Sidclay Bezerra de Souza

Student bystander behavior and cultural issues in cyberbullying

This study aims to investigate whether student bystander interventions can influence the relationship between being a bystander of a cyberbullying incident and being the victim or the aggressor. Another aim is to understand the specific behavior presented by students bystanders, namely whether they noticed incidents of cyberbullying and interpreted these events as an emergency and which actions they determined as being appropriate in providing assistance. Following a cross-cultural perspective to reach these aims, a total of 788 Portuguese and Brazilian college students answered to the Cyberbullying Inventory for College Students. Moderation analysis revealed that intervening moderated the relationship between being the bystander of cyberbullying and being the victim and/or aggressor. A three-way interaction showed that this relationship was stronger in Brazilian students, revealing that the bystanders who were inactive were more likely to also become a victim or an aggressor themselves, whereas those who intervened were less likely to become a victim or an aggressor. Implications for future research and interventive action are discussed. The importance of bystander behavior in cyberbullying, victimization and aggression.Intervening influences the possibility of overlapping roles in cyberbullying.Cultural issues influence the possibility of overlapping roles in cyberbullying.Intervening and cultural issues moderate the overlapping roles in cyberbullying.

University students’ perceptions of campus climate, cyberbullying and cultural issues: implications for theory and practice

ABSTRACT This study investigated the influence of campus climate dimensions, namely newcomer adjustment and feelings of well-being on the tendency for victims of cyberbullying to become aggressors, and how cultural issues could influence students’ involvement in situations of cyberbullying. Participants included 979 Portuguese and Brazilian university students who responded to the Cyberbullying Inventory for College Students and the Institutional and Psychosocial Campus Climate Inventory. Moderation analyses revealed that the relationship between being a victim and being an aggressor of cyberbullying was influenced by variables of the psychosocial campus climate and cultural aspects. Student victims from Brazil showed a significant tendency to become aggressors, independently of their level of newcomer adjustment and feelings of well-being, whereas the victims from Portugal tended to break the cycle between being a victim and being an aggressor. Implications for future research, preventive practices and university policies are discussed.

Cyberbullying: Shaping the use of verbal aggression through normative moral beliefs and self-efficacy

This study investigates the mediating effect of normative moral beliefs about cyberbullying behavior and self-efficacy beliefs to solve cyberbullying incidents in the relationship between adolescents’ personal moral beliefs and the use of the content from verbal aggressions they witnessed in situations of cyberbullying. A total of 1607 students responded to an open-ended question regarding the content of verbal aggression they observed in cyberbullying situations, as well as questionnaires concerning personal and normative moral beliefs about cyberbullying behavior and self-efficacy beliefs to solve cyberbullying situations. Through content analysis, findings revealed nine distinct categories of content, which are in line with verbal aggression in cyberbullying behavior. Normative moral beliefs and self-efficacy beliefs mediated the relationship between adolescents’ personal moral beliefs and using the content from verbal aggressions to communicate online. These results offer insights to develop authentic and interactive intervention programs that teach adolescents to communicate assertively, as a step toward preventing cyberbullying.