Examining Cross-Cultural Differences in Youth's Moral Perceptions of Cyberbullying

Abstract

Cyberbullying has captured attention around the globe with research taking place in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. However, few of these studies have compared children and adolescents from countries with diverse cultural backgrounds, with research on Middle Eastern countries remaining scarce. To examine the influence of culture, gender, and participant roles in cyberbullying (bystander vs. perpetrator) on children and adolescents' moral evaluations of hypothetical cyberbullying events, participants read and evaluated four vignettes. Three sets of data were collected in Canada (n = 100), China (n = 100), and Iran (n = 101). Participants (N = 300; 49 percent male) were between 8 and 16 years of age (M = 11.73; standard deviation = 0.76). Two vignettes considered the perspective of a perpetrator, whereas the two others considered the perspective of a bystander. A repeated-measures analysis of variance showed that youth from Iran evaluated cyberbullying events less negatively than Canadian and Chinese youth. Regardless of culture, females evaluated cyberbullying events more negatively than males. Persian youth evaluated cyberbullying less negatively than Canadian and Chinese youth. With age, participants attributed less shame to cyberbullying behaviors. However, Chinese and Persian youth attributed more hubristic pride than Canadian youth with age. Also, Canadian and Chinese children rated perpetrator behaviors more negatively than their Persian counterparts. However, bystander behaviors were similarly negatively rated across cultures. This study breaks new ground by examining moral evaluations of cyberbullying according to participant role, culture, and gender. Findings from this study may be helpful to educators and policymakers to strengthen moral and diversity education in schools to help mitigate cyberbullying events.

Introduction

Research on cyberbullying has increased dramatically in the past decade. With rates as high as 30 percent in youth,¹ cyberbullying is often defined as the use of computerized platforms to send or post content that hurts or embarrasses others.² This phenomenon has captured attention around the globe with research taking place in North and South America,³ Europe,⁴ and Asia.⁵ However, few studies have made comparisons of youth from countries with diverse cultural backgrounds and those that have generally focused on the psychosocial factors leading to cyberbullying in adolescents.⁶ As such, the ways in which the behavior is rooted in youth of different ages and cultures thus remain unclear.

Most Western cultures are founded in individualism. For instance, in North America, individuals are encouraged to acknowledge, not minimize, their personal achievements and good deeds.⁷ Conversely, in Eastern cultures, individuals are encouraged to be part of a collective. This empirical index for cultural dimensions shows that Western countries are individualist, whereas Eastern countries are collectivist.⁸

The relationship between individuals and culture might also be demonstrated in aggressive behavior, such as cyberbullying. A previous research⁹ highlighted the relationship between perceptions and reactions to cyberbullying by emphasizing that an individual's moral perceptions may be influenced by their cultural background. As such, cultural differences in perceptions toward cyberbullying may be related to socialization processes in different cultures. Understanding the nature and extent of cyberbullying in different cultures and countries may help address the problem of cyberbullying from an international perspective and provide us with an understanding of the phenomenon worldwide.

Notably, while Iran was identified as a collectivist,¹⁰ very few studies examining cross-cultural differences between individualist and collectivist cultures have included Middle Easters. As such, the literature on youth's perceptions of cyberbullying in Middle Eastern countries such as Iran is nonexistent. Moreover, while China's cross-cultural differences have been extensively studied in relation to North American countries,¹¹ Chinese youth's perceptions of cyberbullying have not yet been examined. Similar to Iran, China is regarded as a collectivist country; Chinese children and adolescents may perceive cyberbullying events differently than Canadians and Persians. To aid policymakers in the development of prevention and intervention programs adapted to youth of different backgrounds, this study aims to uncover differences in the moral perceptions of cyberbullying in Canadian, Chinese, and Persian children and adolescents. By including these three countries, not only does the current study contribute to the cross-cultural literature on moral understanding but it also extends it to cyberbullying and its perception in North America and Asia. Also, the inclusion of two collectivist countries (Iran and China) may offer insight into the subtle differences of this cultural spectrum.

