Editorial: An increase in published articles and special issues

Dear researchers, colleagues, and readers interested in research on cyberspace,

We are pleased to present the fourth issue of Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace (4-2014). In 2007, the first issue of the journal was published and that was the only issue that year. In the following four years we published two issues per year, which increased in 2012 to three issues (two regular and one special issue) and, now in 2014, we are able to expand to four issues (two regular and two special issues). This means that we have increased the total number of published articles during the year. However, as mentioned in the editorial in the July issue, the acceptance rate decreased to 12.5 percent. The increased number of issues annually can be explained by the decision to thematically gather the increased number of submissions into special issues, and also to publish special issues on interesting, timely, and relevant themes in Internet research. This year we published a special issue on Internet Sexuality and another on New Media and Democracy; both got fine response from readers and researchers and, from what we heard, also contributed to new research collaborations by connecting researchers and groups. We could not have hoped for more!

We can already disclose that we are preparing the next special issue (1-2015), which will be entitled “The Mediation by Family Members, Peers, Schools, and the Media of How Children and Adolescents Use Digital Technology”. Our aim is to continue to publish new special issues in the future. If you have an interesting theme you would like addressed, or even guest edit, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Now, to the current, regular issue, which is not as multi-national as previous issues. Out of five articles in this issue, four emanate from the United States and one is a European collaboration comprising researchers from Norway, Sweden, and Croatia. However, the issue demonstrates the multi-disciplinary journal we aim to be, at least in the Social Sciences. In addition, the article topics are diverse as well.

The first article — “Couple boundaries for social networking in middle adulthood: Associations of trust and satisfaction” (Norton, Baptist) — focuses on rules and boundaries in online social networking within adult, long-term, married-couple relationships. It concludes that boundaries exist and that trust and satisfaction are related to the use of these boundaries. The second article — “Cyber-bullying: An exploration of bystander behavior and motivation” (Shultz, Heilman, Hart) — is a study in the field of cyberbullying and, more specifically, on young adult bystanders, their behaviors and motivations. The authors found that few bystanders intervened, but the response may still be higher compared to traditional face-to-face bullying. Motivations to not intervene were, for example, that the bystanders did not want to worsen the situation or felt helpless. The third article — “Self-perceived effects of Internet pornography use, genital appearance satisfaction, and sexual self-esteem among young Scandinavian adults” (Kvalem, Træen, Lewin, Štulhofer) — focuses on online pornography use among adolescents and sexual self-esteem. The researchers found that pornography use is positively associated with self-esteem and may expand the sexual scripts for young men, in particular. They conclude that the relationship is weak, complex, dynamic, and gender-specific. The fourth article — “21^st century media, fame, and other future aspirations: A national survey of 9-15 year olds” (Uhls, Zgourou, Greenfield) — explores the link between media activity and future aspirations among preteens. The findings suggest that communication technologies, along with television content, may influence self-focused, individualistic activities and, thus, contribute to isolation and pushing humans further apart. The last article of the issue — “Bullying on the pixel playground: Investigating risk factors of cyberbullying at the intersection of children’s online-offline social lives” (Seiler, Navarro) — focuses on bullying both online and offline. The findings confirm the inter- relationship between online and offline bullying. Furthermore, it shows that parental involvement, but also sociability, decrease the likelihood of being bullied offline as well as online. The researchers conclude that for young, connected people, offline social life and online social life blend together and constitute normal social life.

Finally, we would like to thank all of the contributors and reviewers who have shared their time and efforts to make this another successful year in the history of the journal. We would like to wish you a wonderful holiday season and a marvelous 2015!

Issue Content

Editorial: An increase in published articles and special issues

Kristian Daneback and David Smahel

doi: 10.5817/CP2014-4-1

Couple boundaries for social networking in middle adulthood: Associations of trust and satisfaction

Aaron M. Norton and Joyce Baptist

doi: 10.5817/CP2014-4-2

Cyber-bullying: An exploration of bystander behavior and motivation

Emily Shultz, Rebecca Heilman and Kathleen J. Hart

doi: 10.5817/CP2014-4-3

Self-perceived effects of Internet pornography use, genital appearance satisfaction, and sexual self- esteem among young Scandinavian adults

Ingela Lundin Kvalem, Bente Træen, Bo Lewin and Aleksandar Štulhofer

doi: 10.5817/CP2014-4-4

21^st century media, fame, and other future aspirations: A national survey of 9-15 year olds

Yalda T. Uhls, Eleni Zgourou and Patricia M. Greenfield

doi: 10.5817/CP2014-4-5

Bullying on the pixel playground: Investigating risk factors of cyberbullying at the intersection of children’s online-offline social lives

Steven J. Seiler and Jordana N. Navarro

doi: 10.5817/CP2014-4-6

About Journal

The 'Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace' is a web-based, peer-reviewed scholarly journal. The first peer-reviewed issue was published in September 2007. The journal is focussed on social science research about cyberspace. It brings psychosocial reflections of the impact of the Internet on people and society. The journal is interdisciplinary, publishing works written by scholars of psychology, media studies, sociology, political science, nursing, and also other disciplines. The journal accepts original research articles, as well as theoretical studies and research meta-analyses. Proposals for special issues are also welcomed.

