| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 犯罪學研究所 === 98 === ABSTRACT
Social learning and children’s cyber-bully behavior
by
CHEN CHU YI
December 2009
ADVISOR(S): Dr. JOU, SUSYAN
DEPARTMENT: GRADUATE SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY
MAJOR: CRIMINOLOGY
DEGREE: MASTER OF LAW
Since the appearance of the internet in the 1990s, e-communication technology and the internet have gradually become popularized in Taiwan, across all ages. At the same time, cyber bully behavior has spread via these mediums. The present study aims to explore the cyber-bullying among elementary school students aged 10-12, and takes cyber bully behavior as a social learning process. There are three main research questions in this study: First, how serious and frequent is cyber bullying in this age group? Second, how do the children learn to bully on the internet? Is social learning theory a suitable explanation of children’s cyber bully behavior?
By surveying a random sample of 1065 children aged 10-12 in one elementary school in Taipei County, the study found that only 2.9% respondents have committed bully behavior on the internet. Given the fact that some respondents did not have the experience of using internet, the more accurate prevalence of cyber bully among those who have actually often used internet was recalculated as 4.5%. Furthermore, four social learning theory concepts, namely, “imitation”, “differential reinforcement”, “differential association” and “definition”, were tested to explain children’s cyber bully behavior. The result indicated that “definition” is the most significant factor in relation to cyber bully behavior, along with three other important variables gender, age and the time spent on the internet. In other words, male and older children who hold a more favorable attitude to cyber bullying and spend more time on the internet tend to commit more cyber bullying. The study also found that social control theory is less effective in explaining children’s cyber bully behavior than social learning theory in general.
Early intervention plans in elementary schools were recommended to prevent the spread of children’s cyber bully behavior.
Keywords: social learning, cyber-bully
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