Moral emotions in cyberbullying

One of the ways in which we can uncover the underlying factors that influence online aggression is by examining its underlying moral mechanisms. There is a relationship between children's understanding of situations and their subsequent moral actions.¹² In the context of cyberbullying, it is possible that if a child interprets a perpetrator's behavior negatively, they are less likely to repeat that behavior themselves and may be more likely to defend a victim.

Literature on bullying indicates that moral emotions are important regulators of harmful behavior because they relate to one's sense of responsibility toward others.¹³ Through the experience of moral emotions, children can anticipate outcomes and regulate their moral behavior.¹⁴ For instance, feeling morally responsible emotions (e.g., shame and guilt) when confronted with a cyberbullying event implies an acknowledgment of harm imposed on the victim and suggests empathy.¹⁵ Conversely, feeling morally disengaged emotions (e.g., hubristic or authentic pride) implies detachment from the victim and justifications of the negative behavior to protect oneself against of self-blame.¹⁶ Specifically, hubristic pride refers to attributions related to ability, whereas authentic pride refers to attributions to effort.⁶

Previous studies on the relationship between moral emotions and bullying have found that perpetrators of bullying experienced less shame and guilt than nonaggressive children¹⁷ and that children who have more feelings of guilt are more likely to repair a negative action.¹⁸ Moreover, differences in moral emotion attributions have been found with regard to roles in cyberbullying events, specifically bystanders. Notably, in a study¹⁹ it was found that, with age, youth tend to attribute more morally disengaged emotions (e.g., pride) to bystanders involved in cyberbullying.

In the past decade, more and more research has been devoted to understanding bystanders in cyberbullying and their role when witnessing cyberbullying events. Studies have been interested in finding interventions to encourage prosocial behaviors in bystanders.²⁰ Other research has been interested in finding other ways to promote prosocial behaviors in bystanders of cyberbullying.²¹ Notably, understanding the underlying mechanisms (e.g., moral emotion attributions) that characterize children and adolescents' views of cyberbullying can contribute to the development of interventions. Notably, previous research has also found age differences in this regard.²² Moreover, to fully understand the mechanisms and design truly university interventions, culture is also important to examine. However, no such study has examined moral emotion attributions.

The current study

While individual differences such as age have been examined in previous research in the realm of moral emotion attributions, cultural differences have yet to be empirically investigated. The present study is the first to examine the impact of culture, age, gender, and participant roles in cyberbullying (i.e., perpetrator and bystander) on children and adolescents' moral evaluations and emotion attributions of cyberbullying events. In terms of moral evaluations of cyberbullying, based on previous findings,²³ we first expected that culture, gender, and age would play a key role in youth's moral evaluations of cyberbullying. Specifically, we hypothesized that females would evaluate perpetrator behaviors more negatively than males. Also, we hypothesized that cyberbullying would be viewed differently in collectivist and individualist culture with age. In addition, we expected that age would influence participants' perceptions of perpetrator behaviors regardless of cultural background. In terms of moral emotion attributions, in line with previous research,^24,25 we expected cultural, age, and gender differences. Specifically, with regard to culture, we anticipated that China and Iran, as collectivist cultures, would attribute more morally disengaged emotions than Canada, as an individualist culture.

Methods

Participants

Three sets of data were collected in Canada (n = 100), China (n = 100), and Iran (n = 101). Participants (N = 300; 49 percent male) were between 8 and 16 years of age (M = 11.73; standard deviation [SD] = 0.76). The ethnicity percentage of Canada, Iran, and China was 33.2 percent, 33.2 percent, and 33.2 percent, respectively. Also, the percentage of gender for each sample was as follows: Canada (M = 50 percent, F = 50 percent), Iran (M = 49.5 percent, F = 50 percent), and China (M = 48 percent, F = 52 percent). In each country, the percentage of age groups (8–10, 11–13, and 14–16 years) in order was as follows: Canada (37 percent, 40 percent, and 23 percent), Iran (37.6 percent, 33.7 percent, and 28.7 percent), and China (24 percent, 49 percent, and 27 percent). Moreover, in Canada, participants were predominately Caucasians and from middle-income families. In Iran and China, participants were also predominantly from middle-income families and were recruited from public schools.

