Peer Attachment and Cyber Aggression Involvement among Chinese, Indian, and Japanese Adolescents

Abstract

Significant advancements have been made in cyber aggression literature, with many studies revealing the consequences associated with adolescents’ involvement in these behaviors. Few studies have focused on cyber aggression involvement in China, India, and Japan. The present study examined differences in cyber aggression perpetration and victimization among 1637 adolescents living in China, India, and Japan, while controlling for face-to-face bullying involvement, individualism, and collectivism. Another aim of the present study was to examine country of origin and cyber aggression involvement (i.e., the uninvolved, cyberaggressor-cybervictims, cyberaggressors, and cybervictims) differences in peer attachment. Findings revealed that adolescents from India had the highest levels of cyber aggression involvement when compared to adolescents from China or Japan. Chinese adolescents engaged in more cyber aggression perpetration and were victimized more by cyber aggression when compared to Japanese adolescents. No country of origin differences were found for peer attachment. However, uninvolved adolescents reported higher levels of peer attachment when compared to the other groups. Cyberaggressor-cybervictims had the lowest levels of peer attachment, followed by cybervictims and cyberaggressors. These results suggest that there should be concern about cyber aggression involvement among adolescents in these countries, especially in India, where cyber aggression research has been slow to develop.

Keywords

• cyberbullying
• cyber aggression
• cyber victimization
• peer attachment
• individualism
• collectivism
• culture
• China
• India
• Japan
• adolescents