Cross-national aspects of cyberbullying victimization among 14–17-year-old adolescents across seven European countries

Abstract

[...]family relationships and family structure (e.g. single-parent family), as the key factors in an adolescent’s “micro” developmental context, may be related to experiencing cybervictimization as they influence family cohesion (i.e. “emotional bonding” between family members), and the provision of support and engagement in shared activities between parents and adolescents [35]. [...]the absence of a legislative framework for the protection of Romanian children online, as well as the current lack of integration of ICT components into education, limits the promotion of online safety and awareness of online risks [54]. According to a qualitative study conducted in the Netherlands by Jacobs and colleagues [59], cyber-bullies are judged as “cowards” by their peers and are heavily criticized amongst young students, which may account for the low rates reported. [...]age arose as a risk factor of cyber victimization only in Romania [27], reflecting the inconsistent results obtained in the literature [8, 22, 24, 34]. Since this finding was only established in Romania, it is worth considering these results in light of SNS and Internet usage being associated with cyberbullying victimization, possibly suggesting that absence of computer literacy over safety issues in younger adolescents in Romania may play an important role in their risk of victimization.