Cyberbullying : bystanders’ response strategies and motivational factors.

• Main Authors: Foo, Chen Chin., Lee, Shuxian., Mohamad Heikel Bin Kharsani., Sumita Sreedharan.
• Other Authors: Yeoh Kok Cheow
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Communication
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/44356
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Cyberbullying, a specific form of bullying, is a rising global phenomenon. Studies have suggested that bystanders possess the ability to effectively stop cyberbullying occurrences. However, a large proportion of bystanders are unlikely to intervene in their peers’ cyberbullying experiences. There has been little literature that provides a deeper understanding of how bystanders formulate their response strategy when they encounter their peers being cyberbullied. This study aims to investigate the circumstances under which bystanders (youths) will be motivated to intervene in the cyberbullying instances. It uses the model of Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to find out whether the components (Attitudes, Subjective Norms and Perceived Behavioural Control) play an influencing role in motivating bystanders’ behavioural intentions, which is, to report their friend’s cyberbullying episode. The five behavioural intentions examined were: telling a teacher, telling parent(s), telling friends, telling Others, and telling the bully to stop. This study was administered to 605 secondary school students in Singapore. Significant relationships were identified with the three components of TPB, with perceived behavioural control (self efficacy) being the relatively strongest predictor amongst all behavioural intentions. Several demographic variables were also found to have correlations with certain types of behavioural intentions. Based on the results, this paper will make recommendations to policy makers and cyber wellness advocates in devising policies, programmes and campaigns to address the cyberbullying issue in Singapore. It can also be used to formulate future cyberbullying policies, programmes or campaigns.