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Abstract
There has been concern about the effects of high levels of internet use on the mental well-being of young people. This has generally been phrased in terms of a displacement hypothesis, that the extent of internet use and mental well-being are directly proportional. This linear model has been contrasted with a Goldilocks Hypothesis, proposed by Przybylski and Weinstein. This supposes that moderate levels of internet use may be the least harmful, conforming to a curvilinear relationship. Here these hypotheses were tested on a sample of 1140 adolescents (42% boys, 58% girls) aged 12–18 years, in 12 schools from Southern Thailand. We first report levels of internet use, and of cybervictimization, taken as one important aspect of mental well-being. We then assess the relationship of four factors of internet use (frequency, time spent, number of places accessed, number of activities) with (a) being a victim of cyberbullying, and (b) being a frequent victim; taking these as indicators of mental well-being. For (a) there was limited evidence of a Goldilocks effect on two out of four measures. For (b) the evidence did support a Goldilocks effect for all four measures, but these were under-powered analyses and the findings did not reach statistical significance. If substantiated on larger samples, a curvilinear relationship between aspects of internet use and cyberbullying would suggest a ‘safe zone’ for adolescent internet use, bringing its benefits while minimizing risks of cyberbullying. In the future, similar research should use larger sample sizes or longitudinal measures when exploring nonlinear trends and include other aspects of mental well-being.
Highlights
An accurate measure of the connection between internet use and cybervictimhood could provide better data for managing cyberbullying and helping cybervictims
This study considers whether, besides any linear relationship, a curvilinear relationship may be found in the connection between internet use and cybervictimization of adolescents
We found that adolescents often used the internet to do homework or assignments from schools, and commonly used it to download songs, movies, and programs, to play games, to send and receive emails, to chat, to surf the internet, to use other social media such as MSN or Yahoo, and to use Skype (Table 1)
Summary
An accurate measure of the connection between internet use and cybervictimhood could provide better data for managing cyberbullying and helping cybervictims. This study considers whether, besides any linear relationship, a curvilinear relationship may be found in the connection between internet use and cybervictimization of adolescents. The internet and related technologies have become an important aspect of everyday life, especially for young people. They are widely used for communication information, education, and entertainment. Technological advances offer young people a plethora of options for social connections such as web blogs, websites for sharing pictures, songs, videos, chat boards, emails, and quick messages. Many websites cater to social networking users, such as Google Group, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube. Social networking has greatly influenced the lives of teenagers [1]
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