546775 research-article2014
HPQ0010.1177/1359105314546775Journal of Health PsychologyChang et al.
Article
Predictors of unwanted exposure to online pornography and online sexual solicitation of youth
Journal of Health Psychology 1–12 © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1359105314546775 hpq.sagepub.com
Fong-Ching Chang1, Chiung-Hui Chiu1, Nae-Fang Miao2, Ping-Hung Chen1, Ching-Mei Lee1 and Jeng-Tung Chiang3
Abstract This study examined factors associated with the unwanted exposure to online pornography and unwanted online sexual solicitation victimization and perpetration of youth in Taiwan. A total of 2315 students from 26 high schools were assessed in the 10th grade, with follow-up performed in the 11th grade. Self-administered questionnaires were collected. Multivariate analysis results indicated that higher levels of online game use, pornography media exposure, Internet risk behaviors, depression, and cyberbullying experiences predicted online sexual solicitation victimization, while higher levels of Internet chat room use, pornography media exposure, Internet risk behaviors, cyberbullying experiences, and offline sexual harassment predicted online sexual solicitation perpetration.
Keywords online pornography, perpetration, sexual solicitation, victimization
Introduction Youth exposure to online pornography, online sexual solicitation, and cyberbullying experiences represents an emerging public health problem. As youth spend an ever-increasing amount of time on the Internet compared with time spent at school, more professionals, parents, and legislators are expressing worry about the possible harms to youth from being exposed to online pornography, sexual solicitation, and online victimization risks. Studies have established how exposure to online pornography affects an adolescent’s sexual attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, sexual aggression (Lo and Wei, 2005; Owens et al., 2012), and sexual development (Peter and Valkenburg, 2008). A longitudinal
study found that early exposure to sexually explicit content in adult magazines, X-rated movies, and the Internet predicted more permissive sexual norms, sexual harassment perpetration, and having sex behavior (Brown and L’Engle, 2009). Moreover, the online sexual 1National
Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan Medical University, Taiwan 3National Chengchi University, Taiwan 2Taipei
Corresponding author: Fong-Ching Chang, Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, National Taiwan Normal University, 162, Ho-Ping E. Rd., Sec. 1, Taipei 10610, Taiwan. Email: [email protected]
Downloaded from hpq.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on November 14, 2015
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Journal of Health Psychology
solicitation of youth has been associated with higher depressive symptomatology and psychological problems (Ybarra et al., 2007b). In the United States, 93 percent of male college students and 62 percent of female college students reported being exposed to online pornography before the age of 18 years (Sabina et al., 2008). The US Youth Internet Safety Survey has shown that 23 percent of youth have reported unwanted exposure to online pornography, 11 percent of youth have reported an online harassment experience, and 9 percent of youth have reported an unwanted experience with online sexual solicitation (Jones et al., 2012). Unwanted exposure to online pornography is commonly defined as being exposed to pictures of naked people or people having sex without seeking or expecting such pictures when doing online searches, surfing the web, and opening email or instant messages or links in messages, while unwanted online sexual solicitation occurs when youth are asked to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk or to give personal sexual information that is unwanted on the Internet (Mitchell et al., 2007c). According to a 25-country survey in Europe, 23 percent of 9- to 16-year-old youths have seen sexual images in the media, 14 percent have seen sexual images online, and 4 percent were upset by the experience. In the same survey, 15 percent of youth had received peer sexual messages, while 6 percent had sent nasty or hurtful messages online to others (Livingstone et al., 2011). Moreover, a US study showed that 42 percent of 10- to 17-year-old Internet users had been exposed to online pornography in the past year, and two-thirds of those reported only unwanted exposure. Unwanted exposure to online pornography has been associated with cyberbullying victimization, the receipt of unwanted online sexual solicitation, offline interpersonal victimization, and depression (Wolak et al., 2007). Factors associated with online sexual solicitation include the following: being female, using chat rooms, sending personal information to people met online, Internet harassment experiences, offline physical or sexual abuse, delinquency, substance use, and
psychological problems (Helweg-Larsen et al., 2012; Ybarra et al., 2007a, 2007b). In Taiwan, complaints of online pornography and sexual solicitation are increasing. One study indicated that 71 percent of adolescents aged 10–12 years in Taiwan reported exposure to online pornography; of this group, 41.3 percent reported only unintentional exposure and 58.7 percent reported intentional exposure (Helweg-Larsen et al., 2012). Despite some studies that have documented the risk factors associated with exposure to online pornography and sexual solicitation, little longitudinal research has examined the risk factors of youth unwanted exposure to online pornography and sexual solicitation victimization and perpetration. The purpose of this study was to assess the longitudinal predictors of the occurrence of youth unwanted exposure to online pornography and online sexual solicitation victimization and perpetration among senior high-school students in Taiwan.
