ONLINE PEER SUPPORT IN CYBERBULLYING: INVESTIGATING ONLINE FORA OF YOUTH HELPLINE ORGANISATIONS

Authors

  • Sara Bastiaensens University of Antwerp
  • Heidi Vandebosch University of Antwerp
  • Karolien Poels University of Antwerp
  • Katrien Van Cleemput University of Antwerp
  • Ann DeSmet Ghent University
  • Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij Ghent University

Abstract

As cyberbullying victims can perceive various barriers for seeking social support in their face-to-face network (e.g. Baas, de Jong, & Drossaert, 2013; Hoff & Mitchell, 2009; Jacobs, Goossens, Dehue, Völlink, & Lechner, 2015), they can go online to seek for social support (Walther &  Boyd, 2002), for instance in online support groups (White & Dorman, 2001). In this ‘netnographic’ (Kozinets, 2002) study, we investigated online fora discussions about cyberbullying within two online support group fora of youth helpline organizations, examining patterns of social support according to the social support framework by Tardy (1985). This framework not only helps distinguish between different types of social support (House, 1981 in Tardy, 1985), it also takes into account reciprocal support seeking and providing in a network, evaluations of social support in terms of helpfulness, and comparisons of social support sought or provided with the realm of available social support (Tardy, 1985).

Downloads

Published

2015-10-31

How to Cite

Bastiaensens, S., Vandebosch, H., Poels, K., Van Cleemput, K., DeSmet, A., & De Bourdeaudhuij, I. (2015). ONLINE PEER SUPPORT IN CYBERBULLYING: INVESTIGATING ONLINE FORA OF YOUTH HELPLINE ORGANISATIONS. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 5. Retrieved from https://spir.aoir.org/ojs/index.php/spir/article/view/8769

Issue

Section

Papers B