Computer-based communication and cyberbullying involvement in the sample of Arab teenagers

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Computer-based communication and cyberbullyinginvolvement in the sample of Arab teenagers

Tali Heiman & Dorit Olenik Shemesh

# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Abstract The use of the internet among teenagers has increased in recent years andnearly 92 % of all teenagers in Israel surf the internet. This study examined thecharacteristics of involvement in cyberbullying among 114 adolescents in the MuslimArab sector, and its relationships with emotional aspects. The students completedquestionnaires regarding cyberbullying and face-to-face bullying, loneliness and anx-iety. Results show that more students experience cyberbullying (82 %) than face-to-facebullying (42 %). The students who were cybervictims reported higher levels ofloneliness and anxiety. No gender differences were found. The development of inter-vention programs is recommended in order to raise awareness, equip students with theappropriate tools to cope effectively with cyberbullying, and allocate resources toreduce and eventually prevent this phenomenon.

Keywords Cyberbullying.Arabsector.Teenagers .Loneliness .Anxiety.Social support

1 Internet use within Israeli Arab society

The study focuses on computer-based communication and involvement incyberbullying among Arab teenagers in Israel who are considered an ethnic-culturalsector (Abu-Asba et al. 2011). Among Arabic-speaking teachers there is increased useof technological tools, as they use computer software and presentation devices tointroduce and explain their lessons (Al Musawi et al. 2014). At the same time, inrecent years there has also been an abundance of research on cyberbullying. Neverthe-less, little attention has been paid to how various cultural and social groups differ intheir cyberbullying experiences. From the literature review, it appears that only fewstudies have examined the phenomenon of cyberbullying in relation to the Muslim

Educ Inf TechnolDOI 10.1007/s10639-015-9375-7

T. Heiman (*) : D. O. ShemeshDepartment of Education and Psychology, The Open University of Israel, 108 Ravutski Street, Raanana,Israele-mail: [email protected]

D. O. Shemeshe-mail: [email protected]

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Arab society. Given the rapid rise of internet use within Arab society in Israel from 30in 2006 to 63 % in 2010 (Ganaim et al. 2011), it is important to examine theseteenagers’ internet surfing patterns in relation to emotional aspects.

The present study aims to contribute to the growing body of educational researchand to focus on the characteristics of Muslim Arab society in relation to teenagers’ self-reported experience of cyberbullying, and social-emotional aspects such as loneliness,anxiety and social support.

2 Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying has been described as peer aggression that involves three major charac-teristics: the intention to hurt, repetition of the hurtful behavior over a period of time,and power asymmetry between the perpetrator and the victim (Patchin and Hinduja2006; Law et al. 2012). Cyberbullying and face-to-face bullying involve similarbehaviors, such as spreading rumors, calling people names or making threats; never-theless, there are some characteristics that are unique to cyberbullying (Hinduja andPatchin 2009). These are derived from the unique opportunities offered by electroniccommunication and include anonymity, distant and rapid communication, and accessi-bility to a wide audience (Heiman and Olenik-Shemesh 2013; Law et al. 2012; Mishnaet al. 2010).

The present study focuses on the victims of cyberbullying - Muslim Arab adoles-cents in Israeli society - based on the findings of studies in Western society, in whichcyberbullying was found to affect the social, emotional and academic functioning of thevictims (Patchin and Hinduja 2006; Ybarra and Mitchell 2004).

In a study conducted on 1,094 Jewish students from various schools in Israel(Heiman et al. 2014 where the students’ age range was 10–17 (mean age: 13.39),findings revealed that 27 % of the participants reported being victims of cyberbullying,while 49 % reported being hurt by face-to-face bullying; 17 % of the study participantsreported being engaged in online harassment, 36 % reported having taken part in face-to-face harassment, and 46 % reported having witnessed cyberbullying and aggressiontowards someone else. It was found that boys manifest a higher tendency to engage inonline harassment and bullying compared to girls.

