Cyberbullying among adolescents in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China: a cross-national study in Chinese societies

ABSTRACT

Using cross-societal probability data consisting of 2582 adolescents from Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan, this research investigated the prevalence or rates of cyberbullying and explored the similarities and differences in ranking orders of cyberbullying and victimisation behaviour and in associations of gender and grade level with cyberbullying among these three societies. The results revealed that cyberbullying is prevalent and online curses/insults/humiliation was the most frequent form of cyberbullying. The ranking orders of behaviour showed more discordance than concordance across societies. Males are more likely to report perpetration. No gender differences were found in victimisation. Grade-level differences in cyberbullying were shown to be weak or insignificant across societies. This study implies that the prevalence and behavioural ranking orders of cyberbullying vary, but the associations of gender and grade level with cyberbullying are similar across these diverse Chinese societies. Potential policy interventions regarding cyberbullying in Chinese societies were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Cyberbullying
• bullying
• Chinese
• cross-cultural
• Asia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the General Research Fund, The Research Grants Council, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong (Project Number: 14617415); and by the Departmental Initiative Schemes, Department of Social Work, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Notes on contributors

Ji-Kang Chen

Ji-Kang Chen is an associate professor in the Department of Social Work at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Li-Ming Chen is an associate professor in the Institution of Education at National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan.