespacio, se comunica, se expresa, intercambia emociones adoptando identidades diferentes en cada situación online (Arab y Díaz, 2015); en el feedback virtual puede surgir el efecto de desinhibición que alimenta un clima de toxicidad en las interacciones por la falta de la capacidad empática de los adolescentes (Udris, 2014) y el uso problemático de redes acompañado de problemas de inadaptación (Martínez, Moreno, & Musitu,2018),estas formas inadecuadas de usos de las tecnologías han propiciado la aparición del ciberacoso y cibervictimización que son una extensión de la violencia y victimización escolar, pero con características particulares. ...
... Las actitudes hacia las normas sociales y a la autoridad institucional constituye otro factor de ajuste en la conducta de los chicos en los sistemas escolares y sociales en donde participan, el adolescente percibe el internet como un espacio sin normas jurídicas y experimenta una total libertad para realizar acciones delictivas en la red (Oliveros et al., 2012). Los adolescentes implicados en ciberacoso generalmente están envueltos en comportamientos delictivos y en transgresiones ante la autoridad (Buelga, Iranzo, Cava & Torralba, 2015;Ortega et al., 2016), la actitud negativa a las figuras de autoridad promueve la desinhibición en el mundo virtual facilitando las conductas violentas en los espacios virtuales (Romero et al., 2019;Udris, 2014), pero a su vez los adolescentes utilizan internet para enviar mensajes en contra de sus profesores (Mendoza, 2012), desvalorizando y criticando a las figuras de autoridad. Las dinámicas disruptivas favorecen las prácticas de riesgo de los adolescentes en un contexto global, flexible y con incertidumbre (Navarro y Pastor, 2018). ...
... Los adolescentes que viven climas negativos en sus familias presentan mayor predisposición a involucrarse en conductas disruptivas en el mundo virtual (Makri & Karagianni, 2014), perciben internet como un espacio sin normas jurídicas y experimentan una total libertad para realizar acciones delictivas en la red (Oliveros et al., 2012). Los adolescentes implicados en ciberacoso generalmente están envueltos en comportamientos delictivos y en transgresiones ante la autoridad (Buelga et al., 2015;Ortega et al., 2016;Ortega, Buelga, Cava y Torralba, 2017 ;Romero et al., la actitud negativa a las figuras de autoridad promueve la desinhibición en el mundo virtual facilitando las conductas violentas a través de las TICs (Udris, 2014); a la vez, los adolescentes utilizan internet para enviar mensajes en contra de sus profesores (Mendoza, 2012), desvalorizando y criticando a los modelos de autoridad. La actitud transgresora hacia los preceptos sociales y la conducta violenta son las variables de mayor ponderación explicativa en el ciberacoso , el alto ciberacosador se percibe con menos conductas prosociales y recursos personales (Gómez, Romera y Ortega, 2017). ...
... In the context of video games, studies have focused on the disinhibiting efect of anonymity and invisibility as online gaming environments facilitate high degrees of these interactions [11,26,29]. Previous studies suggest that online disinhibition is a predictor of toxic behaviors in online gaming environments [26,54,55]. While both components of online disinhibition (i.e., benign and toxic disinhibition) have been shown to contribute to the occurrence of negative behaviors online [55], recent studies suggest that toxic disinhibition is a more meaningful predictor of toxic behaviors in the context of video games [26,54]. ...
... Previous studies suggest that online disinhibition is a predictor of toxic behaviors in online gaming environments [26,54,55]. While both components of online disinhibition (i.e., benign and toxic disinhibition) have been shown to contribute to the occurrence of negative behaviors online [55], recent studies suggest that toxic disinhibition is a more meaningful predictor of toxic behaviors in the context of video games [26,54]. ...
... Online Disinhibition Scale: The 11-item ODS [55] was deployed to measure participant tendency towards online disinhibition along two subscales: Benign Disinhibition (7 items) and Toxic Disinhibition (4 items). The sample item "The Internet is anonymous so it is easier for me to express my true feelings or thoughts" refects Benign Disinhibition, whereas "I don't mind writing insulting things about others online, because it's anonymous" refects Toxic Disinhibition. ...
... The literature describes two types of online disinhibition: toxic and benign disinhibition. Toxic disinhibition manifests as a propensity towards a variety of negative attitudes and behaviors such as anger, vicious criticism, outgroup hatred, cyberbullying, racism, and aggression [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. On the contrary, benign disinhibition is mostly described as a positive process by which individuals feel increased comfort in manifesting acts of kindness when online compared to in-person which, however, in some cases can lead to undesirable situations [13,[20][21][22][23]. ...
... Toxic disinhibition manifests as a propensity towards a variety of negative attitudes and behaviors such as anger, vicious criticism, outgroup hatred, cyberbullying, racism, and aggression [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. On the contrary, benign disinhibition is mostly described as a positive process by which individuals feel increased comfort in manifesting acts of kindness when online compared to in-person which, however, in some cases can lead to undesirable situations [13,[20][21][22][23]. The investigation into online disinhibition and exposure to hate remains relatively nascent-to our knowledge, there has only been one study that has demonstrated an association between online disinhibition and exposure to hate online [12]. ...
... Online disinhibition was measured using the online disinhibition scale after adapting the questions to the young age of the study population [13]. The factor structure of the questions was assessed with a factor analysis using principal component analysis for factor extraction, and as a result, a scale with a score ranging from 7 to 28 was formed, with higher values indicating a more disinhibited behavior. ...
Today's youth have extensive access to the internet and frequently engage in social networking activities using various social media platforms and devices. This is a phenomenon that hate groups are exploiting when disseminating their propaganda. This study seeks to better understand youth exposure to hateful material in the online space by exploring predictors of such exposure including demographic characteristics (age, gender, and race), academic performance, online behaviors, online disinhibition, risk perception, and parents/guardians' supervision of online activities. We implemented a cross-sectional study design, using a paper questionnaire, in two high schools in Massachusetts (USA), focusing on students 14 to 19 years old. Logistic regression models were used to study the association between independent variables (demographics, online behaviors, risk perception, parental supervision) and exposure to hate online. Results revealed an association between exposure to hate messages in the online space and time spent online, academic performance, communicating with a stranger on social media, and benign online disinhibition. In our sample, benign online disinhibition was also associated with students' risk of encountering someone online that tried to convince them of racist views. This study represents an important contribution to understanding youth's risk factors of exposure to hateful material online.
... The literature describes two types of online disinhibition: toxic and benign disinhibition. Toxic disinhibition manifests as a propensity towards a variety of negative attitudes and behaviors such as anger, vicious criticism, outgroup hatred [12], cyberbullying [13][14][15], racism [16], and aggression [17,18]. On the contrary, benign disinhibition is mostly described as a positive process by which individuals feel increased comfort in manifesting acts of kindness when online [19][20][21] compared to in person which, however, in some cases can lead to undesirable situations [13,22]. ...
... Toxic disinhibition manifests as a propensity towards a variety of negative attitudes and behaviors such as anger, vicious criticism, outgroup hatred [12], cyberbullying [13][14][15], racism [16], and aggression [17,18]. On the contrary, benign disinhibition is mostly described as a positive process by which individuals feel increased comfort in manifesting acts of kindness when online [19][20][21] compared to in person which, however, in some cases can lead to undesirable situations [13,22]. There is concern that the internet may provide youth with a gateway to online hate communities and expose them to a dizzying array of sites containing hateful material [23]. ...
... Respondents were asked how many of their social media followers they knew in person, and if they had recently removed any strangers from such followers; similar questions were asked about respondents' friends' social media behaviors, under the assumption that they would be less likely to misreport friends' habits compared to their own. Online disinhibition was measured using the Online Disinhibition Scale after adapting the questions to the young age of the study population [13]. The factor structure of the questions was assessed with a factor analysis using principal component analysis for factor extraction, and as a result a scale with a score ranging from 7 to 28 was formed, with higher values indicating a more disinhibited behavior. ...
Today's youth have almost universal access to the internet and frequently engage in social networking activities using various social media platforms and devices. This is a phenomenon that hate groups are exploiting when disseminating their propaganda. This study seeks to better understand youth exposure to hateful material in the online space by exploring predictors of such exposure including demographic characteristics (age, gender and race), academic performance, online behaviors, online disinhibition, risk perception, and parents/guardians' supervision of online activities. We implemented a cross-sectional study design, using a paper questionnaire, in two high schools in Massachusetts (USA), focusing on students 14 to 19 years old. Logistic regression models were used to study the association between independent variables (demographics, online behaviors, risk perception, parental supervision) and exposure to hate online. Results revealed an association between exposure to hate messages in the online space and time spent online, academic performance, communicating with a stranger on social media, and benign online disinhibition. In our sample, benign online disinhibition was also associated with students' risk of encountering someone online that tried to convince them of racist views. This study represents an important first step in understanding youth's risk factors of exposure to hateful material online.
... 1,20,21 Moreover, the anonymity, invisibility, and space-time distance afforded by cyberspace can decrease empathy, self-control, and the ability to accurately estimate the consequences of aggressive acts. 22,23 Indeed, online disinhibition is a risk factor for antisocial online behaviors, [16][17][18]24,25 especially online trolling. 9,26 For example, online disinhibition was found to correlate significantly and positively with online trolling. ...
... Online disinhibition was measured using the Online Disinhibition Scale. 24 The scale was composed of 11 items on a 4-point scale (1 = totally disagree, 4 = totally agree). This scale has shown good reliability and validity among Chinese participants. ...
