中華心理衛生協會

 Purpose: Our goal was to explore Taiwanese adults' experiences of being cyberbullied in order to construct a localized theoretical predictive model of cyberbullying victimization. We focused on the phenomena of repeated victimization and poly-victimization, and included self-control theory, routine activities theory, and behaviors such as Internet addiction to develop our model. Methods: We generated items based on established scales and prior research on cyberbullying, and then used online and offline questionnaires to collect a valid sample of 2,153 participants (45.3% male). Data analysis included descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the proposed theoretical model and the mediating role of Internet addiction. Results: Cyberbullying is widespread: 23.78% of the respondents said they had been victims of cyberbullying, with verbal attacks, spreading rumors, and verbal threats being the most common. About half of the victims had experienced 2 or more forms of cyberbullying, which indicates that cyberbullying victims are diverse and complex. We identified a 4-factor predictive model of cyberbullying victimization in which demographic characteristics, self-control, Internet addiction, and situational opportunities were all significantly correlated with the experience of cyberbullying victimization, and Internet addiction played a mediating role. Situational opportunities were the key factor affecting cyberbullying victimization. Conclusions: Our model highlights 3 tools for preventing adult cyberbullying victimization: 1) strengthening personal self-control, promoting healthy Internet usage habits, and enhancing Internet safety awareness; 2) encouraging parents and teachers to pay attention to teenagers' Internet usage behavior and to provide appropriate guidance and supervision so that teenagers do not grow into adults who become victimized; and 3) ensuring social media platform managers are socially responsible and that they strengthen management of risky situations that may lead to cyberbullying.