Methods Participants In 2010, a total of 72,327 high-school students were enrolled in the 10th grade in 122 high schools (including vocational high schools) in Taipei City and New Taipei City, Taiwan. Based on the sampling frame, which was a list of schools and their 10th grade student enrollments, a probability-proportionate-to-size sampling method was used to systematically draw a random sample of schools. Three to four classes were randomly selected from each sample school. Approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Taipei Medical University. Following class selection, consent forms were taken home by students to give to parents, requesting their consent to allow the children to participate in the survey. After the parental consent forms were collected, researchers visited the schools to conduct the self-administered survey and address students’ questions about it. Students were assured the
Downloaded from hpq.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on November 14, 2015
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Chang et al. information would remain confidential. In 2010, a total of 2992 students enrolled in the 10th grade from 102 classes in 26 sample schools completed the questionnaire. The response rate was 80 percent. In 2011, when the students were in the 11th grade, participating students were re-contacted to complete the same questionnaire. However, at the time of the follow-up surveys, some students had dropped out of school, some had transferred to other schools, and some refused to participate or were absent on that day. Thus, a total of 2315 students completed the questionnaire in both the 2010 and 2011 surveys. In total, 22 percent of students dropped out of the follow-up survey. The baseline analysis showed that the prevalence of unwanted exposure to online pornography among follow-up students (33.9%) was significantly lower than that among dropped-out students (38.2%), while the prevalence of online sexual solicitation victimization (19.9%) and perpetration (4.1%) among follow-up students was also lower than that reported by the dropped-out students (victimization: 22.9%, perpetration: 5.6%), but there was no significant difference. Results from the 2315 students who completed both surveys were used to examine the baseline and longitudinal effects of risk factors on unwanted exposure to online pornography and sexual solicitation. Of all participating schools, 54 percent were public schools, 46 percent were private schools, and 88 percent were schools located in urban areas. Two-thirds of the students reported parents with a high school education level or lower, and one-third of students came from families with low or lower middle household incomes.
Instruments A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous studies such as the US Youth Internet Safety Survey (Dowell et al., 2009; Ybarra and Mitchell, 2007) and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (Eaton et al., 2010). A group of 10 experts were invited to assess the content validity of the questionnaire.
Experts reviewed the draft questionnaire and gave comments and suggestions for improvements. In addition, the pilot survey was conducted at two schools that were different from the sample schools in order to examine the students’ responses to the survey and to evaluate the reliability of the data yielded by the questionnaire. Cronbach’s α for the pornography media exposure scale for the pilot sample was 0.84, while Cronbach’s α for the depression scale for the pilot sample was 0.86. The questionnaire was revised after the pilot survey. The dependent variable in this study was change in the pattern of unwanted exposure to online pornography and unwanted online sexual solicitation victimization and perpetration behaviors from grades 10 to 11.
Unwanted exposure to online pornography Participants were asked the following question: How often did you open an email or instant message or a link in a message that showed you pictures of naked people or people having sex that you did not want? Response options for each item included the following: “never,” “ever (ever before a year),” “seldom (a few times within a year),” “sometimes (a few times within a month),” and “usual (a few times within a week).” If participants answered “a few times within a year” or more frequently, they were coded as having unwanted exposure to online pornography. Using students’ selfreported unwanted exposure to online pornography in the 10th and 11th grades, respondents were categorized into two groups: (a) no unwanted exposure to online pornography: the student reported that he/she was not exposed to online pornography in the 12 months prior to the two surveys in the 10th and 11th grades; (b) occurrence of unwanted exposure to online pornography: the student reported that he/she was not exposed to unwanted online pornography in the past 12 months in the 10th grade survey but in the 11th grade survey, he/she responded that they had been exposed to unwanted online pornography.