The Dark Triad (Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism) is associated with online disinhibition and antisocial online behaviors. However, the mediating role between online disinhibition and online trolling has never previously been investigated. We examined direct and indirect associations between online disinhibition and online trolling via the Dark Triad among 1,303 participants. The results showed that online disinhibition is positively correlated with online trolling, and their link is partly mediated by Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Furthermore, men exhibited higher levels of Dark Triad traits and were more likely to engage in online trolling than women. Moderated mediation analyses indicated that gender moderated the relationship between psychopathy and online trolling. The study provided a promising perspective for the intervention of online trolling, namely netizens should be taught to reduce impulsivity and improve empathy and self-control, especially for men.
... Usually, the ODE is operationalized with two different dimensions: benign disinhibition (i.e., positive behavior such as helping others, and showing kindness) and toxic disinhibition (i.e., negative behavior such as hostile expressions, and inappropriate behaviors). In previous research, the ODE already illustrated its potential to explain aggressive behavior on the internet [20][21][22][23]. Referring to the context of TB, a recent study showed the meaningfulness of toxic disinhibition as a predictor for TB [8]. ...
... We plan to use an existing scale to measure ODE: benign disinhibition will be measured with six items (e.g., "I have an image of the other players in my head when I read their messages") and toxic disinhibition with four items (e.g., "There are no rules online therefore you can do whatever you want") [21]. ...
Enabled by technological advancements, a contemporary form of technology use that particularly became popular are online multiplayer video games, which are played with others in real time. Besides various positive impacts on the user experience (e.g., fun, additional social exchange) adverse consequences have occurred as well (e.g., stress, anger). Most recently, a sincere problem gaining increased attention is toxic behavior (i.e., a behavior spreading negative effects and bad mood during play). With our study, we propose a way to handle toxic behavior on a level of video game design by using a multi-method approach. First, we will consult the online disinhibition effect and its antecedents to identify design related relationships. Afterwards, we will conduct a qualitative workshop engaging video game designers and players to reshape in-game experiences by incentivizing players to buffer toxicity.
... For instance, Heirman and Walrave (2012) utilized theory to predict cyberbullying perpetration from cyberbullying attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioral control through cyberbullying intentions in a sample of Belgian youth. Various social and communication-based theories have been shown to reliably predict cyberbullying perpetration, such as General Strain Theory (Paez, 2018), Routine Activities Theory (Navarro and Jasinski, 2013), General Aggression Model (Kokkinos and Antoniadou, 2019), Social-Ecological Model (Guo et al., 2021), Uses and Gratifications (Tanrikulu and Erdur-Baker, 2021), Online Disinhibition Effect (Udris, 2014), and others. ...
... Thus, one's physical stature (height, weight, muscle mass) is likely less important in online contexts than face-to-face situations (Barlett et al., 2017b). Second, the online environment affords an online aggressor an increased perception of anonymity (Wright, 2013(Wright, , 2014, which, according to online disinhibition effect (Suler, 2004), increases the likelihood of online antisocial behaviors (Udris, 2014). Currently, there is only one empirically validated theory that predicts cyberbullying perpetration incrementally from traditional bullying while exploiting these differences between both forms of bullying: the Barlett Gentile Cyberbullying Model (BGCM; Barlett and Gentile, 2012). ...
The psychological variables and processes germane to cyberbullying need additional empirical attention—especially for adolescent samples. Myriad studies and meta-analytic reviews have confirmed the deleterious psychological and behavioral consequences of being cyber-victimized. We argue that one method to curtail such effects is to inform interventions aimed at reducing cyberbullying perpetration regarding the why and for whom cyberbullying is likely. This review expands on these issues and emphasizes the Barlett Gentile Cyberbullying Model (BGCM) as the only validated cyberbullying-specific theory to predict cyberbullying perpetration. Our principal thesis is that the wealth of research validating the BGCM has been with adult samples and applying the BGCM to adolescents presents both challenging and exciting research opportunities for future research and intervention development in youth.
... Usually, the ODE is operationalized with two different dimensions: benign disinhibition (i.e., positive behavior such as helping others, and showing kindness) and toxic disinhibition (i.e., negative behavior such as hostile expressions, and inappropriate behaviors). In previous research, the ODE already illustrated its potential to explain aggressive behavior on the internet [20][21][22][23]. Referring to the context of TB, a recent study showed the meaningfulness of toxic disinhibition as a predictor for TB [8]. ...
... We plan to use an existing scale to measure ODE: benign disinhibition will be measured with six items (e.g., "I have an image of the other players in my head when I read their messages") and toxic disinhibition with four items (e.g., "There are no rules online therefore you can do whatever you want") [21]. ...
Enabled by technological advancements, a contemporary form of technology use that particularly became popular are online multiplayer video games, which are played with others in real time. Besides various positive impacts on user experience (e.g., fun, additional social exchange) adverse consequences have occurred as well (e.g., stress, anger). Most recently, a sincere problem gaining increased attention is toxic behavior (i.e., a behavior spreading negative effects and bad mood during play). With our study, we propose a way to handle toxic behavior on a level of video game design by using a multi-method approach. First, we will consult the online disinhibition effect and its antecedents to identify design related relationships. Afterwards, we will conduct a qualitative workshop engaging video game designers and players to reshape in-game experiences by incentivizing players to buffer forms of toxic behavior.
... For example, Schouten et al. (2007) developed a three-item scale that captures the feeling of being less restrained. Wright et al. (2019) adapted Udris (2014) online disinhibition concept to develop a four-item scale and assessed adolescents' perception of disinhibition in their online interaction and engagement. ...
... Nomological validity refers to the degree to which predictions based on the measured constructs are confirmed in a large theoretical context or network of constructs (Bagozzi, 1981). To assess the nomological validity of online disinhibition, we expected a positive relationship between online disinhibition and online harassment (Fox et al., 2015) based on the literature (Udris, 2014;Wong et al., 2015). Finn (2004) measured online harassment using a four-item scale, including items such as "I harass or bother someone online to make him/her feel worried or threatened," "I embarrass or humiliate someone online to make him/her feel bad," "I insult someone online to make him/her feel mad," and "I make rude or nasty comments to someone online." ...
Purpose
Online disinhibition is one of the key factors leading to the occurrence of cyberaggression, cyberbullying and various forms of deviant behaviors in the online environment. To understand the composition of online disinhibition, this study aims to conceptualize online disinhibition and develop a measurement instrument for online disinhibition.
Design/methodology/approach
We followed a rigorous procedure to develop and validate the multidimensional instrument of online disinhibition in three phases: item generation, measurement development and instrument testing.
Findings
We developed a 23-item online disinhibition scale and identified six key dimensions: dissociative anonymity, invisibility, asynchronicity, solipsistic introjections, dissociative imagination and minimization of authority.
Practical implications
The online disinhibition instrument is an accessible and easily administered measure that can be used as a checklist for systems designers and administrators to evaluate the level of online disinhibition among users. It offers systems design information on how to prevent and combat online deviant behaviors on platforms.
Originality/value
This work provides a rich conceptualization of an online disinhibition instrument that can serve as a springboard for future work to understand online deviant behaviors. The newly developed measurement instrument of online disinhibition also adds to the repository of rigorous research scales in this area.
... Moreover, the possible influence of adolescent false self perceptions on uninhibited digital behavior or cyber aggression will be explored, as the associations between these constructs are not well-established. Lastly, although links between increased online disinhibition and cyberbullying have been acknowledged (e.g., Udris, 2014), the present study aims to further investigate these effects. Following these distinctive gaps in the existing literature, the present study sought to investigate whether any of the dark personality traits would directly, or indirectly, predict false self perceptions, online disinhibition, and aggressive online behavior. ...
... These items were scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The items selected loaded onto a single factor (see the psychometric evaluation of items below), and exhibited similar reliability to the 11 items used by Udris (2014). The total scale internal consistency was adequate in the current study (α = 0.73). ...
A large proportion of youth believe that the world of cyberspace provides them with a relatively safe and anonymous digital bubble ripe for uninhibited self-expression. At the same time, observers have noted an increase of individuals behaving in an unrestrained manner on the Internet, while researchers have reported elevated rates of cyber aggressive behavior. What remains unclear, however, is whether, and how, disinhibition might be related to cyber aggression. In an aim to explore the possible associations, a large sample (total N = 709) of high school (Mage = 15.56 years) respondents from New Zealand were recruited, and completed a survey featuring scales assessing personality and technology behaviors, attitudes, habits, and trends. The present study was designed to investigate whether the three dark personality traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism would predict false self perceptions, and in sequence, online disinhibition and aggressive online behavior. All three dark personality traits, as well as false self, were positively associated with online disinhibition. Perceptions of false self were found to be a significant predictor of cyber aggression when mediated by online disinhibition. In the case of cyber aggression, however, psychopathy, sadistic traits, and online disinhibition were found to be significant predictors of this outcome. The results collectively provide a more nuanced understanding of how antisocial personality traits are associated with maladaptive identity formation (i.e., endorsement of false self beliefs) as well as maladaptive online behavior.
... These findings can be best explained by online disinhibition theory [66], which posits that individuals are likely disinhibited in online (versus face-to-face) environments, which change the likelihood of aggressive behaviors (amongst other outcomes). For instance, the perceived anonymity afforded an online aggressor, juxtaposed with asynchronicity (the lack of real time interactions online), the minimization of status (absence of cues indicative of status or authority), and other constructs, likely increase cyberbullying [67]. Moreover, research has shown that cyberbullying perpetration correlates positively [68][69][70] with normative aggressive beliefs (NOBAG; the cognitive belief that aggression is acceptable after a perceived provocation [71]), and with cognitive interpretation of ambiguous situations as hostile [72], termed hostile attribution biases (HAB [73]). ...
Cyberbullying perpetration has emerged as a world-wide societal issue. Interventions need to be continuously updated to help reduce cyberbullying perpetration. We believe that data derived from theory can best accomplish this objective. Here, we argue for the importance of learning theory to understand cyberbullying perpetration. The purpose of this manuscript is to firstly describe the various learning theories that are applicable to describe cyberbullying perpetration, such as social learning, operant conditioning, the general learning model, and others. Second, we delve into the Barlett Gentile Cyberbullying Model, which integrates learning postulates and distinguishes cyber from traditional bullying. Finally, we offer a learning perspective on interventions and future research.
