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Does coping, parental and teacher discussions mediate the relationship between online hate victimization and well-being (online and face2face)?

Petra Gradinger, University of Applied Science Upper Austria; Dagmar Strohmeier, University of Applied Science Upper Austria

Online hate covers offensive, mean, or threatening online actions devaluing, insulting, or harassing individuals or social groups in relation to their national origin, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other characteristics and that are perpetrated through online posts, comments, text messages, videos, or pictures. Online hate has negative emotional consequences on victims. But no study to date examined whether the negative consequences of online hate on well-being are altered by different coping strategies. Therefore, the present study investigated whether three different coping styles mediate the negative association between online hate victimization on well-being, controlling for gender, immigrant status, age, as well as parental and teacher discussions. Self-report questionnaires were completed by 1018 Austrian adolescents (52.3% girls) aged 12 to 17 years (M 13.55, SD 0.88). Three online hate coping styles (support seeking, confrontation, and avoidance) emerged after adolescents indicated their likely reactions to a vignette. Higher levels of online well-being were predicted by being a boy and lower levels of support seeking. Higher levels of face2face well-being were predicted by being a boy, lower levels of online hate victimization, and higher levels of parental discussions. Higher levels of support seeking were predicted by higher levels of parental and teacher discussions. Higher levels of confrontation were predicted by being a girl and a non-immigrant, higher levels of online hate victimization, as well as parental and teacher discussions. Higher levels of avoidance were predicted by being a girl and higher levels of parental discussions. None of the three online hate coping styles were able to explain the negative association between online hate victimization and face2face well-being, suggesting that a socio-ecological perspective comprising the societal, structural and the individual level might be more appropriate.

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