Article Review #1: Cyberbullying and Cyberbullicide Ideation among College Students of Jordan
Adryanna Smith
February 19, 2025
Introduction
The article “Cyberbullying and Cyberbullicide Ideation among College Students of Jordan” by Diab Al-Badayneh, Maher Khelifa, and Anis Ben Brik investigates the incidence of and the effect of cyberbullying on suicidality-so called ideation of cyberbullicide-in the case of the college students of Jordan. In the International Journal of Cyber Criminology, the research offers informative information about the psychological impact of cyberbullying among the group of individuals concerned.
Relation to Social Science Principles
This study crosses a diversity of social science concepts
- Social Learning Theory: The study illuminates the way that individuals can learn behavior within their social surroundings, both online interactions included, with the potential to impact both perpetrators and victims of cyberbullying.
- Strain Theory: The evidence is made to appear that the stress and the consequent stress of being a target of online harassment can produce negative feelings of depression and suicidal ideation.
- Social Control Theory: The research considers the ways by which poor social relationships and poor supervision can enhance the likelihood of engaging in perpetuating or being a target of cyberbullying behavior.
Research Questions and Hypotheses
The primary question of the authors is the following: To what extent does cyberbullying victimization impact ideation of cyberbullicide among Jordanian undergraduate students? It is hypothesized that cyberbullying victimization experience, perpetration of cyberbullying, and low self-control are strong predictors of ideation of cyberbullicide among the sample of this research.
Research Methods
The researchers followed a quantitative approach by employing a structured e-questionnaires to gather the information of a sample of 1,000 of the 12 governorates of the Jordanian students. The survey covered the measurement of bullying at the broad sense of bullying perpetration and victimization, witnessing of violence, self-control, and suicidality ideation. Logistic regression analysis was applied to the descriptive statistics to consider the correlations among the variables.
Data and analysis
Data analysis revealed that 26% of the participants had overall experienced cyberbullying, 73% had known victims, and 64% had known perpetrators. Notably, 9.3% had known personal involvement with cyberbullying, 9% had known on-campus victims, 35.8% had known off-campus occurrences, and 13.5% had known perpetrators. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the measures of cyberbullying could explain a significant amount of the ideation variability of cyberbullicides to justify the argument that victimization is a strong predictor of ideation of suicidality.
Connection to Course Concepts
The study’s results are supplemented by course readings regarding the psychological impact of cybercrime with specific reference to the way that online victimization can have serious mental illness ramifications. The research also attempts to justify the need to learn the social structures and environmental conditions that support the perpetuation of cyberbullying to complement the course work topics of cyberpsychology and digital behavior.
Implications for Marginal Groups
While the research is targeting the college students of Jordan, the research is enlightening other vulnerable groups that also go through challenges that potentially do not have support systems. Spreading the issue of the relationship between suicidality and cyberbullying is a testament to the need to have interventions and support systems that target vulnerable groups of individuals that are socio-economic status-marginalized, gender-marginalized among others.
Conclusion
This study contributes significantly to our understanding of the detrimental effects of cyberbullying on mental health among college students. By identifying key predictors of cyberbullicide ideation, the research offers a foundation for developing effective prevention and intervention strategies. Addressing cyberbullying requires a multifaceted approach, incorporating education, policy, and support services to mitigate its impact on young adults.
References
Al-Badayneh, D., Khelifa, M., & Ben Brik, A. (2024). Cyberbullying and Cyberbullicide Ideation Among Jordanian College Students. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 18(1), 58–82. https://cybercrimejournal.com/menuscript/index.php/cybercrimejournal/article/view/329/98