Exploring Risk and Protective Factors for Cyberbullying and Their Interplay: Evidence from a Sample of South Korean College Students

This study explored risk and protective factors for cyberbullying perpetration and examined whether they independently and interactively predicted cyberbullying perpetration. Based on key propositions of micro-level theories of crime and delinquency, we adopted two risk factors, cyberbullying victimization and association with cyberbullying peers, and two protective factors, morality and self-control. Using a sample of South Korean college students (N = 244; 112 women (45.9%), 132 men (54.1%); Mean (age) = 22), we found that the two risk factors were positively associated with cyberbullying perpetration, while only one of the two protective factors, which is morality, had a negative relationship with cyberbullying perpetration. In addition, the two protective factors partially buffered the effects of both risk factors on cyberbullying perpetration. The implications and limitations of these findings were also discussed.

Relations among Socially Prescribed Perfectionism, Career Stress, Mental Health, and Mindfulness in Korean College Students

Korean young adults are exposed to higher career stress than ever before, and such stress exerts a negative impact on mental health outcomes. The present study aimed to understand the mediating effect of career stress on the relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism and mental health using a sample of 420 Korean college students. The present study also investigated the moderating role of mindfulness in the mediated pathways across gender groups. This study’s results showed that there are considerable gender differences in this relationship. Career stress significantly mediates the relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism and depression and life satisfaction only for females. Study findings also indicated that the moderating effect of mindfulness was more remarkable for female students than for male students. Implications and future directions are discussed.

A Case Study on the Self-directed English Learning Experiences of Korean College Students Using Self-coaching

The purpose of this study is to analyze the English learning experience of college students using Colaizzi's method, which is one of the qualitative research methods, using self-coaching technology as a tool to improve self-directed learning ability. In-depth interview were conducted to collect data, and 9 significant statements, 4 theme clusters, and 2 categories were derived. The results are as follows. First, it showed that the participants clearly set the reasons and goals for learning English. Second, it was confirmed that they had time to return to the positive motivation they experienced in the past and strengthened their will to overcome difficulties caused by self-coaching. Third, it was reported that they had a valuable experience of asking the questions presented for the first time, and they recollected the feelings of when they happily learned English, thereby gaining new vitality for learning English. Finally, it also showed that they experienced risk factors such as a desire to procrastinate, a desire to give up, and a rush to complete a task due to difficulty in self-control, which could lead to poor learning. Based on these results, it was suggested that self-coaching contributed to the improvement of learning English, the importance of questions, necessary factors when expanding to regular classes, and the expansion of coaching research.