Perceived anonymity and cyberbullying: what happens when there is a lack of social influence?

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Croatian review of rehabilitation research, Vol. 59 No. 2, 2023.

Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.31299/hrri.59.2.3

Perceived anonymity and cyberbullying: what happens when there is a lack of social influence?

Ivana Vrselja orcid.org/0000-0002-7740-7023 ; Catholic University of Croatia, Department of Psychology, Ilica 242, Zagreb, Croatia
Dora Lacković ; Zagreb, Croatia
Martina Lotar Rihtarić orcid.org/0000-0003-0666-0299 ; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, Borongajska 83f, Zagreb, Croatia

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APA 6th Edition

Vrselja, I., Lacković, D. & Lotar Rihtarić, M. (2023). Perceived anonymity and cyberbullying: what happens when there is a lack of social influence?. Hrvatska revija za rehabilitacijska istraživanja, 59 (2), 31-42. https://doi.org/10.31299/hrri.59.2.3

MLA 8th Edition

Vrselja, Ivana, et al. "Perceived anonymity and cyberbullying: what happens when there is a lack of social influence?." Hrvatska revija za rehabilitacijska istraživanja, vol. 59, no. 2, 2023, pp. 31-42. https://doi.org/10.31299/hrri.59.2.3. Accessed 17 May 2024.

Chicago 17th Edition

Vrselja, Ivana, Dora Lacković and Martina Lotar Rihtarić. "Perceived anonymity and cyberbullying: what happens when there is a lack of social influence?." Hrvatska revija za rehabilitacijska istraživanja 59, no. 2 (2023): 31-42. https://doi.org/10.31299/hrri.59.2.3

Harvard

Vrselja, I., Lacković, D., and Lotar Rihtarić, M. (2023). 'Perceived anonymity and cyberbullying: what happens when there is a lack of social influence?', Hrvatska revija za rehabilitacijska istraživanja, 59(2), pp. 31-42. https://doi.org/10.31299/hrri.59.2.3

Vancouver

Vrselja I, Lacković D, Lotar Rihtarić M. Perceived anonymity and cyberbullying: what happens when there is a lack of social influence?. Hrvatska revija za rehabilitacijska istraživanja [Internet]. 2023 [cited 2024 May 17];59(2):31-42. https://doi.org/10.31299/hrri.59.2.3

IEEE

I. Vrselja, D. Lacković and M. Lotar Rihtarić, "Perceived anonymity and cyberbullying: what happens when there is a lack of social influence?", Hrvatska revija za rehabilitacijska istraživanja, vol.59, no. 2, pp. 31-42, 2023. [Online]. https://doi.org/10.31299/hrri.59.2.3

Abstract

Although cyberbullying is a significant problem nowadays, there are few theoretical explanations for this phenomenon in the literature. Based on Barlett and Gentile’s cyberbullying model (2012), the aim of this paper was to examine the contribution of a variable specific to the virtual world - perceived anonymity - in explaining cyberbullying. It also aimed to examine whether there is a mediating effect of attitudes in the relationship between anonymity and cyberbullying, as well as a moderating effect of frequency of internet use on the relationship between anonymity and cyberbullying, as well as between attitudes towards cyberbullying and cyberbullying itself. A survey was administered online in March and April 2021 and data was collected from a convenient sample of 329 students (110 males), aged 18-30 years (M = 21.53, SD = 2.50). The results of the moderation-mediation analysis, performed in the Process macro for SPSS, showed that there was a significant mediation effect of positive attitudes in the relationship between perceived anonymity and cyberbullying, in the way that greater perceived anonymity predicted positive attitudes toward cyberbullying, which predicted more frequent cyberbullying. There was no significant direct contribution of more pronounced perceived anonymity to more frequent cyberbullying. Finally, the results showed that frequency of internet use did not have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between perceived anonymity and cyberbullying,
as well as between attitudes and cyberbullying.

Keywords

cyberbullying; anonymity; attitudes toward cyberbullying; frequency of internet use

Hrčak ID:

312212

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/312212

Publication date:

27.12.2023.

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