Sara Erreygers

The dark side of working online

The introduction of new technologies created avenues for new forms of bullying. Despite an impressive body of research on cyberbullying amongst youngsters, studies in the work context have largely neglected its electronic counterpart. In this study, we define workplace cyberbullying and propose an Emotion Reaction Model of its occurrence. Our model aligns with the main proposition of the Affective Events Theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), that emotions evoked by certain work events may fuel emotion driven behaviors. However, in our model these relationships are further specified combining different literature traditions. Making inferences from the workplace bullying literature, we suggest work stressors to be the work events leading to cyberbullying. Furthermore, building on the literature on cyberbullying amongst youngsters, computer-mediated communication and emotions, we propose discrete emotions of anger, sadness and fear to play a significant role in explaining this stressor-cyberbullying relation. In addition, different moderators (i.e., control appraisal and emotion regulation) of this relationship are suggested and implications of the model are discussed. The concept of workplace cyberbullying is defined.A theoretical model of factors predicting workplace cyberbullying is proposed.Both victimization and perpetration of workplace cyberbullying are accounted for.Discrete emotions are seen as drivers of cyberbullying behaviour.

Factor Structure of the Affective Style Questionnaire in Flemish Adolescents

Emotion regulation plays an important role in both healthy and problematic adolescent psychological functioning. Emotion regulation tendencies can be assessed with the Affective Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Hofmann & Kashdan, 2010), but its validity in Dutch speaking adolescents has not been investigated so far. Two methods, namely traditional confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the recently developed exploratory structural equations modeling (ESEM), were compared to examine the dimensional structure of the ASQ in a Flemish adolescent sample (N = 1,601). Although, as expected, the ESEM-model fit the data better than the CFA-model, the fit indices indicated that both models did not have an acceptable fit. With a shortened version of the ASQ, model fit improved substantially, but only the ESEM solution provided a good fit. The ESEM results support the use of the adapted ASQ to effectively assess the affective styles of concealing, adjusting and tolerating in Dutch-speaking adolescents.

Nice or Naughty? The Role of Emotions and Digital Media Use in Explaining Adolescents’ Online Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior

The opportunities and mostly the risks of digital communication technologies for adolescents have been documented extensively in the last two decades, but less is known about how adolescents interact with each other online, especially regarding positive interactions. Moreover, since online prosocial and antisocial behavior have rarely been assessed simultaneously, it is hard to obtain a balanced view of adolescents’ online behavior. Therefore, in this study, we examined both dimensions of online social behavior and how these are related to adolescents’ experienced emotions and their uses of digital media. Findings indicated that participants performed and received more prosocial than antisocial behavior online. Experiencing negative as well as positive emotions was related to online social behavior, and these associations were mediated by adolescents’ use of social and audiovisual media, but not by gaming or functional Internet use. The social sharing of emotions and mood management theory are used to discuss the results.

When workplace bullying goes online: construction and validation of the Inventory of Cyberbullying Acts at Work (ICA-W)

ABSTRACT There has been an increase in the use of Information Communication Technologies in the workplace. This change extends the scope of bullying behaviours at work to the online context. However, a generally accepted measure of workplace cyberbullying is still lacking. The purpose of the present paper is to construct and validate the Inventory of Cyberbullying Acts at Work, in order to contribute to this emerging field. Building on existing knowledge, we expected three types of cyberbullying behaviours to emerge in the work context: person related, work related and intrusive. First, the items of the scale were constructed and the three-dimensional structure of the scale was tested in two different samples. Then, the reliability and the convergent validity of the scale were assessed. Finally, we tested the predictive validity of the scale by assessing the impact of exposure to cyberbullying acts at work to individuals’ mental well-being six months later. Our analyses confirmed the three-dimensional structure of the scale. In addition, the scale was found reliable and valid. The construction of this scale offers an avenue for further research on cyberbullying in the work context.

Positive or negative spirals of online behavior? Exploring reciprocal associations between being the actor and the recipient of prosocial and antisocial behavior online:

Bidirectional associations between being cyberbullied and cyberbullying others have been suggested, as well as bidirectional patterns of online prosocial behavior (reciprocity). However, so far, these relations have been studied as population-level associations, and it is not clear whether they also reflect within-person behavioral patterns. Therefore, this study aimed to disentangle between-person and within-person processes in online antisocial (cyberbullying) and prosocial behavior over time. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models were used to examine long-term within-person patterns of involvement in cyberbullying and online prosocial behavior. The findings showed no within-person effects between cyberbullying victimization and perpetration over time. In contrast, results did reveal significant within-person autoregressive effects of performing and receiving online prosocial behavior over time, and within-person cross-lagged effects between receiving online prosocial behavior and acting prosocially later on. These results indicate long-term positive, reinforcing spirals of prosocial exchanges, but no long-term negative spirals of cyberbullying perpetration and victimization.