Various studies conducted in the United States, Australia, Canada, Europe and Israelexamined the incidence of the cyberbullying phenomenon. For example, a study in theUnited States (Patchin and Hinduja 2011) reported that among children and adolescentsunder the age of 18, 11 % indicated they were online bullies and 29 % said they hadbeen victims on the net. Another study in the United States found that 20 % of socialnetwork users were involved in some way in online harassment (Ybarra and Mitchell2004) and more than 53 % of the respondents reported that they knew someone whohad been a victim of violence online (Li 2008). A similar trend was found in Australia(Campbell 2005), as 11 % of the students indicated they were online bullies and 14 %indicated they were cybervictims. In Canada (Li 2007) 17 % of students in grades 7–9reported being bullies while 25 % reported being cybervictims. Similar reports werefound in studies conducted by European countries. In Belgium, for example, about20 % of children and adolescents between the ages of 7–20 reported being harassedonline (Vandebosch and Van Cleemput 2009).

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The focus of the above-mentioned studies was on adolescent society in Westerncountries and thus did not examine the usage pattern of behaviors within the MuslimArab society in Israel. Thus, we believe it is important to focus on this specific society,examining the cyber victimization within their cultural setting as well as to theemotional-behavioral aspects.

3 Cyberbullying and related aspects

Cyberbullying involvement is related to various emotional, social and behavioralaspects (Patchin and Hinduja 2006) and psychological distress (Raskauskas and Stoltz2007). Research has linked cybervictimization to frustration, depression, anger, lowerself-esteem and lower academic achievement (Willard 2006). The current study intendsto examine the relationships between cyberbullying and the emotional aspects ofloneliness, anxiety and social support.

Loneliness Loneliness is manifested by difficulties in forming social relations whichcan be the result of impaired social relations, lack of social skills or personal charac-teristics (Storch and Masia-Warner 2004). Several studies have found an associationbetween loneliness and being a victim of aggression. Cybervictims reported high levelsof loneliness, impaired social skills, social phobia and social avoidance (Storch andMasia-Warner 2004; Hawker and Boulton 2000). In addition, the cybervictim may feelhelplessness (Lenhart 2007) and might be excluded or socially isolated from others(Shariff and Johnny 2007). Previous studies have revealed that in general, bullies on theinternet often reported feelings of alienation, lack of peer social support and had loweracademic achievements (Calvete et al. 2010; Williams and Guerra 2007; Li 2007).

Anxiety Studies have shown that youth with high levels of anxiety have few friends,have difficulties in interactions with peers and are at a higher risk of being victims ofviolence from peers (Beidel and Turner 1998). Storch and Masia-Warner (2004) reveala significant association between social anxiety and victimization on the net; anotherstudy revealed that cybervictims reported higher levels of insecurity, anxiety and fearand consequently, they are often absent from school and their academic achievementdecreases (Patchin and Hinduja 2006). Students who have been cyberbullied reportedsignificantly more social difficulties and higher levels of anxiety and depression thantraditional victims (Campbell et al. 2012).

Social support Social support generally takes place between people who share thesame network or social group, and has considerable importance for the physical andemotional health of the individual; it is positively related to well-being (Shumaker andBrownell 1984). Studies on victimization show that victims of both cyberbullying andtraditional bullying show similar difficulties in social situations and report on feelinglonely and depressed (Patchin and Hinduja 2011). In a recent study conducted onJewish Israeli adolescents (Olenik-Shemesh et al. 2012) it was found that cybervictimsexperience a strong sense of loneliness and a depressive mood, they have fewer friendsand are at higher risk of being socially isolated. Research examining cyberbullies(Wang et al. 2011) revealed a significant correlation between being a traditional bully

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(offline) and social emotional variables such as depressive mood. However, noconnection was found between cyberbullies and social-emotional variables. Inaddition, students who were victims of face-to-face bullying reported lowersocial support from their peers than students who were not victims (Holt andEspelage 2007). The study by Wei and Johnson-Reid (2011a, b) indicated thatvictims are often socially isolated and lacking friends’ support, and that they tendto connect with other children who are also victims, whereas the bullies, usuallyhave no problem gaining social support.

