IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i8p4883-d795824.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Victims of Known and Unknown Cyberstalkers: A Questionnaire Survey in an Italian Sample

Author

Listed:
  • Tatiana Begotti

    (Department of Psychology, Università di Torino, 10124 Torino, Italy)

  • Mariano Alex Ghigo

    (Department of Psychology, Università di Torino, 10124 Torino, Italy)

  • Daniela Acquadro Maran

    (Department of Psychology, Università di Torino, 10124 Torino, Italy
    WOW-Work and Organizational Wellbeing Research Group, 10124 Torino, Italy)

Abstract

Cyberstalking is a behavior in which an individual, group, or organization uses information technology to harass one or more people, with possible consequences for the victims. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of cyberstalking in terms of physical and emotional consequences, depression, anxiety symptoms, attitudes toward telling of cyberstalking experiences, and coping strategies, comparing young adult victims of known cyberstalkers with those harassed by strangers. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 689 individuals. Of these, 242 victims were included in the analysis: 115 victims of unknown (UC) and 127 of known cyberstalkers (KC). The results emphasize that victims of KC more often reported fatigue as a physical symptom and sadness and lack of trust in others as emotional symptoms. In addition, scores for depressive symptoms and anxiety did not differ significantly between the two groups, whereas significantly higher scores for trait anxiety were found among victims of KC. Finally, victims of KC were significantly more inclined to use alcohol and drugs, reduce social contact with friends, buy a weapon, and try to reason with the cyberstalker, while victims of UC were more inclined to block online contact and ask a social network administrator to intervene. Implications of the findings were discussed, such as the need to intervene immediately and to promote victims’ ability to seek help.

Suggested Citation

  • Tatiana Begotti & Mariano Alex Ghigo & Daniela Acquadro Maran, 2022. "Victims of Known and Unknown Cyberstalkers: A Questionnaire Survey in an Italian Sample," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-13, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:8:p:4883-:d:795824
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4883/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4883/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaur, Puneet & Dhir, Amandeep & Tandon, Anushree & Alzeiby, Ebtesam A. & Abohassan, Abeer Ahmed, 2021. "A systematic literature review on cyberstalking. An analysis of past achievements and future promises," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    2. Leanne Bowler & Cory Knobel & Eleanor Mattern, 2015. "From cyberbullying to well-being: A narrative-based participatory approach to values-oriented design for social media," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 66(6), pages 1274-1293, June.
    3. Yolanda Rodríguez-Castro & Rosana Martínez-Román & Patricia Alonso-Ruido & Alba Adá-Lameiras & María Victoria Carrera-Fernández, 2021. "Intimate Partner Cyberstalking, Sexism, Pornography, and Sexting in Adolescents: New Challenges for Sex Education," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-14, February.
    4. Tatiana Begotti & Martina Bollo & Daniela Acquadro Maran, 2020. "Coping Strategies and Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in Young Adult Victims of Cyberstalking: A Questionnaire Survey in an Italian Sample," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-13, August.
    5. daniela acquadro maran & tatiana begotti, 2019. "Prevalence of Cyberstalking and Previous Offline Victimization in a Sample of Italian University Students," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mahmud, Hasan & Islam, A.K.M. Najmul & Ahmed, Syed Ishtiaque & Smolander, Kari, 2022. "What influences algorithmic decision-making? A systematic literature review on algorithm aversion," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    2. Tatiana Begotti & Daniela Acquadro Maran, 2019. "Characteristics of Cyberstalking Behavior, Consequences, and Coping Strategies: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Sample of Italian University Students," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-11, May.
    3. Arora, Swapan Deep & Singh, Guninder Pal & Chakraborty, Anirban & Maity, Moutusy, 2022. "Polarization and social media: A systematic review and research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    4. Broccardo, Laura & Zicari, Adrián & Jabeen, Fauzia & Bhatti, Zeeshan A., 2023. "How digitalization supports a sustainable business model: A literature review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    5. Tatiana Begotti & Martina Bollo & Daniela Acquadro Maran, 2020. "Coping Strategies and Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in Young Adult Victims of Cyberstalking: A Questionnaire Survey in an Italian Sample," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-13, August.
    6. Kushanthi S. Harasgama & Samurdhi Jayamaha, 2023. "Online Harassment in Sri Lanka: A Thematic Analysis," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-13, March.
    7. Hemant C. Sashittal & Avan R. Jassawalla, 2021. "Brands as personal narratives: learning from user–YouTube–brand interactions," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(6), pages 657-670, November.
    8. Marta de las Heras & Santiago Yubero & Raúl Navarro & Elisa Larrañaga, 2022. "The Relationship between Personal Variables and Perceived Appropriateness of Coping Strategies against Cybervictimisation among Pre-Service Teachers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-22, May.
    9. Kaur, Puneet & Talwar, Shalini & Madanaguli, Arun & Srivastava, Shalini & Dhir, Amandeep, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and hospitality sector: Charting new frontiers for restaurant businesses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 1234-1248.
    10. Richet, Jean-Loup, 2022. "How cybercriminal communities grow and change: An investigation of ad-fraud communities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    11. Cruz-Cárdenas, Jorge & Zabelina, Ekaterina & Guadalupe-Lanas, Jorge & Palacio-Fierro, Andrés & Ramos-Galarza, Carlos, 2021. "COVID-19, consumer behavior, technology, and society: A literature review and bibliometric analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    12. Delia Montero-Fernández & Angel Hernando-Gómez & Antonio Daniel García-Rojas & Francisco Javier Del Río Olvera, 2023. "Click Surveillance of Your Partner! Digital Violence among University Students in England," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-14, March.
    13. Ángel Hernando-Gómez & Delia Montero-Fernández & Antonio Daniel García-Rojas & Francisco Javier Del Río Olvera, 2024. "Digital Violence in University Student Couples: England vs. Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(7), pages 1-13, July.
    14. José Manuel Ortiz-Marcos & María Tomé-Fernández & Christian Fernández-Leyva, 2021. "Cyberbullying Analysis in Intercultural Educational Environments Using Binary Logistic Regressions," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, January.
    15. Hattingh, Marie & Dhir, Amandeep & Ractham, Peter & Ferraris, Alberto & Yahiaoui, Dorra, 2022. "Factors mediating social media-induced fear of missing out (FoMO) and social media fatigue: A comparative study among Instagram and Snapchat users," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    16. Kaur, Puneet & Dhir, Amandeep & Tandon, Anushree & Alzeiby, Ebtesam A. & Abohassan, Abeer Ahmed, 2021. "A systematic literature review on cyberstalking. An analysis of past achievements and future promises," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    17. Bermes, Alena, 2021. "Information overload and fake news sharing: A transactional stress perspective exploring the mitigating role of consumers’ resilience during COVID-19," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:8:p:4883-:d:795824. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.