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Online sexual solicitation victimization Online sexual solicitation victimization was measured using two items. Participants were asked the following questions: How often has someone (1) asked you to talk about sex online when you did not want to and (2) asked you to do something sexual online that you did not want to? Response options for each item included the following: “never,” “ever (ever before a year),” “seldom (a few times within a year),” “sometimes (a few times within a month),” and “usual (a few times within a week).” If participants answered “a few times within a year” or more frequently for any of the two items, they were coded as a victim of online sexual solicitation victimization. Using students’ self-reported cyberbullying victimi-zation in the 10th and 11th grades, respondents were categorized into two groups: (a) no online sexual solicitation victimization: the student reported that he/she had not experienced online sexual solicitation victimization in the 12 months prior to the two surveys in the 10th and 11th grades; (b) occurrence of online sexual solicitation victimization: the student reported that he/she had not been solicited in the past 12 months in the 10th grade survey, but in the 11th grade survey he/she responded that he/she had been solicited.
Online sexual solicitation perpetration Online sexual solicitation perpetration was measured using two items. Participants were asked the following questions: How often have you (1) asked someone to talk about sex online when they did not want to and (2) asked someone to do something sexual online when they did not want to? If participants answered “a few times within a year” or more frequently for any of the online sexual solicitation perpetration items, they were coded as an online sexual solicitation perpetrator. Using students’ self-reported online sexual solicitation perpetration in the 10th and 11th grades, respondents were categorized into two groups: (a) no online sexual solicitation perpetration: the
student reported that he/she did not engage in online sexual solicitation perpetration in the 12 months prior to the two surveys in the 10th and 11th grades; (b) occurrence of online sexual solicitation perpetration: the student reported that he/she did not engage in online sexual solicitation perpetration in the past 12 months in the 10th grade survey, but in the 11th grade survey, he/she reported involvement in online sexual solicitation perpetration. The independent variables in this study included weekly online game use days, weekly chat room use days, pornography media exposure, Internet risk behaviors, cyberbullying perpetration/victimization experiences, offline sexual harassment experiences, smoking, and depression.
Weekly online game use days Participants were asked how many days during the past week they had played online games.
Weekly chat room use days Participants were asked how many days during the past week they had used chat rooms.
Pornography media exposure Pornography media exposure was measured using seven items. Participants were asked the following: During the past year, how often did you (1) see messages containing pornography on television (TV); (2) see messages containing pornography in movies; (3) see messages containing pornography in newspapers or magazines; (4) see messages containing pornography on a billboard; (5) see messages containing pornography on the Internet or in online games; (6) read pornographic magazines; and (7) watch pornographic films. Response options for each item included the following: “never” (scoring 1), “a few times yearly” (scoring 2), “a few times monthly” (scoring 3), “a few times weekly” (scoring 4), and “almost daily” (scoring 5). Cronbach’s α for the pornography media exposure scale was 0.89.
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Internet risk behaviors Internet risk behaviors were measured using three items. Participants were asked the following questions: How often have you (1) sent or posted personal information (i.e. name, telephone, age, school name, and home address); (2) posted pictures online; and (3) used a webcam to chat with strangers. Response options for each item included the following: “never” (scoring 1), “a few times yearly” (scoring 2), “a few times monthly” (scoring 3), “a few times weekly” (scoring 4), and “almost daily” (scoring 5).
Cyberbullying victimization Cyberbullying victimization was measured using 4 items. Participants were asked the following questions: How often has someone 1) made or posted rude comments to or about you online; 2) posted embarrassing or nude photos of you online; 3) spread rumors about you online; 4) made threatening comments to hurt you online. If participants answered “a few times within a year” or more frequently for any of the cyberbullying victimization items, they were coded as a cyberbully victim.
Cyberbullying perpetration Cyberbullying perpetration was measured using 4 items. Participants were asked the following questions: How often have you ever 1) made rude comments to anyone online; 2) sent or posted others’ embarrassing photos online; 3) spread rumors about someone online; 4) made threatening comments to hurt someone online. If participants answered “a few times within a year” or more frequently for any of the cyberbullying perpetration items, they were coded as a cyberbully perpetrator.
Offline sexual harassment perpetration Offline sexual harassment perpetration was measured based on the respondent’s answer to
how often they sexually harassed others. If participants answered “a few times within a year” or more frequently, they were coded as an offline sexual harassment perpetrator. Smoking. Smoking was measured based on the respondent’s answer to how often they had ever smoked. If participants answered “a few times within a year” or more frequently, they were coded as smokers. Depression. Depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).28 The CES-D is a 20-item scale that evaluates the presence of depressive symptoms. Participants were asked how often they felt like “I was bothered by things that don’t usually bother me” or “I did not feel like eating; my appetite was poor.” Response options for each item included the following: “rarely or none of the time (
HPQ0010.1177/1359105314546775Journal of Health PsychologyChang et al.
