Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T01:22:50.980Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adolescent Involvement in Cybergossip: Influence on Social Adjustment, Bullying and Cyberbullying

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2022

Cristina María García-Fernández Open the ORCID record for Cristina María García-Fernández [Opens in a new window] ,
Miriam Moreno-Moya Open the ORCID record for Miriam Moreno-Moya [Opens in a new window] ,
Rosario Ortega-Ruiz Open the ORCID record for Rosario Ortega-Ruiz [Opens in a new window]  and
Eva M. Romera Open the ORCID record for Eva M. Romera [Opens in a new window]
Cristina María García-Fernández*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Córdoba (Spain)
Miriam Moreno-Moya
Affiliation:
Universidad de Córdoba (Spain)
Rosario Ortega-Ruiz
Affiliation:
Universidad de Córdoba (Spain)
Eva M. Romera
Affiliation:
Universidad de Córdoba (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Cristina María García Fernández. Universidad de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación. 14071 Córdoba (Spain). E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Gossip is a type of social behavior present in all types of social networks, and cybergossip is an emerging kind of online social behavior which can both promote and hinder relationships between peers. The aim of this study was to explore the relation between involvement in cybergossip and the development of behavior of social adjustment, bullying and cyberbullying (aggression and victimization), based on gender and age. A total of 510 secondary school students (49.4% girls) aged 12 to 17 years old (M = 14.01; SD = 1.38) were surveyed by self-report. Questionnaires validated with adolescents were used to measure bullying, social adjustment and cyberbullying. The results showed that a high prevalence of involvement in cybergossip was associated with bullying and cyberbullying behavior (aggression and victimization), with girls showing the greatest involvement in cybergossip. The discussion of the results focuses on the gender difference, as well as the importance of the need for training in the proper use of digital devices for social education and socialization.

Keywords

bullyingcyberbullyingcybergossipsecondary educationsocial adjustment
Type
Review Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 25 , 2022 , e6
Copyright
© Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Conflicts of Interest: None.

Funding Statement: This work was supported by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación de España, “Toma de decisiones y sensibilidad moral en el marco de las redes de iguales y el fenómeno del acoso: Un estudio longitudinal” (Ref. PSI2020–113911–RB–I00).

