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- Com@Viver sem (cyber)bullying: Um guia para trabalhar com crianças e jovensPublication . Veiga Simão, Ana; Ferreira, Paula; Salgado Pereira, Nádia; Oliveira, Sofia; Francisco, Sofia; Gomes, Sónia
- Pro(f)Social: A Serious Game to Counter CyberbullyingPublication . Pereira, Nádia Salgado; Ferreira, Paula; Francisco, Sofia; Veiga Simão, AnaThis study proposes to present the design and face validity of a serious game prototype, Pro(f)Social, as part of a blended learning teacher training program based on social-emotional ethical learning to promote pro-social behavior and well-being among children, through changes in teachers’ emotion regulation and moral involvement with cyberbullying and their social-emotional competence to deal with the phenomenon. Teachers are often unaware of aggressive acts among their students, and even when they are, many consider that they are not responsible for resolving cyberbullying issues. Therefore, it is fundamental to develop resources based on human-machine collaboration to attain several milestones in designing serious games to prevent and intervene in cyberbullying by providing teachers with know-how through interactive training with artificial intelligence. The game presented, along with its face validity (n = 290 units for content analysis), offer technology professionals the necessary knowledge to develop future interventions to counter cyberbullying.
- Student bystander behavior and cultural issues in cyberbullying: When actions speak louder than wordsPublication . Ferreira, Paula; Veiga Simão, Ana; Ferreira, Aristides I.; Souza, Sidclay B.; Francisco, SofiaThis study aims to investigate whether student bystander interventions can influence the relationship between being a bystander of a cyberbullying incident and being the victim or the aggressor. Another aim is to understand the specific behavior presented by students bystanders, namely whether they noticed incidents of cyberbullying and interpreted these events as an emergency and which actions they determined as being appropriate in providing assistance. Following a cross-cultural perspective to reach these aims, a total of 788 Portuguese and Brazilian college students answered to the Cyberbullying Inventory for College Students. Moderation analysis revealed that intervening moderated the relationship between being the bystander of cyberbullying and being the victim and/or aggressor. A three-way interaction showed that this relationship was stronger in Brazilian students, revealing that the bystanders who were inactive were more likely to also become a victim or an aggressor themselves, whereas those who intervened were less likely to become a victim or an aggressor. Implications for future research and interventive action are discussed.
- The role of moral disengagement in cyberbullyingPublication . Francisco, Sofia; Simão, Ana Margarida Veiga; Ferreira, Paula da CostaCyberbullying is a complex phenomenon with multiple factors involved, both individual as well as contextual, therefore a multiplicity of interventions are possible. Nonetheless, there are specific individual factors, such as moral disengagement (MD), which have already been investigated previously in relation to bullying, that are considered risk factors for cyberbullying involvement. Thus, this investigation focused specifically on MD and how it is related to cyberbullying from the perspective of adolescents. The processes involved in cyberbullying can be seen as the two sides from the same coin. On one side, there are the protective factors, and on the other side, there are the risk factors. Hence, considering the fact that cyberbullying is a complex phenomenon, which can be explained by several factors, we also aimed to understand the relation between MD and empathy. This provided evidence on how to include these two constructs together in order to develop more effective anti-cyberbullying interventions. Hence, in a first study, we proposed to examine how students belonging to different cyberbullying roles, perceived beliefs related to cyberbullying, both at the individual level and concerning the peer group. Specifically, we aimed to understand how adolescents (N=404) perceived their personal and normative beliefs about cyberbullying, considering their specific role in this type of aggressive behavior. For this purpose, students answered to the Inventory of Observed Cyberbullying Incidents. To this objective, 34 adolescents participated in semi-structured interviews with scenarios, and content analysis was used with a mixed approach, based on the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). Results from hierarchical regressions followed by Post Hoc Tukey test revealed that those who were involved as bystanders, victims and aggressors presented the lowest scores on all four types of beliefs. Specifically, this group believed that cyberbullying was less severe and less unfair, and thought that their peer group believed cyberbullying was less severe and unfair than others (i.e., bystanders, bystanders-victims and those who were not involved at all). Moreover, the most used MD mechanisms were blaming the victim and euphemistic labeling (regarding the seriousness of the situation). Therefore, we concluded that those who were involved as bystanders, victims and aggressors that would most benefit from cyberbullying interventions, specifically