4 Cyberbullying and gender

Researches on the relationships between cyberbullying and gender show inconsistentfindings (Jolliffe & Farrington, 2006; Li 2006). However, the majority of studies havereported that boys bully others more than girls do (Li 2007; Smith et al. 2008; Topcuand Erdur-Baker 2012). Cultural context may also influence the likelihood of boysbecoming victims of cyberbullying compared to girls (Popovic´-C´itic´ et al. 2011).Different internet usage was discerned between girls and boys, as boys tend to use theinternet for playing video games and to watch video clips, while girls tend to use theinternet for interaction on social networking sites and for chatting and blogging(Beckman et al. 2013)

5 Research aims

This study investigated the patterns of activity on the internet and the experienceof cyberbullying among adolescent internet users in the Muslim Arab sector inIsrael. As there are no studies relating to this phenomenon in this Arab society,the study will examine their cyberbullying involvement. It was hypothesized thatstudents involved in cyberbullying would report higher degrees of loneliness andanxiety, and it was expected that gender differences in both internet usage andcyberbullying would be found, since girls would report on higher rates ofcybervictimization than boys.

6 Method

6.1 Participants

The sample consisted of 114 students (65 % girls), from two middle schools from twoMuslim Arab villages in northern Israel characterized by a median socio-economicindex, aged 13–15 (mean age=13.3 years, SD=0.97), who agreed to participate andwho received their parents’ consent. The proportions of age and gender were similar inboth schools (boys: mean age: 13.6, SD=0.95; girls: mean age: 13.1, SD=0.93). Thesample was representative of other middle schools in Muslim Arab villages. Allstudents had at least one computer at home or a Smartphone with internet access.

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6.2 Measures

All the questionnaires were translated into Arabic with the help of an expert in Arabicwith experience in the area who was familiar with the questionnaires. Measures weretranslated twice and back translated in order to ensure that the translation preserved theoriginal intended meaning of the questionnaire items. The authors and the native Arabicspeaker-translator discussed specific items until agreement was reached.

Student Survey of Cyberbullying) Benbenishty and Astor 2005). The questionnairecontained four parts: (1) 11 items regarding different activities on the net on a 5-pointLikert scale. The scale ranged from not at all (1) to very often (5). Alpha=.81; (2) Nineitems regarding net surfing patterns, on a 4-point Likert scale, ranging from not at all(1) to very much (4). Alpha=.72; (3) 13 items regarding the experience of the victim onthe net on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from never (1) to almost every day (5).Alpha=.86; (4) 16 items regarding the experience of the victim in face-to-face bullyingon a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from never (1) to almost every day (5). Alpha=.69.

Loneliness Questionnaire (Asher et al. 1990). The questionnaire contained 24 itemson a 5-point Likert scale ranging from never (1) to always (5) (higher scores reflectintense feelings of loneliness) and was comprised of 16 loneliness items and eight filleritems. The loneliness items were devised of two subscales: emotional loneliness, “I feelalone in school,” and social loneliness, “I have no friends in my class.” For this sample,for the global loneliness questionnaire, Alpha=0.90; for emotional loneliness Alpha=0.89; and for social loneliness Alpha=0.88. Higher scores reflected a greater feeling ofloneliness.

Revised children’s manifest anxiety scale (Reynolds and Richmond 1985) Thequestionnaire contained 28 items with yes (1) or no (0) answers with three sub-categories: (a) over-sensitivity - 9 items, “I worry frequently” (Alpha=.60); (b) phys-iological anxiety - 10 items, “I suffer from frequent stomach-aches” (Alpha=.75); and(c) social anxiety - 9 items, “I worry about what others think of me” (Alpha=.70). Thereliability for the global Anxiety questionnaire=.85 Higher scores reflect a greatertendency to anxiety.

Multidimensional questionnaire for perceived social support (MultidimensionalScale for Social Support, Zimet et al. 1988). The questionnaire contained 12 itemsdescribing the current perception of the subject with regard to the availability of socialsupport from family, friends or some other close significant individual. Scale itemswere divided into three sub-scales and referred to support from (a) family, (b) friendsand (c) a close friend. Answers were given on a 7-point Likert scale, from “extremelyunsuitable “(1) to”extremely suitable“(7), with the high score indicating greater per-ceived social support. The reliability for the global support=.93

6.3 Procedure

After obtaining approval from the Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Education toconduct the study, and in order to obtain a representative sample of schools by districtand socio-economic index, we asked for a list of representative schools. According tothis list we contacted two school principals, explained the research objectives and theimportance of the study, and asked for their approval to deliver the questionnaires at theschool. A letter was sent to the parents of the students requesting approval for their

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child”s participation. This letter included a brief explanation of the study, its importanceand a request for parental consent / non-consent for their child to participate in thestudy. About a week later 95 % of the parents had signed the study consent form. Theresearch assistant distributed the questionnaires to students whose parents hadconsented to their participation in the study. The questionnaires were filled out in theclassroom over a period of 1 h in the presence of the teachers and a researcher, andstudents had the opportunity to ask questions. Complete anonymity was maintained.