References

Apolloni, B., Malchiodi, D., & Taylor, J. G. (2013). Learning by gossip: A principled information exchange model in social networks. Cognitive Computation, 5(3), 327–339. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12559-013-9211-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arab, L. E., & Díaz, G. A. (2015). Impacto de las redes sociales e Internet en la adolescencia: Aspectos positivos y negativos [Impact of social networks and Internet in adolescence: Strengths and weaknesses]. Revista Médica Clínica Las Condes, 26(1), 7–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmclc.2014.12.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, J., & Coyne, S. M. (2005). An integrated review of indirect, relational, and social aggression. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9(3), 212–230. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0903_2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baumeister, R. F., Zhang, L., & Vohs, K. D. (2004). Gossip as cultural learning. Review of General Psychology, 8(2), 111–121. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.8.2.111CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bechtoldt, M. N., Beersma, B., & Dijkstra, M. T. M. (2020). Why people gossip and what it brings about: Motives for, and consequences of informal evaluative information exchange [Editorial]. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, Article 24. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00024CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, D. A. (2001). How can I deal with missing data in my study? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 25(5), 464–469. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-842X.2001.tb00294.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brighi, A., Ortega, R., Scheithauer, H., Smith, P. K., Tsormpatzoudis, C., BarKoukis, V., & Del Rey, R. (2012). European Bullying Intervention Project Questionnaire (EBIPQ) [Unpublished Manuscript]. University of Bologna.Google Scholar
Caivano, O., & Talwar, V. (2021). What would you do? Children’s hypothetical responses to hearing negative and positive gossip involving friends and classmates. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 38(7), 2268–2288. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075211011714CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caivano, O., Leduc, K., & Talwar, V. (2020). When is gossiping wrong? The influence of valence and relationships on children’s moral evaluations of gossip. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 38(2), 219–238. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12319CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chang, L., & Chen, J. V. (2014). Aligning principal and agent’s incentives: A principal–agent perspective of social networking sites. Expert Systems with Applications, 41(6), 3091–3104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2013.10.040CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, W., Boniel-Nissim, M., King, N., Walsh, S. D., Boer, M., Donnelly, P. D., Harel-Fisch, Y., Malinowska-Cieślik, M., Gaspar de Matos, M., Cosma, A., van den Eijnden, R., Vieno, A., Elgar, F. J., Molcho, M., Bjereld, Y., & Pickett, W. (2020). Social media use and cyber-bullying: A cross-national analysis of young people in 42 countries. Journal of Adolescent Health, 66(6), S100–S108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.03.006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 155–159. http://doi.org/10.1037//0033-2909.112.1.155CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Del Rey, R., Casas, J. A., Ortega-Ruiz, R., Schultze-Krumbholz, A., Scheithauer, H., Smith, P., Thompson, F., Barkoukis, V., Tsorbarzoudis, H., Brighi, A., Guarini, A., Pyzalski, J., & Plichta, P. (2015). Structural validation and cross-cultural robustness of the European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire. Computers in Human Behavior, 50, 141–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.065CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennehy, R., Meaney, S., Walsh, K. A., Sinnott, C., Cronin, M., & Arensman, E. (2020). Young people’s conceptualizations of the nature of cyberbullying: A systematic review and synthesis of qualitative research. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 51, Article 101379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2020.101379CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dores-Cruz, T. D., Nieper, A. S., Testori, M., Martinescu, E., & Beersma, B. (2021). An integrative definition and framework to study gossip. Group & Organization Management, 46(2), 252–285. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601121992887CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Estévez, E., Cañas, E., Estévez, J. F., & Povedano, A. (2020). Continuity and overlap of roles in victims and aggressors of bullying and cyberbullying in adolescence: A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(20), Article 7452. http://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17207452CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Falla, D., Ortega-Ruiz, R., & Romera, E. M. (2021). Mechanisms of moral disengagement in the transition from cybergossip to cyberaggression: A longitudinal study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18, Article 1000. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18031000CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foster, E. K. (2004). Research on gossip: Taxonomy, methods, and future directions. Review of General Psychology, 8(2), 78–99. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.8.2.78CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabriels, K., & De Backer, C. J. S. (2016). Virtual gossip: How gossip regulates moral life in virtual worlds. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 683–693. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.065CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garmendia, M., Jiménez, E., Karrera, I., Larrañaga, N., Casado, M. A., Martínez, G., & Garitaoanadia, C. (2019). Actividades, mediación, oportunidades y riesgos online de los menores en la era de la convergencia mediática [Activities, mediation, opportunities and online risks of minors in the era of media convergence]. Instituto Nacional de Ciberseguridad. https://www.observatoriodelainfancia.es/ficherosoia/documentos/5830_d_informe-eukidsonline-2018.pdfGoogle Scholar
Hartung, F.-M., & Renner, B. (2013). Social curiosity and gossip: Related but different drives of social functioning. PLoS One, 8(7), Article e69996. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069996CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haux, L., Engelmann, J. M., Herrmann, E., & Tomasello, M. (2016). Do young children preferentially trust gossip or first-hand observation in choosing a collaborative partner? Social Development, 26(3), 466–474. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12225CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herrera-López, M., Romera-Félix, E., Ortega-Ruiz, R., & Gómez-Ortiz, O. (2016). Influence of social motivation, self-perception of social efficacy and normative adjustment in the peer setting. Psicothema, 28, 32–39. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2015.135Google ScholarPubMed
