Serious Game-based Psychosocial Intervention to Foster Prosociality in Cyberbullying Bystanders

A comparative analysis of adolescents' emotions and emotion regulation strategies when witnessing different cyberbullying scenarios

The search for greater popularity and acceptance by peers increases the use of social networks that may cause cyberbullying. The high number of adolescents who observe this phenomenon may help reduce the negative impact on the victims. Emotion regulation is an important predictor of adolescents' psychological adjustment and social competence to adopt a prosocial behavior. Bystanders of these incidents may misinterpret what they see, due to specific cyberbullying characteristics which may influence emotion regulation negatively. Studies about emotions and emotion regulations in bystanders are scarce. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the emotional reactions and emotional regulation strategies of bystanders while witnessing various cyberbullying scenarios (posting photographs, direct threats, offences to integrity, threats to share personal information), as well as to focus on different behavior, victim characteristics, aggressor traits, and spectator reactions. A convenience sample of 143 adolescents (from 12 to 17 years old) was used. Results showed that worry and sadness were the most expressed emotions in all scenarios (mainly for girls) and posting a photograph was considered more concerning for girls and boys both. To regulate emotions, participants used distraction (especially seven graders) and rumination strategies. Nonetheless, when posting a photo without permission, they all adopted prosocial behavior (boys and girls) because they considered it more serious. Seventh graders adopted less prosocial behavior than eighth graders. In short, girls were more prosocial than boys. Boys may have more difficulty in regulating emotions properly and it may contribute to not intervening. Also, younger adolescents may have experienced less emotional maturity. Therefore, developing programs based on socio-emotional skills, which increase awareness of the seriousness of cyberbullying, can teach youth how to deal with emotions in order to regulate them effectively, thus increasing emotional maturity.

Moral disengagement and empathy in cyberbullying: how they are related in reflection activities about a serious game

Cyberbullying is a complex phenomenon with multiple factors involved, both contextual and individual factors, such as moral disengagement and empathy. This study investigated how moral disengagement and empathy could be related, longitudinally in cyberbullying events. Specifically, two gamified tasks (one for empathy and other for moral disengagement) were analyzed. These tasks were developed attending to the specificities of the cyberbullying scenarios presented in a serious game. To accomplish this goal, data from gamified tasks (N = 208), from 4 different moments, were analyzed through multilevel linear modeling. Results suggested that there was a change in adolescents' moral disengagement over time. Participants with greater empathy revealed lower moral disengagement overall. Over time, adolescents with greater empathy revealed lower moral disengagement within their own growth rate. Overall, our results provide important information about the dynamic relationship between moral disengagement, empathy and cyberbullying, which informs future studies and interventions.