Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of gender and gender stereotype traits (masculinity, femininity) in cyber victimization behaviors (cyber relational victimization, cyber verbal victimization, hacking) through different technologies (mobile phones, gaming consoles, social networking sites). There were 456 8th graders (226 females; M age = 13.66, SD = 0.41) from two midwestern middle schools in the United States included in this study. They completed questionnaires on their endorsement of masculine and feminine traits, and self-reported cyber victimization through different technologies. The findings revealed main effects of types of cyber victimization for boys and of technology for girls. In particular, boys with feminine traits experienced the most victimization by cyber verbal aggression, cyber relational aggression, and hacking when compared to the other groups of boys. Girls with feminine traits experienced the most cyber victimization through social networking sites, gaming consoles, and mobile phones in comparison to the other groups of girls. For girls with feminine traits, they reported more cyber relational victimization and cyber verbal victimization through mobile phones and social networking sites, as well as more hacking via social networking sites. Such findings underscore the importance of considering gender stereotype traits, types of victimization, and technologies when examining cyber victimization.
Highlights
Cyber victimization is one consequence of technology use
Multicollinearity was not a problem for our analyses, with Variance Inflation Factors (VIF) under 1.81, which is less than a VIF of 10, indicating we satisfied assumption seven
Our study’s intent was to understand more about the complex relationship between gender and cyber victimization, we found that considering gender stereotype trait endorsement further complicates this relationship but does provide a little bit more clarity about the risk of experiencing cyber victimization
Summary
Cyber victimization is one consequence of technology use. Cyber victimization is defined as experiencing aggressive behaviors via information and communication technologies, such as the internet, gaming consoles, and mobile phones [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. A more fruitful direction is to examine gender and the impact of gender stereotype traits, defined as behaviors and attitudes that are acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for people based on biological sex, such as masculinity and femininity, on cyber victimization. To address this gap in the literature, the present study examined the joint roles of technology and victimization type in girls’ and boys’ experience of cyber victimization by examining the influence of their gender and endorsement of masculine and feminine traits. Findings of this study add to the existing literature concerning gender differences in adolescents’ experience of cyber victimization by providing more details about the types of different victimization, technologies where victimization occurred, and gender stereotype traits
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