Factors related to gender cyber-victimization in social networks among Spanish youth
| Autor | Trinidad Donoso Vázquez - Ruth Vilà Baños - Maria Jose Rubio Hurtado |
| Cargo | PhD in Pedagogy. Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Barcelona, España - PhD in Pedagogy. Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Barcelona, España - PhD in Psychopedagogy. Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Barcelona, España |
| Páginas | 83-99 |
83
Factores relacionados con la victimización de género en redes
sociales entre jóvenes españoles
María José Rubio Hur tado§
Trinidad Donoso Vázquez‡
Ruth Vila Baños¶
* Research article.
§ PhD in Pedagogy. Professor at the Faculty
of Education, University of Barcelona,
España.
Email: mjrubio@ub.edu
000-0003-2052-7611
‡ PhD in Pedagogy. Professor at the Faculty
of Education, University of Barcelona,
España.
Email: trinydonoso@ub.edu
0000-0001-6183-9801
¶ PhD in Psychopedagogy. Professor at
the Faculty of Education, University of
Barcelona, España.
Email: ruth_vila@ub.edu
0000-0003-3768-1105
Cómo citar:
Rubio Hurtado, M. J., Donoso Vázquez, T.,
& Vilà Baños, R. (2021). Factors related
to gender cyber-victimization in social
networks among Spanish youth. Civilizar:
Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, 21(40),
83-100. https://doi.org/10.22518/jour.
ccsh/2021.1a07
Recibido: 07/09/2020
Revisado: 15/01/2021
Aceptado: 22/01/2021
Factors related to gender
cyber-vicmizaon in social networks
among Spanish youth*
Licencia Creat ive Commons
Atribución-NoComercia l-SinDerivar
4.0 Internacional
(CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
Abstract
This work sought to identify factors associated with gender cyber-victimization in
social networks related to technological (participants’ use of virtual environments and
digital competences), cognitive (participants’ concept of gender cyber-violence and
perception of risk in online activities), and behavioral factors (participants’ responses
to cyber-violence). This is an innovative approach to measuring the phenomenon
(identifying predictive factors) since previous studies have measured generalized
cyber-violence through types of conduct found on the internet, sex-related dierences,
or studies focused on the sphere of partner relationships. The research was carried
out with a sample of 4,536 adolescents aged 12 to 14, all of them in compulsory
secondary education in six dierent regions of Spain. An instrument consisting of
dierent scales was applied, and the data were analyzed using descriptive, predictive
and classifying techniques. The variables identied as predictors during the regression
analysis and as characterizers of cyber-victims in the clusters are: wider and more
intensive use of social networks; more proactive responses to cyber-violence; lower
competences in digital self-protection; a more limited concept of gender
cyber-violence; and less awareness of risk in some online behaviors. These results
suggest a need to intervene in education in order to minimize the risks exposed.
Keywords
Gender cyber-violence, cyber-victimization, adolescents, social networks, gender approach.
Resumen
El presente trabajo busca identicar los factores asociados a la cibervictimización
de género en redes sociales relacionados con aspectos tecnológicos (uso de entornos
virtuales y competencias digitales por parte de los participantes), cognitivos (concepto
de los participantes sobre la ciberviolencia de género y su percepción del riesgo
en las actividades en línea) y de comportamiento (respuesta de los participantes
a la ciberviolencia). Se trata de una aproximación innovadora a la medición del
fenómeno (identicación de factores predictivos), ya que estudios previos han
medido la ciberviolencia generalizada a través de conductas identicadas en internet,
diferencias sexuales o trabajos enfocados en el ámbito de las relaciones de pareja.
El estudio se llevó a cabo con una muestra de 4 536 adolescentes entre 12 y 14 años,
todos en educación secundaria obligatoria en seis comunidades autónomas de
España. Se aplicó un instrumento compuesto por diferentes escalas y los datos se
analizaron mediante técnicas descriptivas, predictivas y clasicatorias. Las variables
identicadas como predictoras, en el análisis de regresión y como características
de las cibervíctimas en los clústeres son: uso más amplio e intensivo de las redes
sociales; respuestas más proactivas a la ciberviolencia; menores competencias en
autoprotección digital; un concepto más limitado de ciberviolencia de género; y menos
conciencia del riesgo frenta a algunos comportamientos en línea. Estos resultados
sugieren la necesidad de intervenir en educación para minimizar los riesgos revelados.
Palabras clave
Ciberviolencia de género, cibervictimización, adolescentes, redes sociales, enfoque de
género.