... Thus, a youth's antisocial behaviors may be explained by high scores on insensitivity and uncaring traits, that involve lack of empathy, remorse and guilt, little concern for other people (Kokkinos et al., 2017) and the pursuit of more intense sensations (Frick et al., 2003). In the online world, adolescents have the advantage to be anonymous, which leads them to feel less inhibited and less concerned about the consequences of their actions in the online world (Udris, 2014;Wachs et al., 2017), and consequently leading to non-consensual sexting perpetration. ...
Despite being a normative behavior, sexting often takes non-consensual forms when sexually explicit content is shared without permission. Studies have shown an association between non-consensual sexting behavior, callous-unemotional traits (CU), and experiences of childhood trauma at home. However, the complex relationships among these variables have not yet been examined. The present study aimed to test the mediating effect of CU traits on the relationship between childhood trauma and non-consensual sexting behavior. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 358 participants, aged 10–20 years (n = 114 girls, n = 244 boys), of whom 179 self-reported perpetrations of non-consensual sexting behaviors. Overall, findings support that adolescents who perpetrate non-consensual sexting are related to high levels of CU traits and childhood trauma, when compared to adolescents who do not. Results showed that callousness trait mediates the association between childhood trauma and non-consensual sexting perpetration. Uncaring trait also mediates the relationship between physical abuse and sexual abuse childhood trauma and non-consensual sexting behavior. These findings have practical implications for clinical purposes, identifying the mechanisms underlying the relationship between CU traits and non-consensual sexting.
... First, those inclined to cyberbully others can remain "virtually" anonymous through the use of screennames in social media apps, games, and comment threads, as well as via temporary/secondary email and "burner" (e.g., throwaway) social media accounts (Burgess-Proctor et al., 2009;Kowalski & Limber, 2007). Secondly, it seems much easier to be cruel and malicious through texts, posts, social media comments, direct messages, or other forms of online communications because of the geographic distance separating the aggressor and the target, and the fact that personal and social norms, rules, morals, and law-are rendered less relevant when interacting through these mediums (Diener, 1980;Udris, 2014;Wachs et al., 2019). ...
Bullying and cyberbullying prevention remain a major priority for schools, communities, and families, and research is clear that positive, constructive parenting practices can play a key preventive role. The current work explores six dimensions of parenting (warmth, structure, autonomy support, rejection, chaos, and coercion), and their specific relationship to school and online bullying. Using survey data from a nationally representative sample of 1474 English-speaking 12- to 17-year-old US youth, we found that students whose parent(s) exhibit warmth, structure, and autonomy support are less likely to have engaged in bullying or cyberbullying offending, while those with parental relations marked by rejection, chaos, and coercion are more likely to have participated in both forms of peer aggression. Implications for developing stronger parent-child relationships through improved parenting practices as a mechanism for bullying prevention are discussed.
... Also, the mean difference between each gender is not significant. The result of this study negates the finding of previous studies such as (Udris, 2014;Thelwal, 2008) that claimed that there is a significant difference in the usage of social media sites between female and male students. The findings of this study may be influenced by students' level of religiosity because we are investigating the differences in media usage among Islamic studies students. ...
The study investigates socio-economic status as a predictor of social media usage among Islamic studies students in senior secondary schools in the Badagry division of Lagos state. It employed the survey research design with a total sample of one hundred and fifty secondary school students. The data obtained for the study was analyzed with a descriptive statistic, Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC), t-test and ANOVA. The findings revealed that socio-economic status predicts social media usage among Islamic studies students and gender differences didn’t exist concerning usage of social media among Islamic studies students. Based on the findings, it was recommended that school authorities, counsellors and teachers should reorientate secondary school students on the use of other social media platforms to ensure it does not affect their academic performance negatively, social media marketing should be introduced into trade and entrepreneurship subject at secondary school level, and parent should avoid buying internet enable phones for their children in secondary school since it has been identified as one of the motivating factors that influence their use of social media during classroom instruction.
Keywords: Socio-Economic status, Social media usage, Digital divide
... Araştırmada online ketlemenin devre dışı kalışının, online nezaketsizliği etkilediği şeklinde ortaya konulan bulgu; bu değişkenin online zorbalık (Cheung vd., 2016;Cheung vd., 2020;Wright vd., 2019;Udris, 2014;Huang vd., 2020), online agresif davranışlar (Kurek vd., 2019), online nefret davranışı (Wachs ve Wright, 2018) ve online trolleme (Stuart ve Scott, 2021) gibi değişkenlerle ilişkili olduğunu gösteren araştırma sonuçlarıyla örtüşmektedir. Genel olarak online ortamdaki iletişimlerden öte, belirli eğitim iletişimleri amacıyla kurulan online sınıf gruplarında da bu etkilerin olduğunun tespit edilmesi, araştırmanın özgün bir bulgusu olarak değerlendirilebilir. ...
... Our findings are slightly higher, especially for cybervictims. This may be because more adolescents are using technology with increasing frequency [4], and without parental supervision, enhancing the disinhibition effect [34,35] used to describe the lowering of psychological restraints, which often serve to regulate behaviors in the online social environment. ...
The use of information and communication technology (ICT) has led to new risks, and among them is cyberbullying. It is important to be aware of the prevalence of cyberbullying in order to design intervention plans based on real contexts. Studies, however, vary widely in the data they report. These discrepancies may be due to differences in measurement. The main aim of our study, conducted in the Region of Murcia (Spain), was to ascertain the prevalence of cyberbullying in the three roles involved: victim, perpetrator and bystander. A descriptive, correlational and quantitative
study was conducted using a “Cyberbullying: peer harassment screening”questionnaire to collect data. The representative sample comprised 950 students aged between 11 and 18 years (M = 13.93, SD = 1.35). The data showed that 72.1% of the participants had been involved in one or more cyberbullying situation (as victim, aggressor and/or bystander) in the previous year. Specifically, 49.3% had been cybervictims, 23.3% cyberaggressors and 62.3% cyberbystanders. The study provides detailed information about the prevalence of cyberbullying in the Region of Murcia and enables comparisons of the three roles involved. The data point to the need to promote active prevention and psychoeducational intervention strategies.
... This affects the potential significance (beyond the scope of social action of the victim) and duration of the impact of the harassment in the digital context, even after the aggressor's act has ended. Udris (2014), Brewer and Kerslake (2015) and Peker (2015) recognised the growing problem of cyberbullying in society. This term is used when an individual or group uses information and communications technology (ICT) and the mechanisms that it facilitates to repeatedly inflict aggression (physical or psychological) on others who cannot directly defend themselves. ...
Numerous studies have examined the phenomenon of bullying. The development of information and communications technology (ICT) has enabled an emerging form of bullying known as cyberbullying. This article presents a case study of an Internet-focused bullying prevention programme in a Spanish secondary school with 627 students, from a non-experimental, qualitative perspective. The data collected show an ICT-centric institutional framework that supports bullying prevention programmes. The results also indicate an institutional culture highly adapted to ICT based on teleological, psycho-pedagogical, administrative and community dimensions. This culture has favoured the development of the cyberbullying prevention programme studied in this article. ARTICLE HISTORY
... Several factors have emerged in the literature as being positively related to incidences of cyberbullying and cyberbullying victimisation, including the amount of time spent online by young people (Tsitsika et al. 2015), access to the internet from a private place within their homes (Shapka et al. 2018), disregard towards online privacy (Udris 2014), online surfing for social reasons (Ephraim 2013) and motivations for cyberbullying (Shapka and Law 2013). Unfortunately, the advent of mobile technology coupled with the decrease in screen size now allows screen privacy and therefore mobile use in any space, with a consequent increased risk for cyberbullying victims (Riva 2019). ...
This study investigates whether the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia) mediates the relationship between cyberbullying victimisation and parental attachment in a sample of young Italian adults (N = 328; mean age: 20 years). The aim of the study was threefold: to consider gelotophobia, cyberbullying victimisation and parental attachment, as a whole, namely to test the mediating role of gelotophobia between parental attachment and cyberbullying victimisation; to evaluate the connections among the three variables against an understudied age target, namely young adults; to verify whether the association between gelotophobia and face-to-face bullying victimisation extends to cyberbullying perpetrations. The PhoPhiKat<30> questionnaire, the Cyber-Victimization through Mobile Phone and Internet Scale (CYB-VIC) test and the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) scale were used to assess the levels of gelotophobia, cyberbullying victimisation and quality of parental attachment, respectively. Two main results were obtained: (1) Gelotophobia proved to be a mediator variable between cyberbullying victimisation and father attachment and (2) gelotophobia was found to be positively associated with cyberbullying victimisation. The current research adds new evidence on how the three aforementioned variables relate to one another in a range of ages (i.e. young adulthood) and in a cultural context (i.e. the Italian context), which was poorly investigated until now. The paper concludes with a discussion on practical implications.
... A few other studies have examined the related concept of disinhibition/disassociation in online interactions. Disassociation refers to the loosening of social restrictions and inhibitions on the Internet that are normally present in face-to-face interactions that may lead to undesirable online behaviors (Udris 2014). In particular, the lack of physical proximity on the Internet tends to create a sense of diffused responsibility motivating people to perform acts that they would not otherwise consider doing in person. ...
