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Young people use online communication technologies to provide intimate information to each other and exchange sexual content and messages. When such information is misunderstood or misused by others, it may result in harmful experiences and negative psychosocial outcomes. In the present study, we hypothesized that online sexual engagement of adolescents and early emerging adults is indirectly connected to a lower psychosocial well-being via an increased number of sexual victimization experiences on the Internet. Based on a representative sample of 1033 German Internet users (14–20 years), we found that sexting willingness and 'sexy' self-presentation were associated with a higher number of online sexual victimization experiences, which, in turn, was related to higher loneliness, lower life satisfaction, and worse mental health. For all mediation paths, we identified stable indirect effects. The findings expand previous research on Internet usage, online behavior, and psychosocial well-being by explicitly focusing on the sexual engagement of young Internet users.

Previous research on stress and media use mainly concentrated on between-person effects. We add to this research field by additionally assessing within-person associations, assuming that experiencing more stress than usual goes along with more nomophobia (“no-mobile-phone phobia”) and more passive and active Facebook use than usual, cross-sectionally and over time, and by exploring potential age differences. We conducted a secondary analysis of three waves of a representative multi-wave survey of adult Dutch internet users (N = 861). Specifically, we used two subsamples: (1) smartphones users for the analyses on nomophobia (n = 600) and (2) Facebook users for the analyses on social media (n = 469). Employing random-intercept cross-lagged panel models, we found within-person correlations between nomophobia and stress at one time-point, but not over time. For the younger age group (18–39 years), more passive Facebook use than usual was associated with more stress than usual six months later, and more stress than usual was followed by less passive Facebook use six month later. There were no longitudinal relationships for active Facebook use across the different age groups. Methodological and theoretical implications are discussed., Highlights • We study the relationships of nomophobia, Facebook use and stress over time. • Nomophobia and stress correlate on the within-person level at one time-point. • Passive Facebook use is associated with more stress over time for younger adults. • Stress relates to less passive Facebook use six months later for younger adults. • There are no longitudinal effects for nomophobia, active Facebook use, and stress.

Within today’s families, there is a growing relevance of children’s Internet use as an important and conflictual educational issue, especially during early and middle adolescence. The family climate can be seen as a sensor on how well families handle such Internet-related conflicts. We extended prior research by investigating the role Internet parenting plays for the perceived family climate of 952 nuclear families using a multiactor design. Moreover, we examined whether families’ educational background moderates the expected association between Internet parenting and family climate. The results confirmed that mothers and fathers with higher parenting confidence more often co-used the Internet with their child, which was found to positively influence the family climate. With regard to the education background, we found that the parental co-use of the Internet was a significant mediator, especially for middle- and lower educated fathers. Overall, the findings underline the relevance of parent–child shared Internet activities as a positive resource of family life.

The Role of Internet Parenting for the Internet use of Children in Pre-, Primary and Secondary School The present study analyzes the relationship between mothers' and fathers' Internet parenting and children's Internet use across different age groups (1-15 years). Especially, we looked at the influencing factors of parental mediation strategies and the interplay of mothers' and fathers' Internet parenting. Based on data of the DJI-survey "Growing up in Germany" (Aufwachsen in Deutschland: Alltagswelten, AID:A II 2015, N = 1,196), dyadic structural equation models have shown that across all age groups shared parent-child online activities were important influencing factors of regulating the children's Internet use. Also, the self-perceived Internet education competence of mothers and fathers has been confirmed as a relevant factor influencing a more intense use of parental mediation strategies for school-aged children. While the amount of Internet use among young children (1-6 years) was exclusively influenced by features and strategies of mothers' Internet parenting, the transition to elementary school not only marked changes in the frequency of children's Internet use, but also in the ICT parenting of mothers and fathers. For school-aged children, we indeed found an influence of fathers as well as, in case of the oldest age group, a reduced use of parental mediation strategies. However, parents' attitudes, competences and strategies regarding Internet parenting still stayed important during adolescence.

Although research on cyberbullying has grown rapidly in the last years, holistic explanation approaches are still rare. In a first step, the present study discusses a theoretically derived, integrative model explaining a cyberbullies behavior referring to individual and structural influencing factors. This model was empirically tested among a sample of 1428 German high school pupils within a two-wave panel survey. Additionally, it was investigated whether the explanation patterns vary depending on the particular audience reached by the cyberbullying behavior. The results showed that technical resources enhanced the perpetration mediated via higher levels of perceived behavioral control. In contrast, social resources and norms also directly favored the perpetration of cyberbullying, however, only if this was witnessed by a certain audience. It is assumed that there is a group of cyberbullies who use the behavior as an instrumental strategy in order to reach socially motivated goals. The perpetration of cyberbullying can be considered a very stable behavior.The influence of technical resources is completely mediated via cognitive processes.Socially more and less preferred pupils are likely to become cyberbullies.Non-public forms are mainly explained by individual parts and traditional bullying.Cyberbullying in front of an audience is more strongly guided by social indicators.

