Elucidating College Students' Cyberstalking Victimization Experiences.

Abstract

Given that college students are high users of social media, an exploration of their experiences with cyberstalking victimization on social media is imperative. In this cross-sectional online survey study, 200 college student participants at a large state university (Mage = 19.93, SD = 1.72) were recruited. The online survey asked participants to self-identify as targets of cyberstalking; those who identified themselves as having had an experience with cyberstalking victimization were asked questions about their experience, including their relationship with the perpetrator, the duration of their experience, when the experience occurred, and the behaviors that were enacted by the perpetrator, both off and on social media. Analyses included assessing prevalence and descriptive statistics. Among participants, 14 percent self-identified as experiencing victimization. The majority (82.1 percent) experienced victimization from either a peer who was not a friend, a stranger, or an ex-romantic partner. Regarding the duration of experiences, 82.1 percent reported their experience lasted 6 months or fewer, and for the majority (67.9 percent), their experience happened over 1 year ago. Of targets, 96.4 percent experienced a communication technology behavior, whereas 92.9 percent experienced a behavior that occurred on social media. Potential implications include widening the scope of examination of cyberstalking victimization experiences in research and screening for cyberstalking victimization in college settings.