ISSN 1657-8953 e-ISSN: 2619-189X
Civilizar: Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, 21(40), enero-junio 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22518/jour.ccsh/2021.1a07
84
María José Rubi o Hurtado - Trinidad Don oso Vázquez - Ruth Vila Baños
Introducon
The penetration of virtual spaces into the
daily lives of adolescents provides opportunities
for communication, entertainment, education and
new forms of socialization, but also entails potential
risks. One of these risks is gender cyber-violence.
This phenomenon has increased in recent years,
according to various organizations (EIGE, 2017;
EVAW, 2013; INE, 2014).
There is no consensus on the denition of
gender cyber-violence (EIGE, 2017). One way of
understanding the phenomenon is as the extension
of violence against women into v irtual space, de-
ned by the United Nations, in its Declaration on the
Elimination of Violence against Women (1993), as
any act of gender-based violence that results in, or
is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychologi-
cal ha rm or suering to women, including threats
of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of
liberty, whether occurring in public or in private
life. The internet provides the opportunity to repeat
existing patterns of gender violence, acquiring new
forms derived from its immediacy, accessibility,
anonymity, and lack of contextual information.
From another perspective, gender cyber-violence
can be understood as a particular form of cyber
-aggression (Alvarez et al., 2017; Reyes et al., 2018;
Torres, 2013) related to the use of virtual communi-
cation to damage, disturb or intentionally harm peo-
ple or groups. The other side of cyber-aggression
is cyber-victimization. Usually the terms “cyber
-aggression” and “cyber-victimization” are used to
refer to situations in which someone perpetrates or
suers, respectively, aggression t hrough electronic
communication devices (Corcoran et al., 2015). Thus,
under this view, gender cyber-victimization is asso-
ciated with the many forms of violence suered
by women in virtual spaces (EIGE, 2017; EVAW,
2013). This can manifest itself in the shape of
cyber-bullying, cyber-dating violence (behaviors
including the use of digital media to monitor, con-
trol, threaten, harass, pressure, or coerce a dating
partner), pornographic revenge, gender insults,
sexting without consent (sending, receiving and
forwarding sexually suggestive or explicit images,
videos or text messages), threats of sexual extortion,
or doxing (public online dissemination of someone’s
private data). Martínez and Ortigosa (2010), and
more recently Gini et al. (2019), identify a long list
of behaviors that seek to isolate and track the cyber
victim. Sanjuán (2019), in Save the Children, shows
the relationships between the dierent forms of
cyber-violence. A denitive list is dicult to draw
up, however, since constant technological develop-
ment means that new forms of online harassment
are continually appearing.
We see cyber-victimization as a specic type of
victimization that should be treated as a separate
construct, although there is a strong correlation
between this form of violence and traditional victi-
mization (Núñez et al., 2021). Cyber-victimization is
the fact of suering prolonged, repeated aggression
perpetrated by means of electronic devices. Further,
victims cannot easily defend themselves and the
aggression persists without needing to be repeated
due to the characteristics of the virtual medium.
Some eects of cyber-victimization a re: symp-
toms of depression, lack of concentration, problems
in academic performance (Semenza, 2019), pro-
longed anxiety, suicidal thoughts, somatization
(Alv arez et al., 2017; Penado & Rodicio, 2017), loss
of control, fear, low self-esteem, self-harm (Eckert
& Metzger, 2020), and social isolation (Espin et al.,
2017). In addition, Sanjuán (2019) identies a long
list of the possible consequences of cyber-violence.
Prevalence of cyber-violence
Research and data on gender cyber-violence
and gender cyber-victimization are scarce and,
consequently, very little is known about the actual
percentage of victims and the prevalence of the
harm caused (Dimond et al., 2011; EIGE, 2017). Most
of the literature focuses on cyberbullying among
adolescents (Backe et al., 2018). Also, as in cyberbu-
llying studies, the results are inconsistent and often
not easily comparable, as researchers have used
dierent parameters to measure the phenomenon
(Rivers, 2013), which makes it dicult to establish
the real prevalence rates of gender cyber-violence
(Backe et al., 2018). Particularly, most studies have
focused on two aspects: the type of cyber-violence
suered and the gender of the victim (Alvarez et al.,
2017).
Types of cyber-violence
Díaz (2014) identied the following types of
gender cyber-violence: intimidation by mobile
phone, tracking on WhatsApp, identity theft using
passwords given in condence, and publishing ima-
ges on the internet without consent. In a study by
Mindrila (2019), 28% of US students aged 12 to 18
Para continuar leyendo
Solicita tu prueba