... Anonimitas yang terdapat dalam komunikasi elektronik tidak hanya berfungsi untuk menyamarkan identitas, tetapi dapat mengurangi konsep etika sosial, sehingga memudahkan pengguna untuk terlibat dalam tindakan agresif seperti cyberbullying (Li, 2007). Penelitian yang dilakukan pada 887 remaja di Jepang menunjukkan bahwa remaja dengan skor skala online disinhibition yang tinggi memungkinkan 1,2 kali lipat untuk melakukan cyberbullying (Udris, 2014). Penelitian lanjutan menunjukkan bahwa, online disinhibition merupakan prediktor terkuat bagi munculnya perilaku menyimpang ketika berada di dunia maya (Udris, 2017). ...
Perilaku cyberbullying memanfaatkan penggunaan teknologi digital dan internet sebagai media untuk melakukan aksi bullying. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menguji fungsi disinhibisi online sebagai mediator hubungan antara kebingungan identitas dan cyberbullying pada remaja. Partisipan dalam penelitian berusia 12 sampai dengan 15 tahun atau remaja yang terdiri dari 151 laki-laki dan 196 perempuan. Pengumpulan data dilakukan menggunakan 3 skala yaitu Skala Perilaku Cyberbullying, Skala kebingungan identitas, dan Skala disinhibisi online. Data yang diperoleh diuji menggunakan analisis regresi dengan melibatkan variabel mediator dengan bantuan IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa ada pengaruh mediasi disinhibisi online pada hubungan kebingungan identitas dengan cyberbullying. Perhitungan peranan menggunakan MacKinnon diperoleh hasil bahwa efek langsung memberikan peran lebih besar dibandingkan efek tidak langsung. Hasil analisis tambahan menunjukkan bahwa laki-laki lebih banyak melakukan perilaku cyberbullying; semakin tinggi durasi penggunaan internet dan sosial media semakin banyak pula perilaku cyberbullying yang akan dilakukan remaja. Hasil ini menunjukkan bahwa remaja dan cyberbullying memiliki banyak faktor yang memerlukan penelitian lanjutan.
Kata kunci: Cyberbullying, disinhibisi online, kebingungan identitas, remaja
... cyberbullying, as online contents can be viewed and shared repeatedly (Piccoli et al., 2020;Udris, 2014). Some scholars also highlighted the need to address the power imbalance between the victim and the perpetrator in cyberbullying (Fenaughty & Harre, 2013). ...
Cyberbullying amongst adolescents is a rapidly growing and alarming global phenomenon that can significantly harm their well-being. Studying cyberbullying in East Asia is especially important, where peer pressure based on collectivistic ideals and rigid cultural scripts for social interactions remain strong. Furthermore, the countries represented in this review are amongst the top globally for internet usage, suggesting that adolescents in East Asia are likely to be excessive users of social media communication and be more exposed to various forms of cyberbullying. This systematic review summarizes findings from peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on cyberbullying amongst adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 in East Asian countries (N = 21). SCOPUS, Google Scholar, and PsycINFO databases were searched for relevant work published between 2008 and 2020. Search strategies involved using keywords related to cyberbullying, adolescents, East Asia, and the name of each country represented in the region (China, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan). Key factors associated with cyberbullying specific to adolescents in this region are identified and discussed in this review, such as gender socialization patterns and literacy with digital media communication, emphasis on academic achievement and school factors, urban-rural digital divide, relationship with parents and teachers, and collectivistic values. The present review highlights the need to pay further attention to the sociocultural context in future cyberbullying research and calls for more context-specific cyberbullying prevention programs and awareness initiatives.
... Through digital technologies, cyberbullies are able to victimize others at almost any time without concern for the consequences of their actions (Wright and Li 2013;Wright 2014). Anonymity of the online environment can trigger adolescents' inability to constrain or restrain their behaviors, which makes them susceptible to cyberbullying perpetration and victimization (Suler 2004;Udris 2014;Wright 2014). ...
The purpose of the present study was to examine the moderation of parental mediation in the longitudinal association between being a bystander of cyberbullying and cyberbullying perpetration and cyberbullying victimization. Participants were 1067 7th and 8th graders between 12 and 15 years old (51% female) from six middle schools in predominantly middle-class neighborhoods in the Midwestern United States. Increases in being bystanders of cyberbullying was related positively to restrictive and instructive parental mediation. Restrictive parental mediation was related positively to Time 2 (T2) cyberbullying victimization, while instructive parental mediation was negatively related to T2 cyberbullying perpetration and victimization. Restrictive parental mediation was a moderator in the association between bystanders of cyberbullying and T2 cyberbullying victimization. Increases in restrictive parental mediation strengthened the positive relationship between these variables. In addition, instructive mediation moderated the association between bystanders of cyberbullying and T2 cyberbullying victimization such that increases in this form of parental mediation strategy weakened the association between bystanders of cyberbullying and T2 cyberbullying victimization. The current findings indicate a need for parents to be aware of how they can impact adolescents’ involvement in cyberbullying as bullies and victims. In addition, greater attention should be given to developing parental intervention programs that focus on the role of parents in helping to mitigate adolescents’ likelihood of cyberbullying involvement.
... When compared to the offline world, it is likely that fewer adults are present in the online world of adolescents, which can also increase aggressive behavior and discrimination among adolescents (Tynes, Reynolds, & Greenfield, 2004). Past research has revealed that higher levels of toxic online disinhibition are positively associated with cyberbullying perpetration, flaming, and trolling (Görzig & Ó lafsson, 2013;Udris, 2014;Voggeser et al., 2018;Wright, 2014;Wright et al., 2019). Thus it is not surprising that initial research showed that toxic online disinhibition is positively associated with being a perpetrator, victim, and bystander of cyberhate (Wachs & Wright, 2018. ...
This chapter reviews the theoretical frameworks and current empirical findings on cyberhate and its impact on children and adolescents. We draw on the sparse empirical literature on the topic and add insights gleaned from closely related lines of inquiry, such as cyberbullying. We focus on the dilemma posed by our First Amendment protections of freedom of speech and the dangers to our youth posed by exposure to cyberhate. We emphasize the importance of directing attention to this topic by researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to protect our youth from this serious online risk.
In multiplayer online games, players from different cultural backgrounds come together to cooperate and compete in real time. Although these games are enjoyed by billions of players globally, behavioral issues such as toxic behavior (TB) have become rampant in some games, perhaps most infamously in multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games, such as League of Legends and Dota 2. A crucial step in curbing TB lies in understanding its drivers and antecedents. In the present work, we contribute to this field of research by considering the regional offline cultural environment in which players live. We draw both on Hofstede's Cultural Dimension Framework and on Kordyaka et al.’s Unified Theory of Toxic Behavior (UTTB) to compare two cross-sectional samples of MOBA players: one from North America (n = 155) and one from India (n = 119). Our analysis reveals significant differences between the samples for all UTTB variables. Additional analyses also indicate the relevance of national culture in relation to other dispositions (i.e., age) and characteristics (i.e., game-related culture). Our findings underscore the role that the offline cultural environments play in TB in MOBAs and additionally open avenues for further research that takes dimensions of national culture in the study of online behavior into account.
Pandemi COVID-19 memaksa orang untuk lebih banyak melakukan aktivitasnya secara daring. Online disinhibition effect (ODE) adalah menurunnya hambatan psikologis selama interaksi dengan orang lain dalam lingkungan sosial secara daring. ODE memiliki dua dimensi, yaitu benign dan toxic online disinhibition. Salah satu faktor yang memengaruhi ODE adalah subjective wellbeing (SWB). Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meneliti sejauh mana SWB dapat memprediksi ODE. Sebanyak 227 mahasiswa menjadi sasaran responden penelitian ini. Rancangan penelitian menggunakan desain korelasional. Alat ukur yang dipergunakan untuk mengukur SWB adalah Satisfaction with Life Scale and Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE), dan untuk mengukur ODE adalah online disinhibition scale (ODS). Teknik analisis statistik yang digunakan adalah regresi sederhana untuk menghitung besarnya kontribusi SWB terhadap ODE. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa tiap komponen SWB tidak berkontribusi signifikan terhadap benign maupun toxic online disinhibition. Simpulan penelitian ini adalah SWB bukan merupakan prediktor langsung terhadap ODE. Saran untuk penelitian selanjutnya adalah meneliti mediator yang mungkin memengaruhi ODE, seperti regulasi emosi, trait kepribadian dan tingkat keparahan kondisi pandemi.
This manual briefly examines the main aspects of the interaction of today's youth in social networks, the virtual platforms where adolescents and young adults spend a significant portion of their time. The authors have attempted to outline problematic lines related to the deviant online behavior of adolescents and young adults in social networks and to highlight key approaches to the study of this problematic, taking into account the data of modern psychological research.
Different aspects of information socialization and psychological consequences of the abuse of modern information and communication technologies in relation to modern adolescents and young adults are touched upon. The authors reveal the concept of self-presentation and analyze the approaches to its definition, paying special attention to the virtual self-presentation phenomenon in the light of various concepts.
Separately the problem of correlation between human behavior on the Internet and in the real world is presented. The manifestations of deviant online behavior are described, and the possibilities of its diagnosis are revealed. The detailed analysis of cyberbullying phenomenon is given and the attitude of teenagers and young adults to it is examined.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has led educational institutions to shut down and adopt e-learning practices through computer-mediated communication. An unanticipated switch of online classes from face-to-face classes isolates students from social groups and teachers, causing online disinhibition. Therefore, this paper investigates factors influencing university students’ toxic disinhibition behavior in online classrooms, WhatsApp groups, and Telegram groups. Also, social isolation has been used as a moderating variable to identify whether social isolation strengthens or weakens the proposed association. The research holds the basis of “Social Cognitive Theory” and “Theory of Planned Behavior.” The data from 506 university students have been collected for analysis. The proposed framework and research hypotheses have been assessed via PLS-SEM using Smart PLS software. Findings from the study show that toxic behavior victimization, attitude, subjective norms, and behavioral control are factors that positively & significantly affect toxic disinhibition online. Furthermore, motives and self-efficacy showed an insignificant influence on toxic disinhibition. Additionally, toxic disinhibition significantly & positively affects toxic behavior. At last, social isolation is likely to have a moderation effect on the variables. Hence, the research yields guidance on reducing toxic disinhibition online. Further, implications and recommendations are discussed at the end of the study.