Development of a measure of adolescents’ online prosocial behavior

ABSTRACT Research on adolescents’ media use has focused predominantly on its negative aspects (risks) and far less on its positive side (opportunities). This is reflected in the lack of validated instruments to assess adolescents’ online prosocial behavior. To address this issue, we developed the Online Prosocial Behavior Scale (OPBS) to assess adolescents’ involvement in online prosocial behavior. Two subscales (performing and receiving online prosocial behavior) were constructed and their factor structure was evaluated and confirmed through parallel analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. The OPBS-subscales displayed good reliability and correlated positively with offline prosocial behavior and use of digital media, supporting the scale’s construct validity. Unexpectedly, the subscales also correlated positively with online antisocial behavior, which may be understood within the framework of the online disinhibition theory. The scale can be a useful tool for researchers and practitioners who need a global instrument to assess adolescents’ online prosocial behavior.

The Longitudinal Association Between Poor Sleep Quality and Cyberbullying, Mediated by Anger

ABSTRACT Adolescents tend to go to bed later and sleep less as they grow older, although their need for sleep stays the same throughout adolescence. Poor sleep has negative consequences on personal and interpersonal functioning, including increased aggressive tendencies. With adolescents’ social life increasingly including interactions via digital media, these interactions may also become more aggressive when adolescents’ sleep problems increase. One of the ways in which online aggression may be enacted is through cyberbullying. Although previous research has examined the role of sleep disruptions in offline bullying, the role of sleep in cyberbullying has not yet been addressed. Therefore, this study examines the longitudinal effect of poor sleep quality on later cyberbullying behavior. Thirteen- to fourteen-year-old adolescents completed self-report measures on sleep quality, anger, cyberbullying perpetration, and frequency of digital media use. Because one of the pathways through which sleep is proposed to be linked to aggression is an affective pathway, namely via angry affect, a mediation model of poor sleep quality predicting cyberbullying via feelings of anger was tested. Results from structural equation modeling and a bootstrap test indicated that poor sleep quality was indeed indirectly associated with later cyberbullying behavior through heightened feelings of anger, even when taking the effects of the use of digital media and previous cyberbullying behavior into account. This finding provides support for the proposed affective pathway linking sleep problems to aggression. As sleep problems and anger seem to play a predicting role in cyberbullying behavior, suggestions for cyberbullying intervention and prevention strategies are formulated.

Kicking someone in cyberspace when they are down: Testing the role of stressor evoked emotions on exposure to workplace cyberbullying

ABSTRACT New technologies at work broaden the scope of bullying behaviours to the online context, creating opportunities for a new form of bullying to arise – workplace cyberbullying. So far, knowledge on the factors contributing to workplace cyberbullying has been lacking. Within this emerging research line, the Emotion Reaction model, specifically focused on workplace cyberbullying, was put forward. In this study, we test the model’s main proposition regarding exposure to workplace cyberbullying; namely, that stressors evoked emotions predict exposure to cyberbullying and that this relation is moderated by emotion regulation strategies. The model was tested in two steps. First, the model as a whole was tested cross-sectionally. Next, the direction of causality between fear and sadness and exposure to cyberbullying was tested using a cross-lagged panel design. The results provide support for the central role of fear and sadness in the relationship between work stressors and cyberbullying exposure and the moderating role of reappraisal. No moderating effect of suppression was observed. In addition, support is found for the causal claim that fear and sadness predict cyberbullying exposure. The results and their implications are discussed.

Setting a Bad Example: Peer, Parental, and Celebrity Norms Predict Celebrity Bashing

The present study investigated the effect of descriptive and injunctive norms of peers, parents, and favorite celebrities on adolescents’ negative online behavior toward celebrities. The sample consisted of 1,255 adolescents ( X ¯ a g e = 14.17, SD = 0.47). Adolescents indicated what their peers, parents, and favorite celebrities think of celebrity bashing (injunctive norms) and whether they engage in it (descriptive norms). The adolescents also indicated how often they had participated in negative online behavior toward celebrities and peers. The results revealed that compared with injunctive norms, descriptive norms are better predictors of adolescents’ negative online behavior toward celebrities. Focusing on the different role models, the impact of peers was the strongest for both mild and severe forms of celebrity aggression. Moreover, the results showed that adolescents who engage in negative online behavior directed at celebrities are likely to do the same regarding peers.

Patterns of cybervictimization and emotion regulation in adolescents and adults

Research on cyberbullying has boomed in the past two decades. Findings from studies among adolescents suggest that they can be classified into distinct groups based on their cyberbullying experience, and that cyberbullying seems to be related to poor emotion regulation. So far, only a few studies have examined cyberbullying among adult workers and it is unclear whether cyberbullying develops similarly in that population. Therefore, in this study cyberbullying victimization was assessed in adolescents and adult workers simultaneously to address three aims: (1) to explore which groups can be distinguished based on their cyberbullying experience; (2) to analyze the associations of group membership with the way people regulate their emotions; and (3) to examine whether the results are comparable in adolescents and adults. Latent class analysis was used to analyze data from 1,426 employees and 1,715 adolescents in the first year of secondary education (12-13 years old). In each population, three profiles differing in their patterns of cybervictimization were identified: no cybervictimization (80%), work-related cybervictimization (18%), and pervasive cybervictimization (3%) for adults, and no cybervictimization (68%), similar-to-offline cybervictimization (27%), and pervasive cybervictimization (4%) for adolescents. Furthermore, these profiles differed in their use of emotion regulation strategies, with pervasive cyber-victims suppressing their emotions significantly more than other groups. Future research is needed to clarify the role of emotion regulation in cyberbullying as an antecedent or consequence of victimization.