Article
Predictors of unwanted exposure to online pornography and online sexual solicitation of youth
Journal of Health Psychology 1–12 © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1359105314546775 hpq.sagepub.com
Fong-Ching Chang1, Chiung-Hui Chiu1, Nae-Fang Miao2, Ping-Hung Chen1, Ching-Mei Lee1 and Jeng-Tung Chiang3
Abstract This study examined factors associated with the unwanted exposure to online pornography and unwanted online sexual solicitation victimization and perpetration of youth in Taiwan. A total of 2315 students from 26 high schools were assessed in the 10th grade, with follow-up performed in the 11th grade. Self-administered questionnaires were collected. Multivariate analysis results indicated that higher levels of online game use, pornography media exposure, Internet risk behaviors, depression, and cyberbullying experiences predicted online sexual solicitation victimization, while higher levels of Internet chat room use, pornography media exposure, Internet risk behaviors, cyberbullying experiences, and offline sexual harassment predicted online sexual solicitation perpetration.
Keywords online pornography, perpetration, sexual solicitation, victimization
Introduction Youth exposure to online pornography, online sexual solicitation, and cyberbullying experiences represents an emerging public health problem. As youth spend an ever-increasing amount of time on the Internet compared with time spent at school, more professionals, parents, and legislators are expressing worry about the possible harms to youth from being exposed to online pornography, sexual solicitation, and online victimization risks. Studies have established how exposure to online pornography affects an adolescent’s sexual attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, sexual aggression (Lo and Wei, 2005; Owens et al., 2012), and sexual development (Peter and Valkenburg, 2008). A longitudinal
study found that early exposure to sexually explicit content in adult magazines, X-rated movies, and the Internet predicted more permissive sexual norms, sexual harassment perpetration, and having sex behavior (Brown and L’Engle, 2009). Moreover, the online sexual 1National
Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan Medical University, Taiwan 3National Chengchi University, Taiwan 2Taipei
Corresponding author: Fong-Ching Chang, Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, National Taiwan Normal University, 162, Ho-Ping E. Rd., Sec. 1, Taipei 10610, Taiwan. Email: [email protected]
Downloaded from hpq.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on November 14, 2015
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Journal of Health Psychology
solicitation of youth has been associated with higher depressive symptomatology and psychological problems (Ybarra et al., 2007b). In the United States, 93 percent of male college students and 62 percent of female college students reported being exposed to online pornography before the age of 18 years (Sabina et al., 2008). The US Youth Internet Safety Survey has shown that 23 percent of youth have reported unwanted exposure to online pornography, 11 percent of youth have reported an online harassment experience, and 9 percent of youth have reported an unwanted experience with online sexual solicitation (Jones et al., 2012). Unwanted exposure to online pornography is commonly defined as being exposed to pictures of naked people or people having sex without seeking or expecting such pictures when doing online searches, surfing the web, and opening email or instant messages or links in messages, while unwanted online sexual solicitation occurs when youth are asked to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk or to give personal sexual information that is unwanted on the Internet (Mitchell et al., 2007c). According to a 25-country survey in Europe, 23 percent of 9- to 16-year-old youths have seen sexual images in the media, 14 percent have seen sexual images online, and 4 percent were upset by the experience. In the same survey, 15 percent of youth had received peer sexual messages, while 6 percent had sent nasty or hurtful messages online to others (Livingstone et al., 2011). Moreover, a US study showed that 42 percent of 10- to 17-year-old Internet users had been exposed to online pornography in the past year, and two-thirds of those reported only unwanted exposure. Unwanted exposure to online pornography has been associated with cyberbullying victimization, the receipt of unwanted online sexual solicitation, offline interpersonal victimization, and depression (Wolak et al., 2007). Factors associated with online sexual solicitation include the following: being female, using chat rooms, sending personal information to people met online, Internet harassment experiences, offline physical or sexual abuse, delinquency, substance use, and
psychological problems (Helweg-Larsen et al., 2012; Ybarra et al., 2007a, 2007b). In Taiwan, complaints of online pornography and sexual solicitation are increasing. One study indicated that 71 percent of adolescents aged 10–12 years in Taiwan reported exposure to online pornography; of this group, 41.3 percent reported only unintentional exposure and 58.7 percent reported intentional exposure (Helweg-Larsen et al., 2012). Despite some studies that have documented the risk factors associated with exposure to online pornography and sexual solicitation, little longitudinal research has examined the risk factors of youth unwanted exposure to online pornography and sexual solicitation victimization and perpetration. The purpose of this study was to assess the longitudinal predictors of the occurrence of youth unwanted exposure to online pornography and online sexual solicitation victimization and perpetration among senior high-school students in Taiwan.
