Cyber-Victimization Experience among Higher Education Students: Effects of Social Support, Loneliness, and Self-Efficacy

Understanding Children's Online Victimization through the Psychosocial Lens: The Roles of Loneliness, Online Social Currency, and Digital Citizenship

This study employed a risk and resilience framework to investigate the influence of multidimensional factors, considering psychosocial and behavioral aspects, on online victimization among fifth-grade children (ages 10-11). Loneliness, online social currency disturbance, and digital citizenship were examined as predictors of online victimization. Data were collected from 196 students through a self-reported online survey conducted on electronic devices provided by the schools. The findings indicated that 78.6% of fifth-graders owned a smartphone, 70.9% had a gaming console, and the most common online activities were playing online gaming (73%), talking with friends (62.8%), and seeking entertainment (62.2%). Online victimization was prevalent, with 30.8% of children reporting they had been called bad names, 24.7% receiving rude comments, 15.9% expressing feelings of worry or threat due to online harassment, and 3.1% experiencing cyberbullying lasting for days. Furthermore, the results revealed a negative association between digital citizenship and online victimization, while loneliness and online social currency disturbance were positively associated with online victimization after accounting for children's gender and time spent online. In conclusion, this study suggests that efforts to prevent and address online victimization should prioritize promoting digital citizenship and increasing awareness of the roles of loneliness and social currency disturbances in online social dynamics.

The role of self-efficacy and parental communication in the association between cyber victimization and depression among adolescents and young adults: a structural equation model

BACKGROUND

With the rapid advancement and revolutionization of information and communication technologies, adolescents and young adults use smartphones, the internet, and social networking services more frequently, as a result, the problem of cyber-bullying sharply increases, and eventually it causes psychological issues and negative thoughts in the victims. This study aimed to examine the role of self-efficacy and parental communication in the relationship between cyber victimization and depression among adolescents and young adults in India.

METHODS

Secondary data analysis was performed on a cross-sectional dataset obtained from the Understanding the Lives of Adolescents and Young Adults (UDAYA) wave 2 survey. The sample included 16,292 adolescent and young adult boys and girls aged 12-23 years. Karl Pearson Correlation coefficient analysis was done to examine the correlation between outcome variable (depressive symptoms), mediator variables (self-efficacy and parental communication) and key explanatory variable (cyber victimization). Further, structural equation modeling technique was applied to examine the hypothesized pathways.

RESULTS

Adolescents and young adults being victims of cyber-bullying [β = 0.1357, p < 0.001] and those witnessed inter-parental violence were positively [β = 0.0026, p < 0.001] correlated with depressive symptoms. Self-efficacy and parental communication were negatively related to depressive symptoms among adolescents and young adults. There was a significant positive relationship between cyber victimization [β = 0.258, p < 0.001] and depressive symptoms. Cyber victimization was positively related to self-efficacy [β = 0.043, p < 0.001] among adolescents and young adults. Self-efficacy [β= -0.150, p < 0.001] and parental communication [β=-0.261, p < 0.001] reduced depressive symptoms among the participants.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that adolescents and young adults who are victims of cyber-bully may have depressive symptoms and their mental health can be improved through the enhancement of self-efficacy and increased parental communication. Improved peer attitudes and familial support for empowering cyber victims should be taken into account while framing programs and interventions.

Trajectories of college students' general self-efficacy, the related predictors, and depression: A piecewise growth mixture modeling approach

General self-efficacy plays a critical role in the development of college students, and mastering the development of students' general self-efficacy is helpful to explain students' behavior and psychological performance. Based on the data from the same cohort of college students for four consecutive years, this study used the piecewise growth mixture model to identify the developmental trajectories of general self-efficacy, built a multinomial logistic regression model to analyze the related predictors on different trajectories, and further compared the differences in depression symptoms in general self-efficacy trajectories. Three trajectories of college students' general self-efficacy were identified: stable-rising (8.7%), stable-decreasing (2.4%), and moderate and stable (88.9%). With the moderate and stable class as the reference, gender and extraversion are the predictors of students in the stable-increasing class; gender, extraversion, mother's education level, and university tier significantly predict students who fall into the stable-decreasing class. With the stable-increasing class as the reference, gender also has a significant predictive effect on students who belong to the stable-decreasing class. However, age, ethnicity, siblings, hometown location, father's education level, BMI, sleep, and major were not related predictors. Furthermore, mean differences in depression between latent classes of general self-efficacy trajectories were significant, and the depression scores of the stable-decreasing class were beyond the normal range in the third and fourth years. To promote college students' mental health, we suggest that colleges provide more specific psychological interventions to students based on the classification.