Toxic behavior is commonplace in online games and has negative consequences for players. Although previous studies have illustrated common types and features of in-game toxic behavior, it remains unclear what psychological mechanisms can explain why toxic behavior emerges and evolves in gaming environments. To fill this research gap, guided by Online Disinhibition Effect theory, this study applies a qualitative interview approach to understand when, how, and why people engage in toxic behavior in online games. Specifically, by interviewing players of the game Honor of Kings (a popular Chinese mobile multiplayer online battle arena game), this study illustrates the evolving processes of both verbal and behavioral in-game toxic behavior and identifies six major motivations for players’ toxic behavior and three theoretical explanations for how the online gaming environment facilitates players’ toxic behavior. Implications of this study on future research are also discussed.
Internet use continues to expand, and online communication has become more commonplace. Exploring how individuals use the internet may now be more important to assess than the degree of use. People who engage in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) are an internet population of interest because research has suggested that online discussion of NSSI can serve as both a risk and protective factor related to engagement in the behaviour. The current study examined if NSSI could predict stress-related social network use, and whether online disinhibition or online social support would independently moderate the relationship. The study consisted of 120 individuals recruited from social networking sites. Participants provided self-report of their NSSI histories, degree of online disinhibition, perceived online social support, and frequency of stress-related social networking. NSSI alone did not predict stress-related social networking. However, both online disinhibition and online social support were found to independently moderate the relationship between NSSI and stress-related social networking. Individuals that engage in NSSI and experience either high levels of online disinhibition or high online social support may use internet social networks during times of stress more frequently. Exploring how stress-related social networking functions in the online NSSI population should be an area of continued research.
Este estudo teve como objetivo principal revisar as produções científicas, publicadas entre o período de 2014 a 2019, concernentes à prática do cyberbullying. Para tanto, realizou-se um levantamento das produções científicas em diferentes repositórios de artigos científicos. A análise das publicações contemplou os seguintes critérios para categorização: o volume de publicações por ano e periódico, os construtos associados ao cyberbullying e os pesquisadores que examinaram essas relações. Os resultados revelaram que ainda é incipiente o número de estudos concernentes a esse fenômeno, sobretudo no cenário nacional. Considera-se a premência de novos estudos que investiguem o cyberbullying entre os estudantes, tendo em vista as consequências impactantes que o bullying virtual traz à saúde emocional e ao bem-estar das vítimas.
Cyberbullying theory and research puts much emphasis on the role that anonymity perceptions has in the prediction of online aggression. However, some individuals choose to cyberbully others when identifying information (e.g., their name) is clearly visible to the victim and the online community at large. Two correlational studies with US adults examined one possible reason for this effect: dispositional fear of retaliation (DFoR) – a personality variable characterized by the anxiety related to other's retaliatory behavior. Participants completed measures of perceived anonymity, positive cyberbullying attitudes, cyberbullying perpetration, and DFoR. Results showed DFoR moderated the (a) direct relationship between anonymity perceptions and cyberbullying attitudes and behavior and the (b) mediating role of cyberbullying attitudes in the link between anonymity and cyberbullying perpetration.
Background
Online trolling is a highly prevalent online antisocial behaviour that has recently received increasing attention because of its potentially destructive consequences. The current study aimed to examine whether trait mindfulness was negatively related to online trolling and whether anger rumination mediated this relationship. We further examined whether online disinhibition moderated the direct and indirect relation between trait mindfulness and online trolling.
Methods
A total of 1303 Chinese college students completed the measurements of trait mindfulness, anger rumination, online disinhibition, and online trolling. Moderated mediation analysis was performed to examine the relationships between these variables.
Results
After controlling for sex, the results showed that trait mindfulness was negatively related to online trolling and that this relationship was partially mediated by anger rumination. Moreover, the effect of anger rumination on online trolling was strengthened when online disinhibition was high.
Limitations
This study is a cross-sectional study, and causal inferences cannot be drawn.
Conclusions
Individuals with trait mindfulness are less likely to ruminate anger and further express less online trolling. Online disinhibition serves as a risk factor for online trolling. Interventions targeting trait mindfulness, anger rumination, and online disinhibition might aid prevention strategies.
The present study examined the relationship between online disinhibition and adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration and investigated whether empathy and gender would moderate this relationship. A total of 2407 Chinese adolescents aged 11–16 years completed the questionnaires to measure their online disinhibition, empathy, and cyberbullying perpetration. Results indicated that high levels of online disinhibition were associated with high levels of cyberbullying perpetration, even after controlling for key covariates related to cyberbullying perpetration. Empathy significantly moderated the relationship between online disinhibition and cyberbullying perpetration. Specifically, this relationship was not significant at high levels of empathy. Moreover, the impact of empathy was moderated by gender. For male adolescents, online disinhibition was significantly associated with cyberbullying perpetration only when their empathy was low. For female adolescents, the relationship between online disinhibition and cyberbullying perpetration became nonsignificant, regardless of whether they had a low or high level of empathy.
Online hate speech has caught everyone's attention from the news related to the COVID-19 pandemic, US elections, and worldwide protests. Online toxicity - an umbrella term for online hateful behavior, manifests itself in forms such as online hate speech. Hate speech is a deliberate attack directed towards an individual or a group motivated by the targeted entity's identity or opinions. The rising mass communication through social media further exacerbates the harmful consequences of online hate speech. While there has been significant research on hate-speech identification using Natural Language Processing (NLP), the work on utilizing NLP for prevention and intervention of online hate speech lacks relatively. This paper presents a holistic conceptual framework on hate-speech NLP countering methods along with a thorough survey on the current progress of NLP for countering online hate speech. It classifies the countering techniques based on their time of action, and identifies potential future research areas on this topic.
The present study explored the associated factors of intimate partner violence through technological abuse (ITPV) in a sample of 1113 participants aged 18 to 65 (71.3% females). Our research’s primary questions were the following: 1). Is there a significant link between relationship attachment styles and ITPV perpetration or victimization?; 2). Is there a significant link between participants’ demographic and relationship characteristics (i.e., relationship length and partners’ fidelity), online behavior (i.e., benign and toxic disinhibition), moral disengagement, psychological distress), and ITPV perpetration or victimization?; and 3). Did the COVID-19 pandemic increase ITPV perpetration or victimization?. We analyzed our data by creating three different groups, depending on participants’ answers concerning ITPV, i.e., the overall sample, abusers’ and victims’ groups. Our main results suggested significant, positive correlations between ITPV perpetration and victimization, moral disengagement, psychological distress, and online disinhibition. Age negatively correlated with IPVT victimization and perpetration. We also found significant associations between participants’ dominant relationship attachment style and their own and partners’ cheating behavior, as well as ITPV-victimization and perpetration. Finally, 13.7% to 23% of participants in all three groups considered that the Covid-19 increased the frequency of ITPV behaviors (for both abusers and victims). Results are discussed considering their theoretical and practical implications for domestic violence and the potential related prevention and intervention strategies.
Nowadays, cyberbullying perpetration has become a global psycho-social problem. However, scanty attention has been paid to investigate the impact of deviant peer affiliation on adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration and which factors that can moderate the strength of this relationship is also limited. Thus, the present study examined the association between deviant peer affiliation and adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration and investigated whether online disinhibition and perceived social support would moderate this relationship at the same time. Participants were 2407 Chinese adolescents (11-16 years, Mage = 12.75) from seven middle schools in Taiyuan and Changzhi city of Shanxi province, China. All participants completed self-report questionnaires including Deviant Peer Affiliation Scale, Cyberbullying Perpetration Scale, Online Disinhibition Scale, and Perceived Social Support Scale. Results indicated that adolescents who reported higher deviant peer affiliation were more likely to bully others online, even after controlling for age and gender. Online disinhibition moderated the relationship between deviant peer affiliation and adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration. Compare to low online disinhibition adolescents, high online disinhibition adolescents who experienced higher levels of deviant peer affiliation were more likely to engage in cyberbullying perpetration. More interestingly, we found online disinhibition and perceived social support could simultaneously moderate this relationship. Specifically, for high online disinhibition adolescents, the predictive effect of deviant peer affiliation on cyberbullying perpetration became much weaker when they with high perceived social support than low perceived social support.
Introduction
The risk and protective factors of cyberbullying perpetration have been widely investigated. Less attention is paid to explore the effects of personal and situational factors, internal states, and external states in an integrated framework. This study aims to fill this void by developing an integrated framework to investigate the effects of power imbalance, the online disinhibition effect, internal states, and parental mediation on cyberbullying among Chinese adolescents.
Methods
Multistage cluster random sampling was employed with 1103 adolescents (Mage = 15.3, 52.5% girls) who responded to the questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted.
Results
Proficiency in technology use was directly related to cyberbullying. Social status among peers was found to be not only directly related to cyberbullying but also to operate through low self-control to predict cyberbullying. The online disinhibition effect did not directly correlate to cyberbullying but operated through moral disengagement and low self-control to predict cyberbullying. Notably, the results showed that physical power was neither directly correlated to cyberbullying nor aligned with moral disengagement or low self-control to predict cyberbullying. The multiple-group comparison analysis revealed that parental mediation moderated the effects of the online disinhibition effect on cyberbullying. However, this study found that parental mediation had no buffering effects when examining the relationships between physical power, social status, technology use, and cyberbullying.
Conclusions
Findings suggest that cyberbullying prevention should consider the effects of both internal states and external factors. The study has provided theoretical and practical implications for understanding and tackling the widespread problem of cyberbullying among adolescents.