Methods Participants In 2010, a total of 72,327 high-school students were enrolled in the 10th grade in 122 high schools (including vocational high schools) in Taipei City and New Taipei City, Taiwan. Based on the sampling frame, which was a list of schools and their 10th grade student enrollments, a probability-proportionate-to-size sampling method was used to systematically draw a random sample of schools. Three to four classes were randomly selected from each sample school. Approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Taipei Medical University. Following class selection, consent forms were taken home by students to give to parents, requesting their consent to allow the children to participate in the survey. After the parental consent forms were collected, researchers visited the schools to conduct the self-administered survey and address students’ questions about it. Students were assured the
Downloaded from hpq.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on November 14, 2015
3
Chang et al. information would remain confidential. In 2010, a total of 2992 students enrolled in the 10th grade from 102 classes in 26 sample schools completed the questionnaire. The response rate was 80 percent. In 2011, when the students were in the 11th grade, participating students were re-contacted to complete the same questionnaire. However, at the time of the follow-up surveys, some students had dropped out of school, some had transferred to other schools, and some refused to participate or were absent on that day. Thus, a total of 2315 students completed the questionnaire in both the 2010 and 2011 surveys. In total, 22 percent of students dropped out of the follow-up survey. The baseline analysis showed that the prevalence of unwanted exposure to online pornography among follow-up students (33.9%) was significantly lower than that among dropped-out students (38.2%), while the prevalence of online sexual solicitation victimization (19.9%) and perpetration (4.1%) among follow-up students was also lower than that reported by the dropped-out students (victimization: 22.9%, perpetration: 5.6%), but there was no significant difference. Results from the 2315 students who completed both surveys were used to examine the baseline and longitudinal effects of risk factors on unwanted exposure to online pornography and sexual solicitation. Of all participating schools, 54 percent were public schools, 46 percent were private schools, and 88 percent were schools located in urban areas. Two-thirds of the students reported parents with a high school education level or lower, and one-third of students came from families with low or lower middle household incomes.
Instruments A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous studies such as the US Youth Internet Safety Survey (Dowell et al., 2009; Ybarra and Mitchell, 2007) and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (Eaton et al., 2010). A group of 10 experts were invited to assess the content validity of the questionnaire.
Experts reviewed the draft questionnaire and gave comments and suggestions for improvements. In addition, the pilot survey was conducted at two schools that were different from the sample schools in order to examine the students’ responses to the survey and to evaluate the reliability of the data yielded by the questionnaire. Cronbach’s α for the pornography media exposure scale for the pilot sample was 0.84, while Cronbach’s α for the depression scale for the pilot sample was 0.86. The questionnaire was revised after the pilot survey. The dependent variable in this study was change in the pattern of unwanted exposure to online pornography and unwanted online sexual solicitation victimization and perpetration behaviors from grades 10 to 11.
Unwanted exposure to online pornography Participants were asked the following question: How often did you open an email or instant message or a link in a message that showed you pictures of naked people or people having sex that you did not want? Response options for each item included the following: “never,” “ever (ever before a year),” “seldom (a few times within a year),” “sometimes (a few times within a month),” and “usual (a few times within a week).” If participants answered “a few times within a year” or more frequently, they were coded as having unwanted exposure to online pornography. Using students’ selfreported unwanted exposure to online pornography in the 10th and 11th grades, respondents were categorized into two groups: (a) no unwanted exposure to online pornography: the student reported that he/she was not exposed to online pornography in the 12 months prior to the two surveys in the 10th and 11th grades; (b) occurrence of unwanted exposure to online pornography: the student reported that he/she was not exposed to unwanted online pornography in the past 12 months in the 10th grade survey but in the 11th grade survey, he/she responded that they had been exposed to unwanted online pornography.