Quantitative data were analyzed by SPSS20 software for statistical research in socialsciences, including descriptive analysis, correlations and hierarchical regression topredict involvement in cyberbullying.

7 Results

7.1 Cybervictimization

Examining students’ experience in cyberspace revealed that 81 % reported havingSmartphones, and usually having access to the internet from home (83 %), while onlyfew reported accessing the internet from school (17 %). Descriptive statistics showsthat participants use the internet for a variety of purposes and activities. This extensiveuse of the internet covers different domains such as, acquiring information, wideninghorizons and social uses (see Table 1).

Table 1 Students’ Internet Usage and its Contribution (n=114)

Variables Frequency (n) %

Internet usage:

Information retrieval 98 86.6

Games on the internet 105 92.1

Chats, forums 79 69.3

Email 110 96.0

Messaging software 101 88.6

Personal website, blog 100 87.7

Social net 97 85.0

Downloading video and files 100 87.7

Music and film downloads 109 95.6

School website 83 72.8

Internet Contribution area:

Academic area 93 81.6

Social area 100 87.7

Contact with parents 108 94.7

Widening of horizons 109 95.6

Acquiring information 108 94.7

News and current events 86 73.7

General contribution 106 93.0

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In order to assess the proportion of victims in the sample, the average frequencies ofeach rank of the scales were calculated across all items of cyberbullying and face-to-face bullying (see Tables 2 and 3). It appears that the most common form ofcyberbullying was related to improper sexual words (i.e., embarrassing or vulgarwords), which was reported by 91 % of the students. Spreading offensive rumors,harassment, humiliating a person regarding their physical appearance, sending sexualcontent without the victim’s request were reported by more than 80 % of the students.Most of the students had experienced one of these above-mentioned forms ofcyberbullying at least once, while only 18 % of the participants had never beencybervictims. As shown in Table 3, the most common forms of face-to-face bullyingwere “verbal aggression,” and “gossiped about you”, reported by 77 % of the students.It appears that 57 % of the students reported not being a victim of face-to-face bullyingwhile 43 % had experienced a form of such bullying at least once. Some forms ofbullying were reported by very few students or none were reported at all.

For each type of bullying, an overall average of all items was calculated. Resultsrevealed that cyberbullying experiences were significantly higher than face-to-facebullying (mean: 2.23 vs. 1.52, t (113)=10.9, p<0.01). In addition, a significant positivecorrelation was found between cybervictims and face-to-face bullying victims (r=0.86,p<0.05), so that the more one tends to be a victim of cyberbullying, the greater thetendency to be a victim of face-to-face bullying and vice versa.

Table 2 Students’ Cybervictims Experience

Cybervictims experience Never(%)1

Less than once amonth (%)1

1–2 times amonth (%)1

Mostdays (%)1

Mean S.D.

Called you offensive names 22 42 33 3 2.2 0.8

Spread rumors about you 17 43 38 3 2.3 0.8

Made fun of your looks 18 42 37 3 2.2 0.8

Tried to make your friends not likeyou

19 42 36 3 2.2 0.8

Tried to demean your self-respect 20 42 35 3 2.3 0.8

Tried to make you feel bad aboutyourself

19 42 35 3 2.3 1.1

Spread photos/videos of you tooffend you

18 43 37 3 2.2 0.8

Threatened to harm you physicallyor mentally

20 43 34 3 2.2 0.8

Harassed you 17 43 37 4 2.3 0.8

Threatened to physically harmyour friends or family

21 41 34 4 2.2 0.8

Used improper sexual words 9 47 39 6 2.4 0.7

Sent you dirty pictures or sexualcontent

13 44 40 4 2.3 0.7

Sent negative messages pretendingto be you

22 46 28 4 2.1 0.8

1 Percents for each form of cybervictimization are presented in round numbers

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7.2 Correlations with cyberbullying experiences and emotional-social aspects

