| Abstrakt: |
Cyberbullying is a worldwide increasing health problem affecting children and adolescents. Traditionally, schools have been considered a safe place where students can seek help and support from teachers in case of bullying. However, there is limited research on how teachers handle cyberbullying incidents. Some studies suggest that teachers tend to underestimate the severity of cyberbullying, and there is also a lack of consensus on how dispositional traits such as empathy play a role in teachers’ management of cyberbullying incidents. To better understand how teachers respond to cyberbullying incidents, we conducted a scenario-based experiment involving 271 teachers (Mage = 50.06). We looked at how different factors, including the degree of perceived responsibility of the victim (e.g., stolen photo vs. Sharing a photo with a small group online) and the type of photo shared (sexual vs. Neutral), affect teachers’ tendency to blame the victim for the cyberbullying incident. We also examined how levels of empathy moderated the relationship between different factors and victim-blaming. Our findings suggest that teachers are more likely to blame victims when a sexual photo is shared in a WhatsApp group. Additionally, we found that different patterns emerged between levels of emotional disconnection and cognitive empathy and cybervictim blaming across the study conditions. However, none of the experimental conditions significantly influenced the relationship between emotional contagion and cybervictim blaming. The results are discussed in terms of practical and policy implications for future research. |
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