PROADAPT GROUP
Cyberbullying: The regulation of behavior through language
The project Cyberbullying: The regulation of behavior through language (PTDC/MHC-PED/3297/2014), financed by national funds of FCT.
ABSTRACT
Recently, the incidence of new forms of aggressive behavior conducted through the use of communication technologies has increased among adolescents, such as cyberbullying, causing a negative impact on their mental health and school adjustment. The project Cyberbullying: The regulation of behavior through language (PTDC/MHC-PED/3297/2014), financed by national funds of FCT, aimed to develop different ways of intervention through a better understanding of the phenomenon of cyberbullying.
MAIN GOALS
The main goal was the development of an application which helps adolescents regulate their behavior in situations of cyberbullying through language. This investigation focused specifically on the use of self-regulatory strategies into digital tools, as a way to prevent and intervene in cyberbullying. The Com@Viver Online application developed in this project is an example of an intervention implemented and adapted to the Portuguese educational context, aiming to respond to these needs and concerns. Therefore, the work conducted during this project contributes to the development of programs and resources which may lead adolescents to more healthy and pro-social interpersonal interactions, both online and offline.
Specific objectives included, among others:
a) the development of evaluation instruments;
b) understanding the incidence of cyberbullying in Portuguese schools;
c) the identification of aggressive language used in cyberbullying by adolescents;
d) the development of cyberbullying automatic detection models;
e) the development and implementation of a digital application, which promotes the regulation of behavior in adolescents.
To attain the outlined objectives, the project included the following activities:
a) literature review and development of the evaluation instruments;
b) collection, identification and categorization of aggressive language through an analysis of the language used in different online settings;
c) development of a digital application;
d) a quasi-experimental study with experimental and control groups;
e) re-evaluation and adjustment of the application according to the results/experience of the participants of the quasi-experimental study;
f) a longitudinal study involving multiple cases in which a group of adolescents were assessed while they regulated their behavior online with the help of the application;
g) work dissemination.
RESEARCH TEAM
Principal Investigator
Ana Margarida Veiga Simão
CICPSI / FP-ULisboa
Research Team
Adelina Lopes da Silva
CICPSI / FP-ULisboa
Hugo Rosa
IST-INESC-ID
Isabel Trancoso
IST-INESC-ID
João Paulo Carvalho
IST-INESC-ID
Luísa Coheur
IST-INESC-ID
Nádia Pereira
CICPSI / FP-ULisboa
Patrícia Loureiro
CICPSI / FP-ULisboa
Paula Costa Ferreira
CICPSI / FP-ULisboa
Paula Paulino
CICPSI / FP-ULisboa
Ricardo Ribeiro
IST-INESC-ID
Sidclay Souza
CICPSI / FP-ULisboa
Sofia Francisco
CICPSI / FP-ULisboa
Telma Mota
Altice Labs, S.A
Sofia Oliveira
CICPSI / FP-ULisboa
Consultant
Joaquín Antonio Mora Merchán
University of Seville
FUNDING AND PARTNERS
This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), under Grant PTDC/MHC/PED/3297/2014, and Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior.
Participating institutions included Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa (INESC ID/INESC/IST/ULisboa), and Altice Labs, S.A.
MAIN OUTPUTS
The development of two automatic detection models of cyberbullying, which can be used to prevent/intervene in this phenomenon through digital platforms, along with the development of a Portuguese dataset which allows a better capturing of context and repetition of behavior, thus, constituting an innovation in comparison with previous research.
Development of a digital tool, the Com@Viver Online application, which helps adolescents regulate how they communicate through the combination of self-regulatory strategies. This application was found to decrease adolescents’ aggressive style of communication through the combination of self-regulatory strategies, including psychoeducational resources and models of automatic detection of cyberbullying.
Concerning scientific publication and project dissemination:
– 7 scientific articles and one book chapter were published, and two scientific articles are currently in press;
– 7 Master’s Theses were concluded within the project, and three Doctoral Theses are currently in development;
– Two scientific meetings were organized in the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Lisbon (on 24.11.2017 and on 28.10.2019);
– 30 communications and posters were presented in national and international scientific meetings (e.g., World Anti-Bullying Forum 2019, ticEDUCA2018, Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security);
– Conferences by invitation of several organizations were conducted (e.g., Order of the Portuguese Psychologists in September 2018; VII Journeys of Psychology, University of Aveiro in October 2018)
– Several dissemination actions were conducted in schools, community, and in the academic context (e.g., presentation of main results of the project);
– Several dissemination actions to promote healthier interactions among students (e.g., project “Inspire and Express Yourself”);
– Training – professional development for psychologists (e.g., curricular unit “Violence among Peers: From bullying to cyberbullying.”);
– Training – professional development for psychologists (e.g., curricular unit “Violence among Peers: From bullying to cyberbullying.”);
– Dissemination through social media was conducted (i.e., 2 articles, 2 booklets and 1 policy brief).
