UNDERSTANDING BYSTANDER BEHAVIORS TOWARDS CYBERBULLYING AMONGST UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Cyberbullying is a key psychosocial issue which prevalence and detrimental impacts on its victims warrants better understanding on how to buffer its occurrences. However, as most research centres on cyberbullies and victims, there is limited understanding on cyber-bystanders despite their potential deterrent or protective role in cyberbullying - especially within Singapore’s context. Additionally, university students are an under-studied population locally, despite plausibility of cyberbullying and varied experiences from younger populations due to their developmental differences as an emerging adult. As such, this study aims to bridge the knowledge gaps pertaining to local cyber-bystanders at the university level. Specifically, underpinned by Routine Activity Theory and Bystander Intervention Model, it aims to understand cyber-bystanders’ sensitivity towards cyberbullying and the factors affecting it, as well as motivators towards positive bystander behaviours. In so doing, it serves to delineate insights that could plausibly direct future anti-cyberbullying efforts. A “partially mixed concurrent equal status” mixed-method approach was adopted in this study. 102 and 16 students from National University of Singapore were recruited to participate in a Quantitative survey and Qualitative interview respectively. Quantitative data was analysed using Descriptive Statistics while Qualitative data was coded inductively. Typology Development analysis was then used to converge both data sets. Our results reveal several interesting patterns pertaining to cyber-bystanders’ social media usage, considerations and behaviours towards cyberbullying. Particularly, while our findings suggest that cyber-bystanders are cognitively aware of cyberbullying, actual sensitivity to negative materials online may start to decline as intentions and damage becomes less blatant in its content. By adopting an ecological iii perspective, our findings also suggest that such lack of sensitivity may be compounded by university students’ offline identities as emerging adults and the digital environment. Furthermore, while personal relationship to bullies or victims was flagged as the greatest motivator, our findings indicate that its critical role in aiding one’s inclination to intervene is likely affected by an intricate interplay amongst cyber-bystanders’ offline identities as emerging adults, socio-environment and other seemingly independent motivators. This in turn opens up greater potentiality for alternative strategies. Implications to social work practice were therefore drawn and recommendations for how school social workers could embark on a preventive and developmental path focussing on cyber-bystanders to buffer cyberbullying were suggested. Strengths and limitations of the study, and future research directions were also discussed.