Investigations of Cyber Bullying and Traditional Bullying in Adolescents on the Roles of Cognitive Empathy, Affective Empathy, and Age

Abstract

Little is known about the associations between bullying, empathy, and age. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate the relationships between traditional bullying (verbal, physical, and relational) and cyber bullying based on the roles of cognitive empathy, affective empathy and age among adolescents. Three instruments to collect data were the Interpersonal Reactivity Index to measure the level of empathy, the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument to measure the level of traditional bullying, and the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument to measure the level of cyber bullying behavior. The sample in this research was 685 female students and 538 male students from three private high schools in Surabaya, Indonesia. Proportionally stratified samples were used to determine the sample. The data obtained were analyzed using Pearson Productmoment and Multiple Regression. The results showed that males were more often involved in bullying than females, and the level of empathy (cognitive and affective) of males was lower than females. It was only affective empathy that was significantly negatively related to traditional bullying. Age also correlated positively with traditional bullying, and the higher the age in the adolescents, the more they engaged in traditional bullying. The implication of this research was highlighting the role of affective empathy as part of efforts to prevent bullying and and to solve various bullying-related problems.