Building up Adolescents’ Resilience Towards Cyberhate: The Role of Parental Mediation and Family Support

• In Event: Individual and Familial Risk and Protective Factors in Cyberhate Involvement

Abstract

Introduction: Cyberhate is a highly relevant scientific and societal topic because in recent years it has become more present and visible around the world. Cyberhate is a communicated hatred against 'the others', 'the strangers', 'the enemies', which includes offensive, insulting, or threatening texts, speech, videos, and pictures against people on grounds of certain group characteristics (e.g., sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, religion) to deliberately harm and devalue the targets. More knowledge is needed to understand how adolescents cope with the experiences of cyberhate and how they can be supported in coping with it. It is nearly impossible to shield adolescents entirely from cyberhate without comprising adolescents’ rights to online privacy and free access to the online world. Hence, more research is needed to understand how to “build up” or increase adolescents’ resilience towards cyberhate. One promising way to protect adolescents from potentially negative consequences of cyberhate exposure might involve investigating adolescents’ coping and which factors increase the use productive coping with cyberhate. Hence, the present study investigated the associations between parental mediation of Internet use and adolescents’ use of problem-focused coping strategies, namely distal advice, close support, assertiveness, and technical coping, for hypothetical cyberhate victimization while considering family support as a moderator of these relationships.
Methodology: In total, 5,960 adolescents between 12–18 years old (Mage=14.94; SD=1.61; females: 50.7%) from Cyprus, Germany, Greece, India, Spain, South Korea, and Thailand participated in this study. Data were collected using paper-pencil questionnaires and computer-assisted self-interviewing. To test the latent interactions, SEM were estimated using the XWITH command. The χ2-difference test based on log-likelihood values and scaling correction factors were used to evaluate whether the inclusion of the interaction terms revealed a better model fit.
Results: Findings showed a positive relationship between instructive parental mediation and adolescents’ use of problem-focused coping strategies and a negative relationship between restrictive parental mediation and adolescents’ capability to cope productively with cyberhate. In addition, family support strengthened the positive relationship between instructive parental mediation and adolescents’ use of coping strategies and attenuated the negative relationship between restrictive parental mediation and adolescents’ use of coping strategies.
Conclusion: Parents who utilize instructive mediation allow their children to be independent and act responsibly online, which in turn might increase their children`s understanding of online risks, their willingness to internalize safety recommendations, and their self-efficacy for dealing with online risks. On the other hand, restrictive mediation might have detrimental effects on adolescents’ ability to cope with problematic online situations because employing this mediation strategy does not consider their children’s feelings or desires when they make decisions, hindering adolescents’ exploratory activities and the development of problem-solving skills and self-efficacy. Overall, the present study points to the need that greater attention should be given to developing media education programs that focus on the role of parents and families in helping to empower adolescents’ development of constructive coping strategies.

Authors

• Sebastian Wachs, University of Potsdam
  Presenting Author

• Michelle Faye Wright, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Manuel Gámez-Guadix, Autonomous University of Madrid
  Non-Presenting Author