The journal is indexed with EBSCO Academic Search Complete, the Directory of Open Access Journals, SCOPUS and the Czech Database of Scientific Journals.

Editor

Prof. David Smahel, M.Sc. et Ph.D., Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
E-mail: smahel(at)fss.muni.cz

Associate Editor

Prof. Kristian Daneback, Ph.D., University of Gothenburg, Sweden
E-mail: kristian.daneback(at)socwork.gu.se

Editor Assistant

Lenka Dedkova, M.A., Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
E-mail: ldedkova(at)fss.muni.cz

Editorial Board:

Prof. Kaveri Subrahmanyam, Ph.D., California State University, Los Angeles, USA

Prof. Herbert Hrachovec, Ph.D., University of Vienna, Austria

Prof. Dr. Micheline Frenette, Universite de Montreal, Canada

Prof. Alexander E. Voiskounsky, Ph.D., Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Prof. Michael W. Ross, Ph.D., DrMedSc, MPH, MPHEd, University of Texas, Houston, USA

Prof. Petr Macek, CSc., Masaryk University, Czech Republic

Prof. Olle Findahl, World Internet Institute, Sweden

Prof. Jochen Peter, Ph.D., University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Prof. Veronika Kalmus, Ph.D., University of Tartu, Estonia

Prof. Joshua Fogel, Ph.D., Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, USA

Prof. Gustavo S. Mesch, Ph.D., University of Haifa, Israel

Michelle Wright, Ph.D., Masaryk University, Czech Republic

Václav Štětka, Ph.D., Charles University, Czech Republic

Andra Siibak, Ph.D., University of Tartu, Estonia

Adjunct Prof. Birgit U. Stetina, Ph.D., University of Vienna, Austria

Lukas Blinka, Ph.D., Masaryk University, Czech Republic

Advisory Board:

Prof. Bente Traen, Ph.D., University of Oslo, Norway

Prof. Charles Ess, Ph.D., University of Oslo, Norway

Prof. Dr. Ilse Kryspin-Exner, University of Vienna, Austria

Prof. PhDr. Jan Jirák, Ph.D., Charles University, Czech Republic

Prof. Vasja Vehovar, Ph.D., University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Prof. Larry D. Rosen, Ph.D., California State University, USA

Prof. Patricia M. Greenfield, Ph.D., University of California, USA

Prof. Peter K Smith, University of London, England

Prof. Nicola Döring, Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany

Prof. Kimberly Young, Ph.D., St. Bonaventure University, USA

Prof. Jos de Haan, Ph.D., Erasmus University, Netherlands

Prof. Zbyněk Vybíral, Ph.D, Masaryk University, Czech Republic

Prof. Monica Whitty, Ph.D., University of Leicester, UK

Prof. Alistair Duff, Ph.D., Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland

Assoc. Prof. Alfred Choi, Ph.D., Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Prof. Thurasamy Ramayah, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

Assoc. Prof. Neil Coulson, Ph.D., The University of Nottingham, UK

Assoc. Prof. Kenneth C. C. Yang, Ph.D., University of Texas at El Paso, USA

Assoc. Prof. Sun Sun Lim, Ph.D., National University of Singapore, Singapore

Prof. Sameer Hinduja, Ph.D., Florida Atlantic University, USA

Assoc. Prof. Jana Horáková, Ph.D., Masaryk University, Czech Republic

Assoc. Prof. Radim Polčák, Ph.D., Masaryk University, Czech Republic

Assoc. Prof. Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, Ph.D., University of Tartu, Estonia Assist.

Prof. Alexander Schouten, Ph.D., Tilburg University, Netherlands

Assist. Prof. Ewa S. Callahan, Ph.D., Quinnipiac University, USA

Assist. Prof. Regina van den Eijnden, Ph.D., Utrecht University, Netherlands

PhDr. Ing. Petr Soukup, Charles University, Czech Republic

Janis Wolak, Ph.D., University of New Hampshire, USA

Francesca Romana Seganti, Ph.D., Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Jeff Gavin, Ph.D., University of Bath, UK

Hana Macháčková, Ph.D., Masaryk University, Czech Republic

Michael Fenichel, Ph.D., New York, USA

Leslie Haddon, Ph.D., London School of Economics, UK

Monica Barbovschi, Ph.D., Masaryk University, Czech Republic

Jan Širůček, Ph.D., Masaryk University, Czech Republic

Publisher

Masaryk University, Faculty of Social Studies Jostova 10, 60200 Brno

Czech Republic

Publication Schedule

Twice per year (July and December) plus special issues