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Journal of Health Psychology
Online sexual solicitation victimization Online sexual solicitation victimization was measured using two items. Participants were asked the following questions: How often has someone (1) asked you to talk about sex online when you did not want to and (2) asked you to do something sexual online that you did not want to? Response options for each item included the following: “never,” “ever (ever before a year),” “seldom (a few times within a year),” “sometimes (a few times within a month),” and “usual (a few times within a week).” If participants answered “a few times within a year” or more frequently for any of the two items, they were coded as a victim of online sexual solicitation victimization. Using students’ self-reported cyberbullying victimi-zation in the 10th and 11th grades, respondents were categorized into two groups: (a) no online sexual solicitation victimization: the student reported that he/she had not experienced online sexual solicitation victimization in the 12 months prior to the two surveys in the 10th and 11th grades; (b) occurrence of online sexual solicitation victimization: the student reported that he/she had not been solicited in the past 12 months in the 10th grade survey, but in the 11th grade survey he/she responded that he/she had been solicited.
Online sexual solicitation perpetration Online sexual solicitation perpetration was measured using two items. Participants were asked the following questions: How often have you (1) asked someone to talk about sex online when they did not want to and (2) asked someone to do something sexual online when they did not want to? If participants answered “a few times within a year” or more frequently for any of the online sexual solicitation perpetration items, they were coded as an online sexual solicitation perpetrator. Using students’ self-reported online sexual solicitation perpetration in the 10th and 11th grades, respondents were categorized into two groups: (a) no online sexual solicitation perpetration: the
student reported that he/she did not engage in online sexual solicitation perpetration in the 12 months prior to the two surveys in the 10th and 11th grades; (b) occurrence of online sexual solicitation perpetration: the student reported that he/she did not engage in online sexual solicitation perpetration in the past 12 months in the 10th grade survey, but in the 11th grade survey, he/she reported involvement in online sexual solicitation perpetration. The independent variables in this study included weekly online game use days, weekly chat room use days, pornography media exposure, Internet risk behaviors, cyberbullying perpetration/victimization experiences, offline sexual harassment experiences, smoking, and depression.
Weekly online game use days Participants were asked how many days during the past week they had played online games.
Weekly chat room use days Participants were asked how many days during the past week they had used chat rooms.
Pornography media exposure Pornography media exposure was measured using seven items. Participants were asked the following: During the past year, how often did you (1) see messages containing pornography on television (TV); (2) see messages containing pornography in movies; (3) see messages containing pornography in newspapers or magazines; (4) see messages containing pornography on a billboard; (5) see messages containing pornography on the Internet or in online games; (6) read pornographic magazines; and (7) watch pornographic films. Response options for each item included the following: “never” (scoring 1), “a few times yearly” (scoring 2), “a few times monthly” (scoring 3), “a few times weekly” (scoring 4), and “almost daily” (scoring 5). Cronbach’s α for the pornography media exposure scale was 0.89.
Downloaded from hpq.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on November 14, 2015
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Internet risk behaviors Internet risk behaviors were measured using three items. Participants were asked the following questions: How often have you (1) sent or posted personal information (i.e. name, telephone, age, school name, and home address); (2) posted pictures online; and (3) used a webcam to chat with strangers. Response options for each item included the following: “never” (scoring 1), “a few times yearly” (scoring 2), “a few times monthly” (scoring 3), “a few times weekly” (scoring 4), and “almost daily” (scoring 5).
Cyberbullying victimization Cyberbullying victimization was measured using 4 items. Participants were asked the following questions: How often has someone 1) made or posted rude comments to or about you online; 2) posted embarrassing or nude photos of you online; 3) spread rumors about you online; 4) made threatening comments to hurt you online. If participants answered “a few times within a year” or more frequently for any of the cyberbullying victimization items, they were coded as a cyberbully victim.
Cyberbullying perpetration Cyberbullying perpetration was measured using 4 items. Participants were asked the following questions: How often have you ever 1) made rude comments to anyone online; 2) sent or posted others’ embarrassing photos online; 3) spread rumors about someone online; 4) made threatening comments to hurt someone online. If participants answered “a few times within a year” or more frequently for any of the cyberbullying perpetration items, they were coded as a cyberbully perpetrator.
Offline sexual harassment perpetration Offline sexual harassment perpetration was measured based on the respondent’s answer to
how often they sexually harassed others. If participants answered “a few times within a year” or more frequently, they were coded as an offline sexual harassment perpetrator. Smoking. Smoking was measured based on the respondent’s answer to how often they had ever smoked. If participants answered “a few times within a year” or more frequently, they were coded as smokers. Depression. Depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).28 The CES-D is a 20-item scale that evaluates the presence of depressive symptoms. Participants were asked how often they felt like “I was bothered by things that don’t usually bother me” or “I did not feel like eating; my appetite was poor.” Response options for each item included the following: “rarely or none of the time (