targeted at clarifying beliefs about the fairness and severity of these types of behavior. Furthermore, this study enabled us to understand the role of MD, considering that specific mechanisms are more related to the aggressors’ behavior and others are more related to bystanders’ aggressive behavior. Furthermore, the adolescents’ perspectives of cyberbullying led to a cyclical model, where some mechanisms were related to the antecedents, others to the behavior, and finally, others mechanisms were related to the consequents. In a second study, we investigated how adolescents reported empathy in online contexts and MD in cyberbullying incidents. To accomplish this goal, we had to adapt and develop two instruments, the short version of the Empathy Quotient, to Portuguese and to online contexts, which originated the Empathy Quotient in Virtual Contexts (EQVC), and develop the Process Moral Disengagement in Cyberbullying Situations Questionnaire (PMDCSQ), based on the content analysis from the previous study and on the SCT. Exploratory factor analyses (N=234) and Confirmatory factor analyses (N=345) to assess both instruments revealed empathy as a bi-dimensional structure including difficulty and self-efficacy in empathizing (Cronbach's α = .44, .83, respectively), and process MD was assessed with four unidimensional questionnaires including locus of behavior, agency, outcome and recipient (Cronbach's α = .76, .65, .77, .69, respectively). Results of a correlational study showed that difficulty in empathizing was negatively associated with sex, meaning that girls revealed more difficulty than boys. Difficulty in empathizing was also negatively associated with all MD loci, with exception for behavior. Self-efficacy in empathizing was not associated with any variable. Lastly, MD was positively correlated with sex, suggesting that boys morally disengaged more from cyberbullying than girls. Lastly, we analyzed how MD and empathy could be related, longitudinally. Specifically, two gamified tasks (one for empathy and other for MD) were analyzed. These tasks were developed attending to the specificities of the cyberbullying scenarios presented in a serious game. To accomplish this goal, data from gamified tasks (N=208), from 4 different moments, were analyzed through multilevel linear modeling. Results suggest that there was a change in adolescents’ MD over time. Participants with greater empathy revealed lower MD overall. Over time, adolescents with greater empathy revealed lower MD within their own growth rate. Overall, our results provide important information about the dynamic relationship between MD, empathy and cyberbullying, which informs future studies and interventions.
- O cyberbullying em contexto universitário do Brasil e Portugal: Vitimização, emoções associadas e estratégias de enfrentamentoPublication . Souza, Sidclay B.; Veiga Simão, Ana; Ferreira, Paula; Paulino, Paula; Francisco, SofiaO presente artigo buscou, por um lado, descrever como os estudantes universitários do Brasil e de Portugal experienciaram situações de cyberbullying no papel de vítimas, considerando-se algumas variáveis sociodemográficas, bem como analisar se existiam diferenças significativas em função do contexto relativamente aos comportamentos de vitimização, as emoções e as estratégias utilizadas pelas vítimas do Brasil e de Portugal. Buscando atender aos objetivos da investigação, 1340 estudantes universitários (Brasil: n = 592; Portugal: n = 748) responderam ao Questionário do Cyberbullying para o Ensino Superior (QCES). As análises realizadas permitiram verificar que uma percentagem de 44.6% dos participantes brasileiros e 43.0% dos participantes portugueses foram vítimas de cyberbullying em algum momento da vida e algumas diferenças foram encontradas no que diz respeito aos comportamentos de vitimização, as emoções das vítimas e as estratégias de enfrentamento utilizadas pelas vítimas de cada país. Os resultados são discutidos, algumas limitações são consideradas e são apresentadas algumas implicações que sugerem a importância do desenvolvimento sistêmico de programas de prevenção e intervenção nos contextos universitários.
- Behind the scenes of cyberbullying: Personal and normative beliefs across profiles and moral disengagement mechanismsPublication . Francisco, Sofia; Ferreira, Paula; Veiga Simão, AnaThe first study aims to examine cyberbullying roles and their relation to personal and normative beliefs. For this purpose, a total of 404 7th to 9th grade students answered the Inventory of Observed Cyberbullying Incidents. For the second study, semi-structured interviews to 34 9th grade students were analysed based on the Social Cognitive Theory of Moral Agency, to understand which moral disengagement mechanisms were more frequent regarding cyberbullying scenarios. Results revealed that bystanders were the most common role. Regarding beliefs, the All type of involvement group considered cyberbullying to be less severe than Bystanders, Bystanders-Victims and No Involvement group. Moreover, they perceived that their peer group believed cyberbullying was less unfair than Bystanders and No Involvement group. The most used moral disengagement mechanisms were blaming the victim and euphemistic labelling regarding seriousness. Personal, normative beliefs, as well as moral disengagement mechanisms operating in cyberbullying should be considered when designing interventions.
