The Effect of Social Learning on Cyberbullying Perpetration and Victimization among College Students by Gender and Age

• In Event: Poster Session I

Abstract

This study examines the perpetration of college student cyberbullying through the use of the social media and other information technology platforms in South Korean Universities. The influence of peers, both online and face-to-face, towards cyberbullying activities should influence college students’ perpetration or their abstinence from the perpetration of cyberbullying acts. Social learning theory (Akers, 1998; Lee, et al., 2004), proposes that behaviors are learned through differential association, differential reinforcement, positive and negative definitions, and imitation through group interaction. The data is to be analyzed using SPSS to assess the gender and age differences in the effect of social learning on cyberbullying victimization and perpetration among South Korean college students. 711 students from two South Korean Universities participated in a self-reported in-class survey conducted to investigate the nature of the occurrences of cyberbullying. Multivariate logistics will be employed to analyze the gender and age differences as moderating variables on the effects of social learning on these cyberbullying activities.

Authors

• Nate Riepe, Kennesaw State University

• Gang Lee, Kennesaw State University