Pearson correlations were conducted in order to examine the relationships betweencybervictims and emotional measures. As shown in Table 4, loneliness was signifi-cantly correlated with cyberbullying victimization: the more vulnerable the studentswere to cyberbullying, the greater their reported feelings of loneliness. Similarly,anxiety was significantly correlated with cyberbullying so that the more the exposedstudents were to cyberbullying, the greater anxiety they felt, while social support wasnegatively correlated with cyberbullying.

7.3 Gender differences

Regarding the different usage of the internet, including for school purposes, videogames, music, social networks, etc., results show no significant gender differences, χ2

(114)=5.68, p=0.68. Results also show no significant differences for the total score ofcybervictimization experiences, χ2 (114)=14.55, p=0.55, nor for each of the separateitems referring to cybervictimization such as: writing me nasty words, sending me

Table 3 Face-to-face Bullying Experience

Face-to-face bullying experience Never(%)1

Less than once amonth (%)1

1–2 times amonth (%)1

Mostdays(%)1

Mean S.D.

Grabbed and pushed you on purpose 32 54 15 0 1.8 0.7

Cursed you 29 57 14 0 1.9 0.6

You got hit, kicked intentionally 34 52 14 0 1.8 0.7

Threatened to hurt you at school orafter school

29 56 15 0 1.9 0.7

Made fun of you, insulted you orhumiliated you

40 47 12 0 1.7 0.7

Beat you up seriously 35 52 13 0 1.8 0.7

You were isolated, socially excluded 36 52 12 0 1.8 0.7

You were wounded while involved ina fight

28 57 15 0 1.9 0.7

Blackmailed you for money orvaluable belongings

100 0 0 0 1 0

Persuaded others not to talk to you ornot be friends with you

23 61 16 0 1.9 0.6

Gossiped behind your back 23 61 16 0 1.9 0.6

Cut you with a sharp object onpurpose

100 0 0 0 1.0 0

Called you offensive names 100 0 0 0 1.0 0

Tried to kiss you against your will 100 0 0 0 1.0 0

Spread sexual rumors about you 100 0 0 0 1.0 0

Tried to seduce you 100 0 0 0 1.0 0

1 Percents for each form of face to face bullying are presented in round numbers

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REVISED PROOFhumiliating pictures, spreading rumors about me, laughing at my appearance, etc.Results also revealed no significant differences for the measures of loneliness,anxiety and social support (loneliness: χ2 (114)=50.64, p=0.19; anxiety, χ2 (114)=30.40, p=0.21; social support, χ2 (114)=0.44, p=0.33).

In order to examine the relationships between cybervictimization and the differentself-reported measures, linear hierarchical regression analysis was conducted withcybervictimization as the dependent variable, and loneliness, anxiety, and social sup-port as the independent variables. As shown in Table 5, the model obtained significantresults, F (3, 113)=3.95, p=0.01. It appears that a greater sense of loneliness and lowerlevel of social support can predict the likelihood of the teenager student to experiencecybervictimization.

8 Discussion

The aim of the current study was to investigate the cyberbullying experiences ofadolescent students in the Muslim Arab sector in Israel and relationships with emo-tional and social aspects. The findings strengthen previous evidence which claimed thatadolescents spend much time in front of the computer and are thus at risk of being moreexposed to cyberbullying which might negatively affect their functioning in variousareas (Smith et al. 2008). These findings are similar to previous findings pointing to theincreasing internet use by Israeli adolescents (Boniel-Nisim and Dao 2009; Barak2006) and in Arab society (Ganaim et al. 2011). The current study demonstrates ahigh level of cybervictim experience compared to face-to-face victims (82 vs. 43 %,

Table 4 Correlations for Cybervictims and Loneliness, Anxiety and Social Support Measures

Variables Cybervictims

Loneliness 0.31*

Social loneliness 0.33*

Emotional loneliness 0.35*

General Anxiety 0.21*

Social support −0.44*

* p<0.05

Table 5 Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Cybervictims

The independent variable B SE(B) β t

Loneliness 0.18 0.08 0.22 2.38*

Anxiety 0.01 0.00 0.07 0.64

Social support −0.33 0.13 −0.26 −2.52**

*p<.05 ** p<.01

R=0.33, R2 =0.11, Adj R. = 0.08

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respectively) with a significant and positive association between the two types ofbullying behavior, similar to the findings of Kowalski and Limber (2013).