Instituto Nacional de Estadística (2020, November 16). Encuesta sobre equipamiento y uso de tecnologías de información y comunicación en los hogares año 2020 [Survey on equipment and use of information and communication technologies in homes year 2020] [Press release]. https://www.ine.es/prensa/tich_2020.pdfGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, G., van Hee, C., & Hoste, V. (2020). Automatic classification of participant roles in cyberbullying: Can we detect victims, bullies, and bystanders in social media text? Natural Language Engineering, First View, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1017/S135132492000056XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krause, H.-V., Baum, K., Baumann, A., & Krasnova, H. (2021). Unifying the detrimental and beneficial effects of social network site use on self-esteem: A systematic literature review. Media Psychology, 24(1), 10–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2019.1656646CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laghi, F., Schneider, B. H., Vitoroulis, I., Coplan, R. J., Baiocco, R., Amichai-Hamburger, Y., Hudek, N., Koszycki, D., Miller, S., & Flament, M. (2013). Knowing when not to use the Internet: Shyness and adolescents’ on-line and off-line interactions with friends. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(1), 51–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.07.015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, S. Y. (2014). How do people compare themselves with others on social network sites?: The case of Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior, 32, 253–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.12.009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
López-Pradas, I. C., Romera, E. M., Casas, J. A., & Ortega-Ruiz, R. (2017). Cybergossip and cyberbullying during primary school years. Psicología Educativa, 23(2), 73–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pse.2017.05.007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marín-López, I., Zych, I., Ortega-Ruiz, R., Hunter, S. C., & Llorent, V. J. (2020). Relations among online emotional content use, social and emotional competencies and cyberbullying. Children and Youth Services Review, 108, Article 104647. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104647CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mascheroni, G., & Cuman, A. D. (2014). Net children go mobile. Risks and opportunities. Final Report: Deliverables D6. 4 and D5. 2. Educatt.Google Scholar
McDonald, K. L., Putallaz, M., Grimes, C. L., Kupersmidt, J. B., & Coie, J. D. (2007). Girl talk: Gossip, friendship, and sociometric status. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 53, 381–411. https://doi.org/10.1353/mpq.2007.0017CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGuigan, N., & Cubillo, M. (2013). Information transmission in young children: When social information is more important than non-social information. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 174(6), 605–619. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.2012.749833CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montepare, J. M. (2014). Nonverbal behavior in the digital age: Explorations in Internet social communication. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 38, 409–411.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-014-0194-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nevo, O., Nevo, B., & Derech Zehavi, A. (1993). The development of the Tendency to Gossip Questionnaire: Construct and concurrent validation for a sample of Israeli college students. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 53, 973–981. http://doi.org/10.1177/0013164493053004010CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oh, H. J., Ozkaya, E., & LaRose, R. (2014). How does online social networking enhance life satisfaction? The relationships among online supportive interaction, affect, perceived social support, sense of community, and life satisfaction. Computers in Human Behavior, 30, 69–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.07.053CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ohannessian, C. M., & Vannucci, A. (2020). Social media use and externalizing behaviors during early adolescence. Youth & Society, 53, 871–893. http://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X20901737CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortega-Ruiz, R., Del Rey, R., & Casas, J. A. (2016). Evaluar el bullying y el cyberbullying validación española del EBIP-Q y del ECIP-Q [Assessing bullying and cyberbullying: Spanish validation of EBIPQ and ECIPQ]. Psicología Educativa, 22(1), 71–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pse.2016.01.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, D. G., & Pauletti, R. E. (2011). Gender and adolescent development. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(1), 61–74. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00715.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reinecke, L., & Trepte, S. (2014). Authenticity and well-being on social network sites: A two-wave longitudinal study on the effects of online authenticity and the positivity bias in SNS communication. Computers in Human Behavior, 30, 95–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.07.030CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Romera, E. M., Camacho, A., Ortega-Ruiz, R., & Falla, D. (2021). Cybergossip, cyberaggression, problematic Internet use and family communication. Comunicar, 29(67), 61–71. https://doi.org/10.3916/C67-2021-05CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Romera, E. M., Casas, J. A., Muñoz, Y., & Ortega-Ruiz, R. (2021). Estatus social, búsqueda de popularidad y narcisismo en la conducta agresiva del acoso escolar y el ciberacoso [Social status, popularity goals, and narcissism in bullying and cyberbullying perpetration]. Revista de Psicología y Educación, 16(2), 173–182. https://doi.org/10.23923/rpye2021.02.209Google Scholar
Romera, E. M., Herrera-López, M., Casas, J. A., Ortega Ruiz, R., & Del Rey, R. (2018). How much do adolescents cybergossip? Scale development and validation in Spain and Colombia. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, Article 126. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00126CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Romera, E. M., Ortega-Ruiz, R., Runions, K., & Falla, D. (2021). Moral disengagement strategies in online and offline bullying. Psychosocial Intervention, 30(2), 85–93. https://doi.org/10.5093/pi2020a21CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, D., Leonis, T., & Anandavalli, S. (2021). Belonging and loneliness in cyberspace: Impacts of social media on adolescents’ well-being. Australian Journal of Psychology, 73, 12–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530.2021.1898914CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, P. K. (2015). The nature of cyberbullying and what we can do about it. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 15(3), 176–184. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.12114CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spies Shapiro, L. A., & Margolin, G. (2014). Growing up wired: Social networking sites and adolescent psychosocial development. Clinical Child & Family Psychology Review, 17(1), 1–18. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-013-0135-1CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Subramanian, M. (2013). Gossip, drama, and technology: How South Asian American young women negotiate gender on and offline. Gender and Education, 25(3), 311–324. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2012.746647CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2007). Using multivariate statistics (5th Ed.). Allyn & Bacon/Pearsone Education.Google Scholar
Tejada Garitano, E., Castaño Garrido, C. M., & Romero Adonegui, A. (2019). Los hábitos de uso en las redes sociales de los preadolescentes [The habits of use in social networks of preadolescents]. Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia, 22(2), 119–133. http://doi.org/10.5944/ried.22.2.23245CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vannucci, A., Simpson, E. G., Gagnon, S., & Ohannessian, C. M. (2020). Social media use and risky behaviors in adolescents: A meta-analysis. Journal of Adolescence, 79, 258–274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2020.01.014CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wargo Aikins, J., Collibee, C., & Cunningham, J. (2017). Gossiping to the top: Observed differences in popular adolescents’ gossip. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 37(5), 642–661. http://doi.org/10.1177/0272431615617291CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wert, S. R., & Salovey, P. (2004). A social comparison account of gossip. Review of General Psychology, 8(2), 122–137. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.8.2.122CrossRefGoogle Scholar