Presenter(s)

• Rahnuma E Jannat, Graduate Assistant, SUNY at Buffalo

Abstract

Cyberhate involves intentional, aggressive online acts that ridicule or promote hatred toward individuals or groups based on one or more social identities (e.g., race/ethnicity or religion; Blaya et al., 2022). Although cyberhate has emerged as a growing concern among youth, with research linking both witnessing (i.e., being exposed to) and experiencing (i.e., being directly targeted by) cyberhate to adverse psychological outcomes among adolescents (Blaya, 2021; Blaya & Audrin, 2018; Wachs et al., 2022), relatively little is known about how frequently adolescents encounter cyberhate or how they cope with it. Thus, this study examined the prevalence of experiencing and witnessing cyberhate, adolescents’ commonly used coping strategies, and sex differences in cyberhate exposure and coping. Data were collected from 369 adolescents ages 13–18 (52% female; 68% White). Findings indicated that approximately 11.7%–17.1% of adolescents reported experiencing identity-based cyberhate, whereas more than 60% reported witnessing cyberhate targeting race/ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation. No significant sex differences were found in either experiencing or witnessing cyberhate. However, females reported greater use of helplessness/self-blame, close support, and technical coping, whereas males reported greater use of retaliation. These findings underscore the need for school-based interventions that strengthen adaptive coping strategies and address gender-specific patterns of maladaptive responses to cyberhate.