Differences in Coping Strategies for Public and Private Face-to-Face and Cyber Victimization among Adolescents in Six Countries

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the role of publicity (private versus public) and medium (face-to-face versus cyber) in adolescents' coping strategies for hypothetical victimization, while also considering culture. Participants were adolescents from China, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, India, Japan, and the United States. The study also controlled for adolescents' gender, individualism, and collectivism. Adolescents completed questionnaires on the hypothetical coping strategies that they would use for four scenarios, including public faceto-face victimization, public cyber victimization, private face-to-face victimization, and private cyber victimization. Overall, the findings revealed that adolescents relied more on avoidance, social support, retaliation, helplessness, and ignoring for public and face-to-face forms of victimization than for private and cyber forms of victimization. Cross-cultural differences in coping strategies are discussed. © 2016-IOS Press and the authors.