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Psicothema was founded in Asturias (northern Spain) in 1989, and is published jointly by the Psychology Faculty of the University of Oviedo and the Psychological Association of the Principality of Asturias (Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos del Principado de Asturias).
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Psicothema, 2012. Vol. Vol. 24 (nº 4). 628-633




Cybergrooming: Risk factors, coping strategies and associations with cyberbullying

Sebastian Wachs, Karsten D. Wolf and Ching-Ching Pan

University of Bremen (Germany)

The use of information and communication technologies has become ubiquitous among adolescents. New forms of cyber aggression have emerged, cybergrooming is one of them. However, little is known about the nature and extent of cybergrooming. The purpose of this study was to investigate risk factors of being cybergroomed, to identify various coping strategies and to explore the associations between being cyberbullied and cybergroomed. The sample consisted of 518 students in 6th to 10th grades. The computer assisted personal interview method (CAPI method) was implemented. The «Mobbing Questionnaire for Students» by Jäger et al. (2007) was further developed for this study and served as the research instrument. While being a girl, being cyberbullied and willingness to meet strangers could be identified as risk factors; no significant age differences were found. Furthermore, three types of coping strategies – aggressive, cognitive-technical and helpless – with varied impacts were identified. The findings not only shed light on understanding cybergrooming, but also suggest worth noting associations between various forms of cyber aggression.

Cybergrooming: factores de riesgo, estrategias de afrontamiento y asociación con cyberbullying.El uso de tecnologías de información y comunicación se ha convertido en ubicuo entre los adolescentes y, por consiguiente, han emergido nuevas formas de agresiones cibernéticas, como cybergrooming. Sin embargo, es poco lo que se sabe sobre la naturaleza y la extensión del cybergrooming. El propósito de esta investigación era: investigando los factores de riesgo de ser sometido a un cybergrooming, identificando diferentes estrategias de afrontamiento y explorando las asociaciones con cyberbullying. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 518 estudiantes de los grados 6 a 10. El estudio se realizó mediante el método CAPI. El "Mobbing Questionnaire for Students" fue desarrollado adicionalmente para evaluar el cybergrooming. Siendo una niña expuesta a ciberacoso y existiendo voluntad de conocer a extraños pudo identificarse como factor de riesgo, pero no se encontraron diferencias significativas entre las edades. Además, tres dimensiones de estrategias de afrontamiento: se identificaron afrontamientos tipo agresivo, cognitivo-técnico y desprotegido. La manera de efectuar el afrontamiento parece tener una diferencia con respecto a la efectividad. Los hallazgos proveen aún más evidencia de que el cybergrooming debe ser tomado seriamente y sugieren que existen asociaciones entre la victimización a través de varias formas de agresiones cibernéticas.

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Impact factor 2022:  JCR WOS 2022:  FI = 3.6 (Q2);  JCI = 1.21 (Q1) / SCOPUS 2022:  SJR = 1.097;  CiteScore = 6.4 (Q1)