It appears that the internet is becoming the preferred alternative communication andfree time activity among adolescents in the Muslim Arab sector. This high rate ofpercentage of the cybervictim experience can be explained as the adolescents spendmuch time on the internet without adult supervision, since many parents think that nodanger threatens their children while they are in their rooms on the internet (Boniel-Nisim and Dao 2009). The main conclusion of the findings is that althoughcybervictimization involvement indicated lower rates of student involvement (between41 and 47 % of the sample) compared to face-to-face bullying (52–61 % of the sample),the usage of the computer communication is expected to grow, including its benefitsand its riskier aspects such as cyberbullying.

The findings reveal that cyberbullying is associated with various social, behavioraland emotional problems. As such, most of the students involved in cyberbullyingreported being hurt by embarrassing sexual remarks (over 90 %) concerning theirappearance, and felt cyberbullied due to insulting rumors. Moreover positive correla-tions were found between cybervictimization and face-to-face victimization. Althoughwe cannot interpret them as indicating causality, these findings contribute to theknowledge of relationships between computer-based communication and emotionalaspects. The participants in the present study, similar to adolescents in Western society,have replaced traditional methods of offense and bullying with a more modern method- the use of the internet for harassing others. The internet provides a place whereperpetrators can hide, offend and threaten others without hesitation or fear of beingcaught. Cyberspace provides a convenient arena for harassing and offending otherswithout being punished or suffering sanctions (Suler 2004).

Based on the study results, a number of conclusions can be drawn. First, the findingsreveal significant relationships between victims of cyberbullying and social emotionalaspects; as such, adolescent cybervictims’ reported high levels of loneliness and lowersocial support predicted their vulnerability. The intensified feelings of loneliness mightreflect the lack of support in their surroundings, including friends and family (Kowalskiand Limber 2007). These findings are similar to previous results (Hinduja and Patchin2009; Hawker and Boulton 2000). Researchers and practitioners (e.g., Abu-Asba et al.2011) claim that the widening generation differences within Arab society contributes toincreased feelings of loneliness among adolescents. The high levels of anxiety amongvictims are consistent with a previous study (Storch and Masia-Warner 2004), suggest-ing that being a victim of cyberbullying is associated with social anxiety, which, in turn,is related to fear of negative evaluation by peers, and might lead to withdrawal andavoidance of social contacts. Likewise, worry and anxiety were found to be morecommon among cybervictims than among non-victims (Rigby 1996). A possibleexplanation for students’ anxiety is the gap between parents and children. Many ofthe victims reported that they avoid consulting with an adult (a parent or a teacher)because they believe that the adults would not be able to stop the bullying orcyberbullying and that such reports might lead to limitations on their internet use.Parents’ lack of knowledge regarding the internet and lack of adult supervision ofinternet activity leaves children exposed to the dangers of the internet and can contrib-ute to victimization or perpetrator behavior in Western society (Mason 2008) as well inArab society. Third, despite the expectation that gender differences would be found, the

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current findings demonstrated no such differences between boys and girls regardingcybervictimization. Sela-Shaiovitz (2003) found that during adolescence, there is a risein bullying levels in both genders, whereas Heiman and Olenik-Shemesh (2013) reportthat within another Israeli sample, there were more girls than boys who were victims ofcyberbullying. Others studies have noted that the phenomenon is not gender-dependent,but rather age-dependent (Patchin and Hinduja 2006; Ybarra and Mitchell 2004).