In recent years, a growing body of literature has started to document the factors leading to cyberbullying perpetration. However, some remaining issues must be addressed. Drawing on I³ theory and social cognitive theory, the current study investigated: (a) the relationship between moral disengagement and cyberbullying perpetration, which has been explored extensively but yields inconclusive conclusions; (b) the effects of fundamental factors of the online disinhibition effect (online anonymity, invisibility, and asynchrony) on cyberbullying perpetration; and (c) the potential mediating role of moral disengagement between the fundamental factors of the online disinhibition effect and cyberbullying perpetration. A total of 1103 students (mean age 15.3 years, 52.5% girls) answered questionnaires about their cyberbullying involvement, perceived moral disengagement, online anonymity, invisibility, and asynchrony. The results suggested that moral disengagement was positive associated with cyberbullying perpetration. Anonymity was not directly associated with cyberbullying but operated through moral disengagement and then predicted cyberbullying perpetration. Asynchrony not only directly fostered cyberbullying but also operated through moral disengagement and then predicted cyberbullying. Notably, in the Chinese context, online invisibility was not directly associated with cyberbullying perpetration, nor did it operate through moral disengagement to predict cyberbullying perpetration. The findings of the current study have theoretical, practical, and policymaking implications for understanding and curtailing adolescents’ cyberbullying involvement.
El objetivo del estudio es analizar las diferencias entre los estudiantes universitarios según su práctica de ciberacoso (ocasional, severo y no ciberacoso) con variables individuales y sociales. La muestra está conformada por 662 jóvenes entre los 18 y 25 años. Los resultados indican que los jóvenes no implicados en el fenómeno de ciberacoso sobresalen en sus medias en autoconcepto académico, familiar, satisfacción con la vida, autoestima global y actitud positiva hacia la autoridad institucional, con respecto a los que practican el ciberacoso; los ciberacosadores severos destacan en sintomatología depresiva y actitud positiva hacia la transgresión de normas sociales respecto a los grupos de no ciberacoso y ocasionales. El análisis de regresión de las variables de estudio predice el ciberacoso.
The aim of the paper is to analyze the relationship between online and offline behavior by using the online disinhibition effect as an example. A person behaves differently online in comparison with the same situations offline. The two forms of disinhibition are discussed: 1) benign or positive disinhibition, when a person shares very personal information, reveals his secrets, fears, does not hide his emotional state, his experiences, he tries to help the other, showing extreme generosity and care 2) toxic or negative disinhibition — when a person shows rudeness towards the other, expresses sharp criticism or even threats, visits the sites, the content of which is very difficult to understand. Appealing to constructs such as deindividuation, reduced social cues, self-awareness — sheds light on the online disinhibition effect and allows us to talk about how behavior on the network relates towards offline behavior.
The current study sought to examine whether parental phubbing was significantly related to adolescents' cyberbullying perpetration and if moral disengagement mediated this relationship. We further examined whether online disinhibition moderated the direct and indirect relationships between parental phubbing and adolescents' cyberbullying perpetration. The participants included 2,407 adolescents from seven middle schools in China who completed the questionnaires regarding their experience with parental phubbing, moral disengagement, cyberbullying perpetration, and online disinhibition. Results indicated that adolescents with a high level of parental phubbing were likely to cyberbully others. Moral disengagement significantly mediated the relationship between parental phubbing and adolescents' cyberbullying perpetration. Furthermore, online disinhibition moderated the indirect relationship between parental phubbing and adolescents' cyberbullying perpetration. Specifically, the paths from parental phubbing to moral disengagement and from moral disengagement to cyberbullying perpetration became strengthened when adolescents experienced high levels of online disinhibition.
This paper aims to identify the effect of using the maximum likelihood (ML) parameter estimation method when data do not meet the assumption of multivariate normality and are not continuous. Both ML and the diagonally weighted least squares (DWLS) procedure were applied to simulated sets of data, which have different distributions and include variables that can take different numbers of possible values. Results were also compared to the ideal situation of a data set consisting of continuous, normally distributed variables. Outcomes indicate that ML provides accurate results when data are continuous and uniformly distributed, but is not as precise with ordinal data that is not treated as continuous, especially when variables have a small number of categories and data do not meet the assumption of multivariate normality. In contrast, DWLS provides more accurate parameter estimates, and a model fit that is more robust to variable type and non-normality.
Cyberbullying is a growing concern in online communications. Cyberbullying has negative impacts such as distress or suicide of a victim. One common type of cyberbullying attack utilizes aggressive forum posts to insult or threaten a victim. Automated tools to classify cyberbullying may aid in avoiding or reducing the negative impacts of cyberbullying. One approach to produce an automated tool is to identify features of forum posts which may be indicators of cyberbullying. One feature of a forum post is the role of the author of the forum post, such as a bully, victim, or defender. Another feature is whether the forum post insults or threatens an individual (e.g., contains insults directed at a victim). Attackers may use aggressive forum posts to attack someone and defenders may use aggressive forum posts to retaliate against attackers. Another feature is whether the communication is anonymous (e.g., sending forum posts with no identifier) since cyberbullies utilize anonymity to reduce the ability of the victim to defend themselves and to shield the cyberbully from social consequences. In this paper, forum posts were labeled in an online forum for these features. Text matching techniques had some success in identifying aggressiveness forum posts including both attacks and defends. Anonymity of forum posts (i.e., forum posts with no identifier) was identified as a criterion to distinguish attackers (more anonymous relative to non-aggressive communications) from defenders (less anonymous relative to non-aggressive communications).
This study surveyed 165 care professionals on their experience of workplace bullying. The results showed that in a 2-year period 40% had been bullied and 68% had observed bullying taking place. Of the 67 care professionals that had been bullied 44% were experiencing high levels of PTSD symptoms based on the general factor of the IES-E. However, when these results were examined further it was found that the symptoms clustered rather differently to those of victims of other forms of trauma. In victims of bullying, the symptoms of arousal and re-experience formed a single cluster of symptoms with avoidance remaining as a separate cluster. These results are challenging in both the classification of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and for the treatment of victims of bullying.
The article reviews existing research on cyber-bullying, framed through a policy lens. It is clear that public policy issues for cyber-bullying involve tensions between the values of freedom of speech, the best interests of the child, and parental and school protective authority over the child. Given the complexity of the problem, as well as conflicting values, the development of effective policy requires a collaborative effort involving all stakeholders - policymakers, school officials, parents and youth. It is important to emphasize literature that delineates the differences between conventional bullying and cyber-bullying because the two are very different and must be treated and analyzed separately. Thus, the following sections set out the definitions and mechanisms of cyber-bullying for policymakers contemplating new and/or modified policies, review the characteristics of the problem and the psychology of Internet abuse, explain the physical and mental consequences of it, and outline the results of recent surveys on cyber-bullying. Finally, the article concludes with recommendations on implementing acceptable use policies at the School Board and individual school levels, as well as family contracts for home use.
For structural equation models, a huge variety of fit indices has been developed. These indices, however, can point to conflicting conclusions about the extent to which a model actually matches the observed data. The present article provides some guide-lines that should help applied researchers to evaluate the adequacy of a given struc-tural equation model. First, as goodness-of-fit measures depend on the method used for parameter estimation, maximum likelihood (ML) and weighted least squares (WLS) methods are introduced in the context of structural equation modeling. Then, the most common goodness-of-fit indices are discussed and some recommendations for practitioners given. Finally, we generated an artificial data set according to a "true" model and analyzed two misspecified and two correctly specified models as examples of poor model fit, adequate fit, and good fit. In structural equation modeling (SEM), a model is said to fit the observed data to the extent that the model-implied covariance matrix is equivalent to the empirical co-variance matrix. Once a model has been specified and the empirical covariance matrix is given, a method has to be selected for parameter estimation. Different estimation meth-ods have different distributional assumptions and have different discrepancy functions to be minimized. When the estimation procedure has converged to a reasonable
Victimization on the Internet through what has been termed cyberbullying has attracted increased attention from scholars and practitioners. Defined as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text” (Patchin and Hinduja 200653.
Patchin , J. W. and
S. Hinduja . 2006 . “Bullies Move Beyond the Schoolyard: A Preliminary Look at Cyberbullying.” Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 4 ( 2 ): 148 – 169 . [CrossRef]View all references:152), this negative experience not only undermines a youth's freedom to use and explore valuable on-line resources, but also can result in severe functional and physical ramifications. Research involving the specific phenomenon—as well as Internet harassment in general—is still in its infancy, and the current work seeks to serve as a foundational piece in understanding its substance and salience. On-line survey data from 1,378 adolescent Internet-users are analyzed for the purposes of identifying characteristics of typical cyberbullying victims and offenders. Although gender and race did not significantly differentiate respondent victimization or offending, computer proficiency and time spent on-line were positively related to both cyberbullying victimization and offending. Additionally, cyberbullying experiences were also linked to respondents who reported school problems (including traditional bullying), assaultive behavior, and substance use. Implications for addressing this novel form of youthful deviance are discussed.
This study aimed to examine the relations of cyber bullying experiences of Turkish secondary school children (as a victim and bully) to demographic variables (age and gender) and depressive symptoms. The participants were 165 secondary school students (94 females and 71 males) whose ages ranged from 10 to 14. According to the results, there is a significant interaction effect between age and gender on cyber bullying experiences, but they are not related to being a cyber victim. In other words, while school children's age and gender are related to being a cyber bully, school children may have the potential to be a cyber victim regardless of their age and gender. Moreover, the results revealed that the students who reported to being cyber victim indicate higher level of depressive symptoms.
