Affiliations: [a] Institute for Psychology, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany
| [b] School of Education, University of Newcastle, Australia
| [c] Departmental Branch of Financial Administration, Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences Münster, Germany
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Stephanie Pieschl, School of Education, University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308, Australia. Tel.: +61 2 4921 7360; Fax: +61 2 4921 7887 (School of Education Fax); E-mail: stephanie.pieschl@newcastle.edu.au.
Abstract: Theoretically, there are strong arguments for a relationship between cyberbullying and trust. On the one hand, trust is built on experiences; thus, experiences of malevolence such as cyberbullying might contribute to low trust. On the other hand, high trust may lead to risky online behavior such as self-disclosures that could increase the risk of cyberbullying. As first empirical evidence, we explored this relationship in two cross-sectional studies. Explorative Study 1 (N = 224) showed that negative experiences of family problems and cyber-perpetration predicted low generalized trust. Exploratory Study 2 (N = 196) showed no significant direct relationship, but trust was related to low online privacy concerns and the willingness to self-disclose online was positively related to cyber-victimization and cyber-perpetration. Thus, these studies show mixed evidence and demonstrate that the relationship between cyberbullying and trust might be more complex than assumed. Future longitudinal designs might be illuminating.
Keywords: Cyberbullying, trust, family problems, self-disclosure
