The cyberbullying behavior of Taiwanese adolescents in an online gaming environment

Abstract

Based on Willard's (2007) classification of the eight types of cyberbullying behavior, this study examined primary, junior and senior high school students' bullying behavior in online gaming and the relationship between this behavior and their perception of the seriousness of bullying from the perspectives of perpetrators and victims. Factors related to cyberbullying, including gender and education level, were also examined. We used cyberbullying in online games scale to investigate the prevalence of students. Among 1112 respondents with valid questionnaires, 81% (n = 902) responded their demographic information. Participants comprised elementary students (n = 268, 29.7%), junior high school students (n = 223, 24.7%) and senior high school students (n = 411, 45.6%). Among them, 62.7% (n = 565) were males, and 37.3% (n = 337) were females. Our study revealed that cyberbullying and cyber-victimization behavior from Willard's (2007) eight classifications indeed existed in Taiwanese adolescent players, although the frequencies varied from person to person. Compared with primary and junior high school students and girls, senior high school students and boys were found to have more experience with various types of cyberbullying as both the perpetrator and the victim. Additionally, there were statistically significant differences between victims and bullies in the perception of the seriousness of CB outing acts. Therefore, to keep students from engaging in these deviant behaviors and becoming victims, schools and teachers should provide assistance that varies from student to student.