- Moral disengagement and empathy in cyberbullying: how they are related in reflection activities about a serious gamePublication . Francisco, Sofia; Ferreira, Paula; Veiga Simão, Ana; Salgado Pereira, NádiaCyberbullying is a complex phenomenon with multiple factors involved, both contextual and individual factors, such as moral disengagement and empathy. This study investigated how moral disengagement and empathy could be related, longitudinally in cyberbullying events. Specifically, two gamified tasks (one for empathy and other for moral disengagement) were analyzed. These tasks were developed attending to the specificities of the cyberbullying scenarios presented in a serious game. To accomplish this goal, data from gamified tasks (N=208), from 4 different moments, were analyzed through multilevel linear modeling. Results suggested that there was a change in adolescents’ moral disengagement over time. Participants with greater empathy revealed lower moral disengagement overall. Over time, adolescents with greater empathy revealed lower moral disengagement within their own growth rate. Overall, our results provide important information about the dynamic relationship between moral disengagement, empathy and cyberbullying, which informs future studies and interventions.
- Cyberbullying: Shaping the use of verbal aggression through normative moral beliefs and self-efficacyPublication . Veiga Simão, Ana; Ferreira, Paula; Francisco, Sofia; Paulino, Paula; Souza, Sidclay B.This study investigates the mediating effect of normative moral beliefs about cyberbullying behavior and self-efficacy beliefs to solve cyberbullying incidents in the relationship between adolescents’ personal moral beliefs and the use of the content from verbal aggressions they witnessed in situations of cyberbullying. A total of 1607 students responded to an open-ended question regarding the content of verbal aggression they observed in cyberbullying situations, as well as questionnaires concerning personal and normative moral beliefs about cyberbullying behavior and self-efficacy beliefs to solve cyberbullying situations. Through content analysis, findings revealed nine distinct categories of content, which are in line with verbal aggression in cyberbullying behavior. Normative moral beliefs and self-efficacy beliefs mediated the relationship between adolescents’ personal moral beliefs and using the content from verbal aggressions to communicate online. These results offer insights to develop authentic and interactive intervention programs that teach adolescents to communicate assertively, as a step toward preventing cyberbullying.
- Descomprometimento moral e crenças no Cyberbullying: Implicações teóricas e práticasPublication . Francisco, Sofia; Ferreira, Paula; Veiga Simão, AnaPoucos estudos têm utilizado instrumentos adaptados à forma como alguns construtos se evidenciam no fenómeno do Cyberbullying, nem os programas de intervenção têm sido desenvolvidos atendendo às especificidades de cada interveniente. Assim, este artigo pretende dar pistas para a intervenção considerando o papel dos mecanismos de descomprometimento moral à luz da Teoria Sócio-Cognitiva, bem como as necessidades específicas de cada grupo, ao nível das suas crenças pessoais e normativas.
- Cyberbullying: The hidden side of college studentsPublication . Francisco, Sofia; Veiga Simão, Ana; Ferreira, Paula; D. Martins, Maria JoséThe purpose of this study was to investigate how university students perceive their involvement in the cyberbullying phenomenon, and its impact on their well-being. Thus, this study presents a preliminary approach of how college students’ perceived involvement in acts of cyberbullying can be measured. Firstly, Exploratory Factor Analysis (N = 349) revealed a unidimensional structure of the four scales included in the Cyberbullying Inventory for College Students. Then, Item Response Theory (N = 170) was used to analyze the unidimensionality of each scale and the interactions between participants and items. Results revealed good item reliability and Cronbach’s a for each scale. Results also showed the potential of the instrument and how college students underrated their involvement in acts of cyberbullying. Additionally, aggression types, coping strategies and sources of help to deal with cyberbullying were identified and discussed. Lastly, age, gender and course-related issues were considered in the analysis. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.