Ethnocentrism as a Predictor of Cyberbullying &amp; Cyber Victimization among adults: A Cross-Cultural Study
Creators: name: Khawrin, Mohammad Khalid
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Ethnocentrism
Tribe
Ethnicity
Caste
Culture
Cyberbullying
Cyber Victimization
Cyberbully or cyberbullying perpetrator
Cyber victim
Cyberbullying perpetrator and victim
Cyber bystander
Bullycide

description: Legislation aimed at regulating internet use among adults has been prompted by media reports on the incidences of abuse on the internet, particularly among teenagers and adults, which are increasing at an alarming rate and are raising a lot of concern among organizations, academia, and parents of teenagers. Social networking services (SNS) and ethnocentrism have come under fire for being breeding grounds for cyberbullying, cyber victimization, and harassment by coworkers, classmates, friends, and acquaintances. However, there is a lack of rigorous research studies that specifically identify risk factors for adult internet abuse and investigate whether recent increases in online abuse, disrespect, and rage are the results of cyberbullying and victim behavior on social networking sites (SNS) or something else. This study sought to pinpoint the crucial elements and connections between ethnocentrism and cross-cultural online adult victimization in Ahmedabad, India, and Kabul, Afghanistan. Humans are born with the ability to be hegemonies, but long-term favoritism of one person over another is problematic. Individuals occasionally cede dominance to clans, tribes, and countries, which can lead to a variety of issues, including bullying, abuse, conflict, mocking, taunting, etc. Additionally, ethnocentrism is the source of the cultural disparity used for hegemonic aims. Ethnocentric conduct, on the other hand, is altering one group's preference in this virtual technology. Cyberbullying is another adverse effect of social networking sites, and it is primarily caused by ethnocentrism. It is one of the rising difficulties for both students and regular residents. Students do, however, encounter these problems on social networking sites. Cyberbullying is the act of intimidating and threatening another person via the use of internet communication. The need for the government and citizens to be concerned about this phenomenon has grown. Studies that concentrate on the problems of cyberbullying and ethnocentrism are few and far between. However, there are several hate-based inconsistencies in both virtual and non-virtual conversations due to cultural prejudices and ethnocentric group advantages. An international syndrome of attitudes and actions is known as ethnocentrism. It is, in other words, a commitment to the group. The foundation of in-group bias might be easily triggered. One of the main issues of virtual conflict on the internet is cyberbullying. There are new ways of living thanks to the development of cyber technology. The phenomenon known as "cyber victimization" occurs when someone suffers an injury online. Furthermore, the social and psychological conduct of Homo sapiens is impacted by this virtual injury. This study's methodology employed an inductive approach to the development of new hypotheses. More specifically, cross-cultural research was applied to cover the two countries' data. A cross-cultural study, which was done to compare and systematize the differences and similarities between at least two cultures throughout the world, is a type of scientific research. The cross-sectional design was a subtype of the descriptive study design. On the other hand, through exploratory research, the research problems were elaborated. It is uncertain if ethnocentrism has any connection to cyberbullying and the behavior of those who have been cyberbullied. In other words, the inductive technique refers to the process of taking a result from a particular sample and applying it to the generalization of the result, which provides us with a new theory. There were 1550 questionnaires distributed. Out of these distributed questionnaires, between a thousand and five hundred were retrieved and other were discarded. Furthermore, the exclusion and inclusion criteria were applied to the data. Finally, we had 1416 participants from both cities of both countries. The data was collected through a random sampling technique. There were 707 participants from India (Ahmedabad) and 709 participants from Afghanistan (Kabul) who made up the sample, which was drawn from these two nations. For the sample, the age factor was taken into account between the ages of seventeen to thirty years old (17 to 30). There were 772 males and 644 females participated in this study. Additionally, this data was collected using a straightforward random sample method. For instance, participants might choose from a set of Yes or No cards that were put. The participant was at the same time taping one of the cards' backs. If the participant pressed "YES," the questionnaire was given and, after completion, it was collected from them, and vice versa, if they clicked "NO." The research participants willingly and voluntarily took part and provided anonymous responses. Each questionnaire also had a unique serial number. Every student was asked to participate in the survey, and they were free to stop at any point. All individuals gave their consent to participate in the study. Students freely took part. During the academic year, May 2020 through December 2021, data was gathered. They have a 30-minute time limit to complete the questionnaire. The participants also received thorough verbal and written training. Each participant also had the option to discontinue the questionnaire at any point if they so desired. In other words, they had full access to the questionnaire. All of the information was gathered during their leisure time in various locations, including the open spaces and classrooms of each institution. Additionally, demographic information was gathered, including age, daily internet usage, social media use, and whether a person had engaged in cyberbullying in the previous year as a perpetrator, victim, or witness. The age component, which spanned from seventeen to thirty years, was also included in the data, and its mean was 21.65 years, respectively. Additionally, participants' daily internet usage varied from fifteen (15) minutes to twenty (20) hours per day. In other words, the average hours of internet surfing of the Indian participants was 3.58 hours per day, and the average hours of internet surfing of the Afghan participants was 3.17 hours per day. The Statistical Program for Social Science (SPSS) version 24 has been used to analyze data using descriptive and inferential methods. Standardized questionnaires, including the Ethnocentrism scale, the Revised