Materials

Vignettes

To examine children's and adolescents' moral evaluations and emotion attributions, participants read and evaluated four vignettes. They were in English and were translated into Persian and Chinese by a Persian-Canadian researcher and a Chinese-Canadian researcher with experience in the field, who are fluent in three languages. By translating back all vignettes, the translations were verified. Each vignette depicted a hypothetical cyberbullying event (Appendix A1). For each vignette, participants evaluated the behavior of the perpetrator (two vignettes) or bystander (two vignettes) using a 5-point Likert scale. For moral emotion attributions, participants rated four moral emotions (shame, guilt, hubristic pride, and authentic pride) using a 5-point Likert scale from different perspectives. The order of the vignettes and moral emotions questions were counterbalanced.

Procedure

In China (Beijing) and Iran (Tehran), the study took place in schools. After obtaining school principals' and parent consent, and child assent, a wide sample (Persians and Chinese) from across many classes and schools completed the gender-matched vignettes individually with a research assistant. In Canada (Quebec), the study was a part of a larger laboratory-based study. In Iran, by simple random sampling, 20 schools from the capital city were chosen. All students (8–16 years of age) were invited to participate. Forty-five percent of parents returned the consent forms. From them, only 33 percent of their children participated. The same procedure was used to achieve a representative sample in China. Fifty-eight percent of parents expressed their interest by signing the consent form. However, only 47 percent of their children participated. This study fulfilled all ethical requirements and obtained approval from the university's research ethics board in Canada and from the Ministry of Education in Iran and China.

The effect of study location (Canada, China, and Iran), gender (male or female), age group (8–10, 11–13, 14–16 years), and participant role (perpetrator vs. bystander) on the continuous outcomes of interest were assessed through repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) models, and all the necessary assumptions (i.e., normality) were tested. Greenhouse–Geisser corrections were applied for all violations of the assumption of sphericity, as appropriate. Assumptions of normality were tested for all the outcomes of the analyses, and appropriate transformation was applied when necessary. Other assumptions for parametric statistics (i.e., linearity and absence of outliers) were tested for the fitted models as well. No problem with those assumptions was detected.

Results

Both moral evaluations and moral emotions were independently analyzed in relation to culture, gender, and age as between-subject factors, and participant role as a within-subject factor.

Moral evaluations of cyberbullying behaviors

Repeated-measures ANOVA was used to assess differences in moral evaluations of cyberbullying events overall, with study location (Canada, China, and Iran), gender (male or female), age group (8–10, 11–13, 14–16 years), and participant role (perpetrator vs. bystander) as factors. Means and standard deviations are presented in Table 1. There was a significant main effect of study location/culture, with F(1, 825.5) = 26.59, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.00. Youth from Iran evaluated cyberbullying less negatively than Canadian and Chinese youth. There was a significant main effect of gender, F(2, 1153) = 21.34, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.00. Females evaluated cyberbullying events as more negative than males. Main effect of age, F(4, 852) = 23.09, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.002, and participant role, F(2, 820) = 2.90, p < 0.001, was found. Specifically, 8- to 10-year-olds evaluated cyberbullying scenarios more negatively than 14- to 16-year-olds. There was also a significant main effect of participant role, F(2, 820) = 2.90, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.007. Canadians and Chinese rated perpetrator behaviors more negatively than Persians. However, bystander behaviors were similarly negatively rated across cultures.

Table 1.

Means (Standard Deviations) of Moral Evaluations According to Participant Role

	Perpetrator role	Bystander role
Culture
Canada	−1.31 (0.06)	−1.38 (0.05)^***
China	−1.14 (0.06)	−1.40 (0.05)^***
Iran	−0.95 (0.05)^***	−0.94 (0.05)^***
Gender
Male	−1.07 (0.05)^***	−1.14 (0.04)^***
Female	−1.20 (0.47)^***	−1.34 (0.04)^***
Age (years)
8–10	−1.32 (0.05)^***	−1.50 (0.05)^***
11–13	−1.16 (0.05)^***	−1.15 (0.05)^***
14–16	−0.92 (0.06)	−1.06 (0.06)

Note: ^***p < 0.001.

Significant interaction effect between gender and age, F(2, 820.61) = 5. 52, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.002, was also found. Specifically, females aged 8–10 years evaluated bystanders more negatively than males aged 11–13 and 14–16 years.