A wide variety of deviant behavior may arise as the population of an online multimedia community increases. That behavior can span the range from simple mischievous antics to more serious expressions of psychopathology, including depression, sociopathy, narcissism, dissociation, and borderline dynamics. In some cases the deviant behavior may be a process of pathological acting out - in others, a healthy attempt to work through. Several factors must be taken into consideration when explaining online deviance, such as social/cultural issues, the technical infrastructure of the environment, transference reactions, and the effects of the ambiguous, anonymous, and fantasy-driven atmosphere of cyberspace life. In what we may consider an "online community psychology," intervention strategies for deviant behavior can be explored along three dimensions: preventative versus remedial, user versus superuser based, and automated versus interpersonal.
The goal of the study was to examine whether bullying experiences are associated with lower academic performance across middle school among urban students.The ethnically diverse sample was drawn from a longitudinal study of 2,300 sixth graders (44% Latino, 26% African American, 10% Asian, 10% White, and 10% mixed) from 11 public middle schools. Results of multilevel models (MLMs) showed that grade point averages and teacher-rated academic engagement were each predicted by both self-perceptions of victimization and peer nominations of victim reputation, controlling for demographic and school-level differences as well as overall declines in academic performance over time. Further MLM analyses suggested that most of the victimization effect was due to between-subject differences, as opposed to within-subject fluctuations, in victimization over time. The results of the study suggest that peer victimization cannot be ignored when trying to improve educational outcomes in urban middle schools.
Many children are likely to experience aggression in their relationships with schoolmates. With the advent of modern forms of communication, children are now able to harass their peers with mobile phones and e-mails, a behaviour known as cyberbullying. To determine the relationship between school bullying and cyberbullying, 432 students from grades 7-9 in Canadian schools were surveyed about their experiences of bullying. The results indicated that students who were bullied in cyberspace were also likely to bully their peers in cyberspace (r = 0.46, p < 0.001) and be bullied at school (56%). In addition, students who were bullied in cyberspace only, and students bullied both in cyberspace and at school, experienced difficulties at school such as low marks, poor concentration, and absenteeism. These results suggest that bullying that occurs either at or outside school can have an impact on school learning.
This article outlines the development and validation of the Online Victimization Scale (OVS). The OVS consists of four subscales capturing individuals' experiences with online victimization across general, sexual, and racial domains. Online surveys were administered in two studies from 2007-2009 to two diverse groups of adolescents ages 14-19 from high schools in the United States. A confirmatory factor analytic procedure was performed in Study 1 and Study 2, and both sets of analyses supported the hypothesized four-factor model for online victimization. Correlation results showed that online experiences associated with each domain of victimization were related to increased depressive symptoms, perceived stress, and anxiety and decreased self-esteem and satisfaction with life. The OVS is a comprehensive measure of online experiences that may be used in research, clinical and educational settings. Results are consistent with other victimization and discrimination measures that show correlations with poor mental health outcomes.
The characteristics of bullies who act face-to-face and those who do so in cyberspace were compared directly in one sample across twenty-five countries. The role of cross-country differences in technological infrastructure was also explored. Cyberbullies compared to face-to-face bullies were more likely to engage in risky online activities, spend more time online, and found it easier to be themselves online. Private access to the internet did not make a difference. Gender differences showed girls more likely to be cyber- than face-to-face bullies if they have a profile on a social networking site. Age and internet ability beliefs were also positively but not independently associated with cyberbullying. Cross-country differences were small and patterns remained mostly stable across countries, suggesting that individual and not country-level characteristics are pivotal in explaining cyberbullying.
Examines the evidence that behavior on the Internet is characterized by disinhibition, and considers the numerous explanations put forward for such phenomenon as flaming and excessive self-disclosure. It is argued that disinhibition on the Internet has both positive and negative implications for behavior "in real life," education, research, and commerce on the Internet. Finally, a general model of disinhibition on the Internet, that stresses the joint role of both context and self-awareness, is briefly outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In recent years, the phenomenon of cyberbullying has been gaining scholars' growing interest under various aspects, including its overlap with face-to-face bullying. Nevertheless, its relationships with cognitive and affective empathy, proactive and reactive aggression, and moral disengagement, constructs that proved to be crucial in distinguishing aggressive subjects from their targets and nonaggressive peers in traditional bullying, still represent, to some extent, an unexplored domain. The main purpose of the present exploratory study was to investigate the associations between cyberbullying and the mentioned constructs among Italian adolescents. 819 high-school students (mean age 16.08) were administered a battery of standardized tools, along with Cyberties, a new instrument created to assess the prevalence of (and the type of involvement in) different forms of electronic assaults. Analyses of variance were conducted to compare four roles ("pure" bullies, "pure" victims, bully victims, and noninvolved subjects). Participants who identified themselves as cyberbullies or cyberbully victims showed significantly higher levels of overall moral disengagement and of both types of aggression. Cyberbullies also displayed a lack of affective empathy. Our findings are in line with the ones in extant literature about correlates of traditional and electronic forms of bullying. Implications for prevention strategies are discussed.
This paper examines electronic mail in organizational communication. Based on ideas about how social context cues within a communication setting affect information exchange, it argues that electronic mail does not simply speed up the exchange of information but leads to the exchange of new information as well. In a field study in a Fortune 500 company, we used questionnaire data and actual messages to examine electronic mail communication at all levels of the organization. Based on hypotheses from research on social communication, we explored effects of electronic communication related to self-absorption, status equalization, and uninhibited behavior. Consistent with experimental studies, we found that decreasing social context cues has substantial deregulating effects on communication. And we found that much of the information conveyed through electronic mail was information that would not have been conveyed through another medium.
Given that the use of Likert scales is increasingly common in the field of social research it is necessary to determine which
methodology is the most suitable for analysing the data obtained; although, given the categorization of these scales, the
results should be treated as ordinal data it is often the case that they are analysed using techniques designed for cardinal
measures. One of the most widely used techniques for studying the construct validity of data is factor analysis, whether exploratory
or confirmatory, and this method uses correlation matrices (generally Pearson) to obtain factor solutions. In this context,
and by means of simulation studies, we aim to illustrate the advantages of using polychoric rather than Pearson correlations,
taking into account that the latter require quantitative variables measured in intervals, and that the relationship between
these variables has to be monotonic. The results show that the solutions obtained using polychoric correlations provide a
more accurate reproduction of the measurement model used to generate the data.
Electronic aggression, or cyberbullying, is a relatively new phenomenon. As such, consistency in how the construct is defined and operationalized has not yet been achieved, inhibiting a thorough understanding of the construct and how it relates to developmental outcomes. In a series of two studies, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFAs and CFAs respectively) were used to examine whether electronic aggression can be measured using items similar to that used for measuring traditional bullying, and whether adolescents respond to questions about electronic aggression in the same way they do for traditional bullying. For Study I (n = 17 551; 49% female), adolescents in grades 8–12 were asked to what extent they had experience with physical, verbal, social, and cyberbullying as a bully and victim. EFA and CFA results revealed that adolescents distinguished between the roles they play (bully, victim) in a bullying situation but not forms of bullying (physical, verbal, social, cyber). To examine this further, Study II (n = 733; 62% female), asked adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 to respond to questions about their experience sending (bully), receiving (victim), and/or seeing (witness) specific online aggressive acts. EFA and CFA results revealed that adolescents did not differentiate between bullies, victims, and witnesses; rather, they made distinctions among the methods used for the aggressive act (i.e. sending mean messages or posting embarrassing pictures). In general, it appears that adolescents differentiated themselves as individuals who participated in specific mode of online aggression, rather than as individuals who played a particular role in online aggression. This distinction is discussed in terms of policy and educational implications.
The present research studied the impact of three typical online communication factors on inducing the toxic online disinhibition effect: anonymity, invisibility, and lack of eye-contact. Using an experimental design with 142 participants, we examined the extent to which these factors lead to flaming behaviors, the typical products of online disinhibition. Random pairs of participants were presented with a dilemma for discussion and a common solution through online chat. The effects were measured using participants’ self-reports, expert judges’ ratings of chat transcripts, and textual analyses of participants’ conversations. A 2×2×2 (anonymity/non-anonymity×visibility/invisibility×eye-contact/lack of eye-contact) MANOVA was employed to analyze the findings. The results suggested that of the three independent variables, lack of eye-contact was the chief contributor to the negative effects of online disinhibition. Consequently, it appears that previous studies might have defined the concept of anonymity too broadly by not addressing other online communication factors, especially lack of eye-contact, that impact disinhibition. The findings are explained in the context of an onlinesense of unidentifiability, which apparently requires a more refined view of the components that create a personal sense of anonymity.
This study investigated the relationship between cognitive mechanisms, applied by people to rationalize and justify harmful acts,
and engagement in traditional peer and cyber aggression among school children. We examined the contribution of moral
disengagement (MD), hostile attribution bias, and outcome expectancies, and we further explored the individual contribution of
each MD mechanism. Our aim was to identify shared and unique cognitive factors of the two forms of aggression. Three hundred
and thirty-nine secondary school children completed self-report measures that assessed MD, hostile attribution bias, outcome
expectancies, and their roles and involvement in traditional and cyber aggression. We found that the MD total score positively
related to both forms of peer-directed aggression. Furthermore, traditional peer aggression positively related to children’s moral
justification, euphemistic language, displacement of responsibility and outcome expectancies, and negatively associated with hostile
attribution bias. Moral justification also related positively to cyber aggression. Cyber aggression and cyber victimization were
associated with high levels of traditional peer aggression and victimization, respectively. The results suggest that MD is a common
feature of both traditional and cyber peer aggression, but it seems that traditional forms of aggression demand a higher level of
rationalization or justification. Moreover, the data suggest that the expectation of positive outcomes from harmful behavior
facilitates engagement in traditional peer aggression. The differential contribution of specific cognitive mechanisms indicates the
need for future research to elaborate on the current findings, in order to advance theory and inform existing and future school
interventions tackling aggression and bullying.