Veiga Simão, A. M., Ferreira, P. C., Pereira, N., Oliveira, S., Paulino, P., Rosa, H., … Trancoso, I. (no prelo). Prosociality in cyberspace: Developing emotion and behavioral regulation to decrease aggressive communication. Cognitive Computation.
Ferreira, P.C., Pereira, N., Veiga Simão, A. M., Oliveira, S., Paulino, P., & Mora Merchán, J.A. (no prelo). Aggressiveness as a determiner of adolescents’ intentions to engage in cyberbullying, emotional well-being and personal moral beliefs. Revista Psicología Educativa.
Ferreira, P., Veiga Simão, A. M., Pereira, N., Paulino, P., & Oliveira, S. (2020). Online verbal aggression, social relationships and self-efficacy beliefs. New Media and Society. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444820905531
Ferreira, P. C., Veiga Simão, A. M., Paiva, A., & Ferreira, A. (2019). Responsive bystander behaviour in cyberbullying: A path through self-efficacy. Behaviour & Information Technology, 39(5), 511-524. doi:10.1080/0144929X.2019.1602671
Rosa, H., Carvalho, J. P., Calado, P., Martins, B., Ribeiro, R., & Coheur, L. (2018a). Using fuzzy fingerprints for cyberbullying detection in social networks. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (pp. 56–62). doi:10.1109/FUZZ-IEEE.2018.8491557
Rosa, H., Pereira, N., Ribeiro, R., Ferreira, P. C., Carvalho, J. P., Oliveira, S., … Trancoso, I. (2019). Automatic cyberbullying detection: A systematic review. Computers in Human Behavior, 93, 333-345. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2018.12.021
Rosa, H., Matos, D., Ribeiro, R., Coheur, L., & Carvalho, J. P. (2018b). A deeper look at detecting cyberbullying in social networks. Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (pp. 323–330). doi:10.1109/IJCNN.2018.8489211
Veiga Simão, A. M., Paulino, P., Ferreira. P. C., Ramalho, S. C., Francisco, S., & Souza, S. B. (2017). Family and school: Perspectives on the use of technology and security. Revista de Estudios e Investigacíon em Psicología e Educacíon, 5, 143-148. doi:10.17979/reipe.2017.0.05.2505
Veiga Simão, A. M., Ferreira, P. C., Francisco, S., Paulino, A. P., & Souza, S. B. (2018) Cyberbullying: shaping the use of verbal aggression through normative moral beliefs and self-efficacy. New Media & Society, 20(12) 4787–4806. doi:10.1177/1461444818784870
Veiga Simão, A. M., Ferreira, P., C., Pereira, N., & Oliveira, S. (2019). ComViver: Promover comportamentos pró-sociais: Investigação e intervenção no âmbito do cyberbullying. In F. F. Michelon (Org.), A universidade do encontro e da inclusão (pp. 36-47). Brasil: Universidade Federal de Pelotas. ISBN: 978-85-517-0036-5.
Veiga Simão, A. M., Pereira, N., Oliveira, S., Loureiro, P., Ferreira, P., … Trancoso, I. (2019). Brochura do II Encontro Cyberbullying: A regulação do comportamento através da linguagem (Brochura). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337982355_Brochura_II_Encontro_Cyberbullying_A_regulacao_do_comportamento_atraves_da_linguagem
Veiga Simão, A. M., Lopes da Silva, A., Ferreira, P., Paulino, P., Pereira, N., Oliveira, S., Francisco, S., Gomes, S., & Souza, S. (2018). Guia informativo para agentes educativos (Brochura).https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337981919_Guia_informativo_para_agentes_educativos
Veiga Simão, A. M., Pereira, N., Ferreira, P., & Oliveira, S. (2019). Cyberbullying: Recomendações de intervenção(Policy brief).https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337982375_Cyberbullying_Recomendacoes_de_intervencao_Policy_brief