Evaluation of moral emotions

ANOVA for repeated measures was conducted with culture, gender, and age as between-subject predictors, and participant role (perpetrator vs. bystander) as a within-subject predictor. Participants' moral emotion attributions for each scale (shame, guilt, hubristic pride, and authentic pride) were set as outcomes (Table 2).

Table 2.

Means (Standard Deviations) of Moral Emotion Attributions

	Morally responsible emotions		Morally disengaged emotions
	Shame	Guilt	Hubristic pride	Authentic pride
Culture
Canada	0.70 (0.06)^***	0.82 (0.06)	−0.92 (0.05)^***	−0.83 (0.06)
China	0.62 (0.06)^***	0.68 (0.06)	−0.70 (0.05)^***	−0.83 (0.06)
Iran	0.65 (0.06)^***	0.62 (0.06)	−0.74 (0.05)^***	−0.72 (0.05)
Gender
Male	0.50 (0.05)^*	0.49 (0.05)^***	−0.60 (0.04)^***	−0.66 (0.05)^***
Female	0.82 (0.04)^*	0.92 (0.05)^***	−0.98 (0.04)^***	−0.93 (0.04)^***
Age (years)
8–10	0.86 (0.06)^*	0.88(0.06)^***	−0.90 (0.05)^***	−0.90 (0.06)^*
11–13	0.65 (0.05)^*	0.75 (0.05)^***	−0.82 (0.05)^***	−0.84 (0.05)^*
14–16	0.46 (0.07)^*	0.49 (0.07)^***	−0.63 (0.06)^***	−0.65 (0.06)^*
Participant role
Perpetrator	0.66 (0.05)^***	0.71(0.05)^***	−0.72 (0.04)^**	−0.79 (0.05)^**
Bystander	0.65 (0.05)^***	0.70(0.05)^***	−0.85 (0.04)^**	−0.80 (0.04)^**

Note: ^*p < 0.05; ^**p < 0.01; ^***p < 0.001.

Shame

Study location did not have a significant main effect on attributions of shame, F(2, 0.335) = 11.53, p < 0.01, η_p² = 0.011. There was a significant main effect of gender, F(1, 1153) = 19.476, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.012. Males attributed less shame to perpetrators than females. There was also a significant main effect of age, F(2, 1153) = 9.249, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.007. With age, participants at age 14–16 years attributed less shame to cyberbullying.

There were no significant two-way interactions. However, there was a significant three-way interaction between study location, gender, and age, F(2, 1153) = 18.101, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.016. Canadian and Persian males attributed less shame to perpetrators and bystanders with age than Chinese males. Conversely, Canadian and Chinese female participants attributed more shame to cyberbullying behaviors with age than Persian females.

Guilt

There was no significant main effect of study location. However, there was a significant main effect of gender, F(1, 1148) = 33.14, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.008. Males attributed less guilt than females to both perpetrator and bystander behaviors. Moreover, a significant interaction between study location and gender was found, F(2, 1148) = 11.729, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.004. Canadian and Chinese females attributed more guilt to perpetrators than Persian females. There were no significant two-way interactions in relation to age. There was, however, a significant three-way interaction between study location, gender, and age, F(2, 1132) = 11.71, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.003. With age, Canadian and Chinese females attributed more guilt than Persian females. Conversely, Canadian, Chinese, and Persian males attributed less guilt to perpetrators with age.

Hubristic pride

There was a significant main effect of study location, F(2, 1139) = 3.79, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.001. Canadian, Persian, and Chinese participants attributed more hubristic pride to bystander than perpetrator. There was a significant main effect of gender, F(1, 1139) = 32.75, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.012. In all three countries, females attributed more hubristic pride. Also, there was a significant main effect of age, F(2, 1139) = 4.97, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.00. With age, less hubristic pride attributed to cyberbullying behaviors.

There was a significant interaction between study location and gender, F(2, 1139) = 10.634, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.00. Persian females attributed less hubristic pride to bystanders than Canadian and Chinese females, whereas Persian males attributed more hubristic pride to perpetrators than Canadian and Chinese males. There was a significant interaction between study location and age, F(4, 1139) = 14.72, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.00. Chinese and Persian youth attributed more hubristic pride than Canadian youth with age. There was no significant interaction between gender and age, or study location, gender, and age.