We describe a general procedure by which any number of parameters of the factor analytic model can be held fixed at any values and the remaining free parameters estimated by the maximum likelihood method. The generality of the approach makes it possible to deal with all kinds of solutions: orthogonal, oblique and various mixtures of these. By choosing the fixed parameters appropriately, factors can be defined to have desired properties and make subsequent rotation unnecessary. The goodness of fit of the maximum likelihood solution under the hypothesis represented by the fixed parameters is tested by a large sample χ2 test based on the likelihood ratio technique. A by-product of the procedure is an estimate of the variance-covariance matrix of the estimated parameters. From this, approximate confidence intervals for the parameters can be obtained. Several examples illustrating the usefulness of the procedure are given.
Bullying, a typical occurrence in schools, has gone digital. As a result, cyberbullying has become ever more present among youth. The current study aimed to classify high school students into four groups based on their cyberbullying experiences and to examine the characteristics of these groups based on the sex and age of the participants and the level of parental monitoring. Participants were 133 high school students located in central Texas. A cluster analysis revealed four distinct groups of students who were “highly involved both as bully and victim,†“more victim than bully,†“more bully than victim,†or “least involved.†Significantly more girls and more students in lower grades were classified into the “more victim than bully group†while older students were more likely to be classified into the “more bully than victim†group. No significant differences were found between cluster membership and the degree of parental monitoring.
The aim of this study was to investigate whether different aspects of morality predict traditional bullying and cyberbullying behaviour in a similar way. Students between 12 and 19 years participated in an online study. They reported on the frequency of different traditional and cyberbullying behaviours andcompleted self-report measures on moral emotions and moral values. A scenario approach with open questions was used to assess morally disengaged justifications. Tobit regressions indicated that a lack of moral values and a lack of remorse predicted both traditional and cyberbullying behaviour. Traditional bullying was strongly predictive for cyberbullying. A lack of moral emotions and moral values predicted cyberbullying behaviour even when controlling for traditional bullying. Morally disengaged justifications were only predictive for traditional, but not for cyberbullying behaviour. The findings show that moral standards and moral affect are important to understand individual differences in engagement in both traditional and cyberforms of bullying.
A major problem encountered in covariance structure analyses involves decisions concerning whether or not a given theoretical model adequately represents the data used for its assessment. Given that X2 goodness-of-fit tests are joint functions of the difference between theoretical and empirical covariance structures and sample size, gauging the impact of sample size on such tests is essential. In this paper, we propose a simple index (critical N) and tentative acceptance criterion, which, by focusing on sample size, provide an improved method for assessing goodness-of-fit. Both small- and large-sample examples are presented, illustrating the utility of the proposed method for assessing theoretical models.
This study describes the truancy and disciplinary problems of high school bullying victims in the USA. Analyses are based on data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, a nationally representative sample of 10th graders (students aged 14–15) in the USA. Being bullied is found to be positively associated with increased risk of being frequently absent, getting into trouble excessively at school and being subject to formal school actions such as in‐ or out‐of‐school suspensions and disciplinary transfers for high school bullying victims. These findings are presented within the context of the current state of knowledge about the effects of bullying. Their implications for practice and future research are also discussed.
This article is concerned with measures of fit of a model. Two types of error involved in fitting a model are considered. The first is error of approximation which involves the fit of the model, with optimally chosen but unknown parameter values, to the population covariance matrix. The second is overall error which involves the fit of the model, with parameter values estimated from the sample, to the population covariance matrix. Measures of the two types of error are proposed and point and interval estimates of the measures are suggested. These measures take the number of parameters in the model into account in order to avoid penalizing parsimonious models. Practical difficulties associated with the usual tests of exact fit or a model are discussed and a test of “close fit” of a model is suggested.
This study investigates the nature and the extent of adolescences' experience of cyberbullying. A survey study of 264 students from three junior high schools was conducted. In this article, 'cyberbullying' refers to bullying via electronic communication tools. The results show that close to half of the students were bully victims and about one in four had been cyber-bullied. Over half of the students reported that they knew someone being cyberbullied. Almost half of the cyberbullies used electronic means to harass others more than three times. The majority of the cyber-bully victims and bystanders did not report the incidents to adults. When gender was considered, significant differences were identified in terms of bullying and cyber- bullying. Males were more likely to be bullies and cyberbullies than their female counterparts. In addition, female cyberbully victims were more likely to inform adults than their male counterparts.
This study is an exploration of the cyberbullying issue. The primary focus is on the examination of the nature and extent of adolescents' cyberbullying experiences. Particularly, the following research questions guide this exploration: (1) To what extent do adolescents experience cyberbullying? (2) What are the characteristics of cyberbullying? (3) What are the types of tools used for cyberbullying? A survey of 177 grade seven students (80 males and 97 females) was analyzed to answer the research questions. The results show that almost 54% of the students were bully victims and over a quarter of them had been cyber-bullied. More than half of the students knew someone being cyber-bullied. Over 40% cyberbully victims had no ideas who cyber-bullied them. Further, there was a close tie among bullies, cyberbullies, and cyberbully victims. Survey instrument is appended. (Contains 8 tables.)
Using data from a national sample of 935 teenagers, we examine the ability of routine activities theory to predict cyberbullying. The data used in this analysis were collected as part of the Pew Internet and American Life Project Web site. Among the different elements of routine activities theory, suitability and availability were found to have the strongest correlations to experienced cyberbullying. Using logistic regression, our findings show that routine activities theory is a viable explanation for cyberbullying risk among teenagers.
Cyber Bullying: Bullying in the Digital Age provides the most current and essential information on the nature and prevalence of this epidemic. Examining the latest research, the authors have utilized vital studies involving over 3,500 middle school students, online research projects and the use of social network sites, and data from focus groups of victims and perpetrators and their parents. Written in an accessible style, this volume provides educators, parents, psychologists, and policy-makers with critical prevention techniques and strategies for effectively addressing electronic bullying. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Abstract Research has consistently found that school students who do not identify as self-declared completely heterosexual are at increased risk of victimization by bullying from peers. This study examined heterosexual and nonheterosexual university students' involvement in both traditional and cyber forms of bullying, as either bullies or victims. Five hundred twenty-eight first-year university students (M=19.52 years old) were surveyed about their sexual orientation and their bullying experiences over the previous 12 months. The results showed that nonheterosexual young people reported higher levels of involvement in traditional bullying, both as victims and perpetrators, in comparison to heterosexual students. In contrast, cyberbullying trends were generally found to be similar for heterosexual and nonheterosexual young people. Gender differences were also found. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of intervention and prevention of the victimization of nonheterosexual university students.
This study examined the concurrent validity of the Olweus Bully/
Victim Questionnaire (BVQ) in a convenience sample of 202 middle
school students in central Virginia. This appears to be the first
published study to compare BVQ reports of being bullied and of bullying
others with independent criteria not subject to shared method
variance. Self-reported bullying on the BVQ was significantly correlated
with peer nominations for bullying (r = .12, p < .05) and
academic grades (r = -.15, p < .05), but not disciplinary infractions.
Self-reported victimization was significantly correlated with
peer nominations for victimization (r = .42, p < .01) and academic
grades (r = -.12, p < .01). These results provide only modest support
for the concurrent validity of the BVQ and raise concern about
reliance on student self-report to measure school bullying.
Because of the advent and growth of technology, a new variation of bullying—cyberbullying—has transformed from the physical to the virtual. Cyberbullying is a form of psychological cruelty. Although cyberbullying usually occurs off school grounds, schools are experiencing its repercussions (Li, 2006). This article provides an overview of cyberbullying, defines the difference between bullying and cyberbullying, and provides a psychological explanation of cyberbullying behaviors and the psychological impact of cyberbullying. The review of literature suggests that there is a lapse in preventative intervention to create and maintain awareness and safety for young people. Implications and guidelines are provided for school personnel to address this problem and develop prevention strategies. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
This study explores high school students' beliefs and behaviors associated with cyberbullying. Specifically, it examines this new phenomenon from the following four perspectives: (a) What happens after students are cyberbullied? (b) What do students do when witnessing cyberbullying? (c) Why do victims not report the incidents? and (d) What are students' opinions about cyberbullying? Data were collected from 269 Grade 7 through 12 students in 5 Canadian schools. Several themes have emerged from the analysis, which uncovers some important patterns. One finding is that over 40% would do nothing if they were cyberbullied, and only about 1 in 10 would inform adults. Students feel reluctant to report cyberbullying incidents to adults in schools for various reasons, which are discussed in depth.
This article examines the adequacy of the “rules of thumb” conventional cutoff criteria and several new alternatives for various fit indexes used to evaluate model fit in practice. Using a 2‐index presentation strategy, which includes using the maximum likelihood (ML)‐based standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR) and supplementing it with either Tucker‐Lewis Index (TLI), Bollen's (1989) Fit Index (BL89), Relative Noncentrality Index (RNI), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Gamma Hat, McDonald's Centrality Index (Mc), or root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA), various combinations of cutoff values from selected ranges of cutoff criteria for the ML‐based SRMR and a given supplemental fit index were used to calculate rejection rates for various types of true‐population and misspecified models; that is, models with misspecified factor covariance(s) and models with misspecified factor loading(s). The results suggest that, for the ML method, a cutoff value close to .95 for TLI, BL89, CFI, RNI, and Gamma Hat; a cutoff value close to .90 for Mc; a cutoff value close to .08 for SRMR; and a cutoff value close to .06 for RMSEA are needed before we can conclude that there is a relatively good fit between the hypothesized model and the observed data. Furthermore, the 2‐index presentation strategy is required to reject reasonable proportions of various types of true‐population and misspecified models. Finally, using the proposed cutoff criteria, the ML‐based TLI, Mc, and RMSEA tend to overreject true‐population models at small sample size and thus are less preferable when sample size is small.