Online ostracism harms kids' self-esteem [irishhealth.com]
- Published: 22 March 2010
Being ostracised online may threaten a child’s self-esteem, a new study has found.
This is the first time the effect of online ostracism has been investigated. UK researchers looked at how children, adolescents and adults reacted to being ostracised by other players during an online computer game.
"Research into cyber-bullying usually focuses on direct abuse and insults. However, a more indirect and perhaps common form of bullying is ostracism - when people are purposefully ignored by others.
“Online ostracism affects adults by threatening their basic needs for self-esteem, sense of belonging, sense of meaning and sense of control. We wanted to discover whether children and adolescents have similar reactions,” explained lead researcher, Prof Dominic Abrams of the University of Kent.
Full Story: www.irishhealth.com