Cyberbullying Inventory (RCBI), and the Revised Cyberbullying Inventory-II (RCBI-II), were used to gather the core data for this study. The results and findings of this study proved that the relationship between age and ethnocentrism, cyberbullying on the RCBI and RCBI-II scales, and cyber victimization on the RCBI-II scale factors was almost nil. On the RCBI scale, there is just one instance of age being associated with the cyber victim; this link was significant at the 0.05 level. Cyberbullying on the RCBI and RCBI-II Scales exhibited a substantial link with the ethnocentrism variable, and cyber victims on the RCBI Scale had a significant association at the 0.01 level. However, the RCBI-II scale behavior of cyber victims did not significantly correlate with the ethnocentrism component. At a 0.01 level, there was a significant correlation between cyberbullying conduct on the RCBI-II scale and a cyber-victim. On the RCBI scale, there was a 0.01 degree of correlation between cyberbullying activity and cyber victim behavior. The RCBI-II Scale on cyberbullying and cyber victims is more generic. The RCBI's scale for measuring cyber victims and cyberbullying, however, is more specific. According to statistical evidence, Afghan participants scored much higher than Indian participants did on measures measuring ethnocentrism, cyberbullying, and cyber victimization. Additionally, the ethnocentrism variable, cyberbullying behavior of the RCBI scale, cyber victimization behaviors of the RCBI, and the RCBI-II scales' variables were statistically significantly different, except for cyberbullying behavior of the RCBI-II scale, all participants of both countries displayed similar behavior. The ethnocentrism, cyberbullying conduct on the RCBI-II and RCBI measures, and cyber victim behavior on the RCBI scale were substantially different between male and female participants. The RCBI-II scale's cyber victimization behavior, however, did not alter substantially from the baseline. In other words, compared to female participants, men were statistically more likely to engage in cyberbullying, cyber victimization, and ethnocentric conduct. The gender-interaction of the ethnocentrism behaviors of India and Afghanistan revealed that both male and female Afghans exhibited higher degrees of ethnocentrism than the Indian gender. Afghan male participants exhibited greater cyberbullying (RCBI-II) activity than the Indian gender and Afghan female participants, according to cyberbullying (RCBI-II) behavior of Indians and Afghans with gender interaction. However, as compared to the Indian gender and Afghan male participants, Afghan female participants showed the lowest levels of cyberbullying (RCBI-II) conduct. Indian men were the least likely to have been victimized (RCBI-II) online compared to Afghan men. In addition, compared to Afghan female participants, Indian women were more frequently cyber victimized. On the Cyberbullying (RCBI) scale, Afghan male participants scored the highest, and Afghan female participants scored higher than the Indian gender. The participants from India, however, scored the lowest on cyberbullying (RCBI). On the Cyber Victim (RCBI) scale, Afghan male participants scored the highest, and Afghan female participants scored higher than the Indian gender. On the RCBI scale, however, the Indian female participants received the lowest scores for cyber victimization. Cyberbullying (RCBI-II) had less of an impact on the ethnocentrism of Indian individuals. Additionally, it did not significantly change the behavior of cyber victims (RCBIII). On the RCBI scale, cyberbullying was highly impacted by the ethnocentrism of Indian individuals. On the RCBI scale, it had no appreciable impact on cyber victim behavior. Ethnocentrism among participants from Afghanistan had a substantial impact on cyberbullying (RCBI-II). Additionally, add 0.067 points of cyberbullying (RCBI-II) to one point of ethnocentrism. However, it did not significantly alter the behavior of the cyber victim (RCBI-II). Additionally, on the RCBI scale, the ethnocentrism of the participants from Afghanistan had a substantial impact on cyberbullying. For instance, one point of ethnocentrism causes cyberbullying (RCBI) to rise by 0.091 points. On the RCBI scale, it also had a considerable impact on how cyber victims behaved. For instance, a rise of 0.089 points in cyber victimization (RCBI) for every point of ethnocentrism. Finally yet importantly, it is urged that both the Afghan and Indian governments have clear rules and regulations to guard against and stop any type of cyberbullying conduct that has negative knock-on effects. The road for legal authorities, academics, and non-academic groups is more clearly defined. Therefore, academic researchers are strongly encouraged to conduct further studies in this area of ethnocentrism and cyberbullying. Further research is required to fully understand ethnocentrism, including all of its negative effects and how it came into being. This will operate as a guiding principle for the manipulation and direct it toward its advantageous ends. Every person is also able to take legal and preventative actions. Launching awareness campaigns using various channels, including the media, protests, conferences, etc. Understanding one another's goals and needs is facilitated by teaching one another about the new cultures of different societies. By demonstrating and establishing the negative effects of cyberbullying behavior on the general public, organizational stakeholders, and students, it may be curbed and prevented. It has been observed that schools and institutions must set policies and guidelines for handling professors, coworkers, and classmates who are subjected to cyberbullying by students. Everyone should check out anti-bullying websites, Anti ethnocentrism efforts, and family support organizations. Criminal and forensic psychologists are advised to add this new arena to their investigation and scope of work that destabilizes individual psychological health and social lives. The psychological counselor must assist the victims and exhibit anti-cyberbullying, and ethnocentric attitudes. Programs for social awareness are also necessary to educate young people about the dangers of cyberbullying. Anti-cyber ragging laws and regulations should be made in India and Afghanistan to solve the existing problem. User-friendly Information about cyber rights must be accessible to everyone. These internet users are aware of their rights, nevertheless. This will also act as a warning to stop kids from abusing the internet. It is important to take into account the research's suggested solutions and those that the respondents favored. Bystanders should step in to defend the online victim, stop online bullying, and alert the relevant organizations.