Authentic pride

There was no main effect of study location. However, there was a significant main effect of gender, F(1, 1153) = 14.721, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.002, and age, F(2, 1153) = 3.898, p < 0.01, η_p² = 0.002. With age, youth attributed more authentic pride to both bystander and perpetrator roles.

There was a significant interaction between study location and gender, F(2, 1153) = 10.104, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.00. Chinese males attributed less authentic pride to both bystander and perpetrator roles than Persian and Canadian males, whereas Persian females attributed more authentic pride than Canadian and Chinese females. Finally, there was a significant interaction between study location and age, F(4, 1153) = 12.77, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.002. With age, Canadians attributed more authentic pride than Persians and Chinese.

Discussion

This study investigated moral evaluations and emotion attributions in the context of cyberbullying. Overall, culture had a significant influence on youth's moral evaluations and emotion attributions in cyberbullying. Persian youth did not evaluate cyberbullying as negatively as Canadian and Chinese youth. It is possible that Persian culture and religion encourage children to practice tolerance and forgiveness of others' wrongdoings.²⁶ As such, youth may be less tolerant toward online aggression than Persian youth. Also, according to a study,²⁷ individualism tendencies were found more in Muslim countries as opposed to China, Japan, and Korea, which are collectivist. Another explanation could be related to social norms or even issues of access. For instance, Persian youth might not have been exposed to cyberbullying because they do not have the same access to technology as Canadian or Chinese youth nor have they had access to the same period of time. As such, they might not be as aware of the negative impact of cyberbullying.

Conversely, Canadian and Chinese youth attributed more morally responsible emotions (shame and guilt) than Persian youth to bystander behaviors. However, Chinese youth were more likely to attribute more shame and guilt to cyberbullying behaviors overall than Canadian youth. This is consistent with previous research that has shown that moral differences exist between individualistic and collectivist cultures.²⁸ The difference between China and Iran may be related to access. It is possible that access to technology and the ways in which technology is used differ between these two countries. This may in turn influence exposure and perceptions of cyberbullying.

Finally, gender influenced participants' moral evaluations and emotions in cyberbullying. Overall, females evaluated perpetrator behaviors more negatively than males. Cultural differences were also found for moral emotion attributions. Chinese males attributed more shame to perpetrators than Canadian and Persian males, whereas Canadian and Chinese females attributed more guilt than Persian females. Findings on gender and cyberbullying are scattered and generally focus on the frequency of the behavior rather than moral evaluations and emotion attributions and are usually mixed.²⁹ One study found that males attribute less morally responsible emotions (guilt and shame) than females in general.³⁰ While previous research has examined gender differences in participant roles,³¹ the current study was the first to examine cultural differences in the matter.

Limitations and future directions

While this study is among the first to examine moral evaluations and emotion attributions in youth from different ages and cultural backgrounds, it did not examine their actual experiences. Because previous cyberbullying experiences may influence moral perceptions of cyberbullying events,³² future studies should examine the relationship between experiences with cyberbullying, moral perceptions and culture. Another limitation of this study lays in the lack of qualitative data which could have helped significantly in interpretation of result. Future studies should conduct a mixed-method cross-cultural study to broaden the understanding of cyberbullying. Moreover, the vignettes used in this study focused on minor cyberbullying events (e.g., teasing with intent to harm), whereas actual experiences may be more severe. The settings of study in the examined counties were different and its effects of interpretation cannot be neglected. Moreover, the cross-sectional design of this study limits its ability to confirm a causal relationship between the variables under investigation. Thus, the results should be interpreted carefully regarding generalization since the sample size is small, and current findings were obtained within convenience samples in three countries. Finally, this study focused on cyberbullying events.

Conclusion

Overall, this study is among the first to investigate moral evaluations and emotion attributions in children and adolescents from three different cultural backgrounds, as well as the first to include a Persian sample. The current study contributes to cross-cultural research by providing an international perspective on children and adolescents' moral perceptions of cyberbullying and associated individuals' differences. Current findings could help school policymakers adjust policy to mitigate the cyberbullying.

Footnotes

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

Appendix A1

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