Online Social Support via Avatar Communication Buffers Harmful Effects of Offline Bullying Victimization

Abstract

Online social support via avatar communication is a powerful tool for bullying victims because they often lack offline social resources. Additionally, avatar communication allows users rich nonverbal interactions (e.g., emotional expressions) while maintaining online anonymity. This study investigates the role of online social support via avatars for victims and how to facilitate such support. Accordingly, we conducted an online questionnaire survey twice on an avatar communication application, Pigg Party, regarding mental health, offline and online social support, and offline bullying victimization (participants: 3,288 (1st wave) and 758 (2nd wave)). We found that online social support via avatars supplemented insufficient offline social resources, particularly when there was a high risk of offline bullying victimization. Furthermore, we investigated how online social support is improved by ego networks using social network data from Pigg Party. We demonstrated that belonging to large and closely connected communities can enhance online social support. Our findings suggest that avatar communication applications can improve players' mental health through online social support, reinforced by facilitating ego networks.

Synchronization of online social rhythms via avatar communications

“…We used the logs of users' visits to others' private rooms. We assumed an edge between a visitor and the owner of a room, as in previous work [14,34,35], because visitors tend to be the owner's friends [33]. The dwelling time (s) at over a week were used to represent the weights of the edges (w).…”

Pacemaker effects on online social rhythms on a social network

“…To construct these networks, we used the logs of users visiting other users' private rooms. As in previous research [2,25,30,31], we established a link between a visitor and the owner of a room because visitors are often friends with the owner [32]. The time spent (in seconds) over a week was used to denote the weights of the links (w).…”

Bullying Victims’ Perceived Social Support and Psychological Health and Prosocial Behavior: A Latent Profile Analysis

“…Concerning bullying victims, fewer studies have been undertaken to examine their experience with online support. One of these preliminary efforts is a survey study on online support among victims of offline bullying (Takano & Yokotani, 2022). The study showed that higher online support was related to better global mental health status and fewer symptoms of depression among victims.…”