In this study, we focus on the relevance of social influence to explain cyberbullying experiences among German high school students. Social influence is discussed in the context of computer-mediated communication. To obtain individual and sociostructural data, we conducted a survey study among German high school students (N = 4,282). Using multilevel modeling, we found that the attributes of the school class only contributed to the risk of being involved in cyberbullying to a small extent. Still, procyberbullying norms in class did enhance the risk of perpetration and victimization for students, even more so than their individual beliefs. Previous experiences with bullying and intensive, unrestricted use of the Internet were the strongest individual predictors of cyberbullying involvement.

The influence of social reference groups such as family members, classmates and friends on adolescents' attitudes and behavior has been acknowledged in research for many decades. With the increasing use of online media, cyberbullying has become a major issue in adolescence research. In this paper, we compare various forms of peer influence on cyberbullying behavior among high school students in Germany. Specifically, the impact of close friends and more distant peers in the school class on perpetrator and victim roles is compared. The results indicate that the class context is highly relevant for cyberbullying. For both processes—perpetration and victimization—the number of cyberbullies within a school class plays an important role in predicting individual behavior. Looking at individual risk factors, the results show that cyberbullying is strongly related to the use of social networking sites, and the risk of victimization increases with the time spent online.

Digital media, especially mobile communication technologies, enable adolescents to explore and experiment with each other with only limited adult control. Conflicts between peers can be easily staged since nearly everybody can be reached at any time under the radar of authorities. Therefore, involvement in conflicts and bullying might depend on how adolescents use and behave online. In the present study, we provide a comprehensive picture of the role aspects of online communication play in long-term involvement in cyberbullying. We focused on a gender-specific perspective, as girls and boys were found to differ not only according to their online communication but also in their cyberbullying involvement. Using a two-wave panel survey of 1817 adolescents between 13 and 17 years (56 % female), we found that girls’ cyberbullying involvement (perpetration and victimization) could be traced back to more intensive online social activities and a higher amount of online contact with strangers. In contrast, for boys, only higher exposure to antisocial media content predicted higher levels of victimization over time. The findings indicate that certain patterns of online communication increase the cyberbullying risk over time. However, it needs to be noted that these risk factors vary between girls and boys.

Current research indicates that an alarming number of students are affected by cyberbullying. However, most of the empirical research has focused on psychological explanations of the phenomenon. In an explorative survey study based on the reconstruction of 2 complete school networks (N[subscript P] = 408), we expand the explanation strategies of cyberbullying to higher levels of social abstraction. Using statistical and structural analysis, and visual inspection of network environments, we compare explanations on individual and structural levels. In line with previous research, the findings support traditional explanations via sociodemographic and personality factors. However, the findings also reveal network positioning to be a comparably strong predictor for cyberbullying. Therefore, we argue that without taking structural factors into account, individual explanations will remain insufficient. Language: en

Online gaming has become an activity associated with a highly specific, caricatured, and often negative image. This "stereotype" has permeated the collective consciousness, as online gamers have become common caricatures in popular media. A lack of comprehensive demographic inquiries into the online gaming population has made it difficult to dispute these stereotypical characteristics and led to rising concerns about the validity of these stereotypes. The current study aims to clarify the basis of these negative characterizations, and determine whether online video game players display the social, physical, and psychological shortcomings stereotypically attributed them. Sampling and recruiting was conducted using a two-stage approach. First, a representative sample of 50,000 individuals aged 14 and older who were asked about their gaming behavior in an omnibus telephone survey. From this sample, 4,500 video game players were called for a second telephone interview, from which the current data were collected. Only those participants who completed all of the questions relating to video game play were retained for the current analysis (n=2,550). Between- and within-group analyses were enlisted to uncover differences between online, offline, and nongame playing communities across varying degrees of involvement. The results indicate that the stereotype of online gamers is not fully supported empirically. However, a majority of the stereotypical attributes was found to hold a stronger relationship with more involved online players than video game players as a whole, indicating an empirical foundation for the unique stereotypes that have emerged for this particular subgroup of video game players.