Several limitations should be mentioned. First, the sample was relatively small.Further studies are needed with more participants of different ages and from a widervariety of schools. Second, the participants completed the questionnaires over a periodof 1 h. Since filling out the questionnaires required concentration and thought, thismight have been difficult for some students and might have affected the results.Although it is common to distribute self-reporting questionnaires, it could be valuableto validate the variables with teachers’ and/or parents’ reports. As few studies havebeen conducted regarding the cyber experiences and cybervictimization of MuslimArab students in Israel, the main contribution of the present study was the examinationof their involvement within the cyberworld and their cyber vulnerability.

8.1 Implications and recommendations

Some practical implications and recommendations for adolescent students emergedfrom this study. Given the increased usage of the internet for peer group interactions ina multicultural society, within the theoretical aspects, additional studies are needed toinvestigate adolescents’ cybervictimization within various sectors and through a largersample. Moreover, as the study exposed the adolescents’ potential online risky behav-ior, it is important to prevent cyberbullying involvement on two levels: legal andeducational. As for the former, it would be worthwhile to develop community andschool norms, regulations and policies associated with internet misbehavior, includinglitigation and criminal prosecution. However, developing and implementing educationalprograms might raise awareness of the issue, enhance the ability to deal withcyberbullying, equip students and teachers with the appropriate tools to cope effectivelywith cyberbullying, and lead to the allocation of resources to reduce and eventuallyprevent this phenomenon.

To date there have been few intervention researches on cyberbullying, and no studieswith the Arab sector in Israel. Several prevention and intervention programs have beendescribed within the comprehensive review regarding cyberbullying among youth inWestern countries (Mishna et al. 2011). These programs vastly improved students’knowledge, were related to Internet safety attitudes, and it appears that cyberbullyingdecreased in the treatment groups. An intervention program to prevent and reducecyberbullying involvement should focus on knowledge, activities and strategies withcontent and related issues suitable for adolescents. For example, a unique project basedon the infrastructure of the European Anti-Bullying Village (ABV) was carried out as apilot study within schools in six partner countries1. Using a 3D virtual environment, thiscomputerized project combines aspects that are of major concern to adolescents’ daily

1 ABV4KIDS-The Virtual Anti-Bullying Village for Kids and Teens was funded and operated during the years2011–2012 with support from the European Commission. ABV4kids 510,062-LLP-1-2010-1-IT-COMENI-US-CMP

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life regarding bullying and cyberbullying. The results of the project among Israeliadolescents revealed a significant improvement in digital competence, a higher level ofperceived social support and increased self-efficacy, and the greater subjective sense ofwellbeing. In addition, the project promoted and strengthened the relationships betweenstudents’ internet knowledge and online practice, and between the teachers and students(Olenik Shemesh et al. 2014). Recently, Niels and colleagues (2014) examined inef-fective coping behavior and improvement in coping behavior in cyberbullying amongadolescents. The authors conclude that Delphi techniques are useful in discovering newand relevant determinants of behavior such as adjustment behavior upon feedback,controlling impulsivity, self-confidence, communication style, decision-making skills,conflict resolution skills, and positive social relationships.

Second, since lack of social support was found predictive of cybervictimization, wetherefore recommend focusing on extending the positive power of these social supports,either from parents, teachers or peers, and reexamining the effect of psychological andenvironmental factors through a larger sample within Arab society. Teachers, schoolstaff and parents should be encouraged to work together to prevent studentcyberbullying and impart effective coping strategies for dealing with cyberbullying.Although adolescents rarely report incidents of cyberbullying to parents, school teachersor administrators, regardless of where the cyberbullying occurred (home or school), it isimportant to increase adults’ involvement in preventing cyberbullying. Some studieshave indicated that students are more likely to cyberbully others when there is a lack ofparental monitoring of their internet activities (Vandebosch and Van Cleemput 2009;Ybarra and Mitchell 2004). It appears that adult’s awareness concerning their child’sinvolvement in cyberbullying, and understanding the importance of reporting cases ofcyberbullying, might lead them to intervene in meaningful ways to prevent furtherinvolvement. As Li (2007) pointed to the link between cyberbullying and living in amulticultural society, it is possible that in a multicultural country, there are increasedlevels of cyberbullying where the victims are mostly from among the minorities. Furtherresearch is necessary to examine these issues within different student populations, toconduct additional studies on different age groups, and to build a model that mightexplain the effects of the personal and environmental aspects on the students experiencein cyberbullying.

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