A social capital perspective on cyberbullying amongst Singaporean youths.

Abstract

Contextualized within the social-networking site, Facebook, this study aims to investigate the phenomenon of cyberbullying and its relation to school bullying amongst secondary school students, aged 13 to 17, in Singapore. This study proposed to understand the phenomenon of youth involvement in bullying, both online and face-to-face (FTF), by examining the amount and types of social capital they possess, as well as the emotional support received from their family and friends. On top of the social capital dimension, this study has also taken into account media use and risky online behaviors, specific to the context of Facebook. 1676 secondary students, from two secondary schools, participated in a pen and paper survey. Findings showed that the intensity of Facebook use and engagement in risky Facebook behaviors were related to involvement in Facebook bullying. A strong positive correlation between Facebook bullying and school bullying was found and students who were bullies were also likely to be victims, whether in school or on Facebook. Lower family social capital and emotional support were found to be related to greater involvement in bullying in school and on Facebook. While no relationship was found between demographic variables for Facebook bullying, it was found that gender, race and age were related to the extent of one‟s involvement in school bullying.