Glossary

Abstinence-based approaches to online safety – approaches to online safety that emphasizes preventing risk exposure from happening.

Adolescence – is the phase of life between childhood and adulthood, from ages 10 to 19.

Adolescent risk behaviors – Behaviors associated with high U.S. mortality and morbidity rates for teenagers and that may have significant negative consequences, such as substance use, unprotected sex, driving under the influence, physical violence, among others.

Aggression – Behavior that is intended to cause harm.

Autonomy – in self-determination theory more specifically, the experience of acting from choice, rather than feeling pressured to act. This form of autonomy is considered a fundamental psychological need that predicts well-being.

Bullying – Aggressive behavior perpetrated among peers, in which the aggression takes place in the context of a power imbalance (e.g., one person or group of people has more power, such as physical strength, numbers, verbal ability, or social status) than the victim; the aggression is repeated over time; and the victim feels unable to defend themselves.

Child or Children – According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) every human being below the age of eighteen years, unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.

Causal inference – refers to the process of drawing a conclusion that a specific treatment (i.e., intervention) was the “cause” of the effect (or outcome) that was observed. A simple example is concluding that taking an aspirin caused your headache to go away. Inference for causal effects in education might include, for instance, aiming to select programs that improve educational outcomes or identifying events in childhood that explain developments in later life.

Correlate – A variable that co-occurs with another variable.

Cross-cultural research – The study of human functioning across cultural contexts, including research that compares and contrasts psychological findings across cultures.  

Cross-sectional research – A cross sectional study measures the prevalence of health outcomes or determinants of health, or both, in a population at a point in time or over a short period.

Cyberbullying – Peer-targeted aggression that is perpetrated using electronic communication technologies.

Cyberbullying Victimization – the degree to which an individual has been cyberbullied.

Cyberbullying Perpetration – is the degree to which an individual has been involved in cyberbullying others.

Digital Access – is the ability to fully participate in digital society. This includes access to tools and technologies, such as the Internet and computers, that allow for full participation.  Unfortunately, not everyone has complete digital access and therefore, are not able to fully participate in digital society. The separation between those who have complete access and those who do not is referred to as the Digital Divide.

Digital Divide – see “Digital Access”

Digital Literacy – is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.

Digital Media– means any media that are encoded in machine-readable formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, Listened, and preserved on a digital electronics device.

Digital risks among adolescents – Digital or online risks among adolescents are of four kinds: cyberbullying or online harassment, sexual solicitation and risky sexual behavior, exposure to explicit content and information breaches and privacy violations.

Dyadic research – Research conducted following groups of two people. Each pair may share a significant social relationship (e.g., parent and child, spouses, dating partners).

Ecological perspective – Refers to a theoretical perspective derived from Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory. This theory identifies a series of systems (i.e., microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem), each of which spans a progressively wider sociological context than the last. These systems interact with one another and  can be used to examine an individual’s relationship with themselves and their environment.

Effect size – A number that estimates the strength of the relation between two variables. One research (Cohen) suggested that a small effect size is .3; a median effect size is .5; and a large effect size is .8 (when the effect size is measured by d).

E-learning– A learning system based on formalised teaching but with the help of electronic resources is known as E-learning. While teaching can be based in or out of the classrooms, the use of computers and the Internet forms the major component of E-learning.

Electronic communication technologies (ECTs) – Technologies or devices that are designed to facilitate communication across distances. This can refer to broad technology such as the Internet; devices such as mobile or cellular telephones, computers, tablets, or gaming systems; platforms such as social media; and applications that use text-, voice-, visual-, or video-based messaging.

Ethnicity – Membership in a social group that has a shared cultural identity, often rooted in a shared place or nation of origin; may include a shared language and religious heritage.

Explicit content – a wide range of inappropriate online materials, including pornographic, violent, gruesome, or hateful content, as well as content that promotes harmful behaviors such as self-harm or eating disorders.

Factor analysis – a statistical approach to understanding the construct validity of a measure that is based on the premise that the relations among observed or manifest variable can be explained by their membership in a smaller number of unobserved or latent variables.

Gender equality – The concept that women and men, girls and boys have equal conditions, treatment and opportunities for realizing their full potential, human rights and dignity, and for contributing to (and benefitting from) economic, social, cultural and political development. Gender equality is, therefore, the equal valuing by society of the similarities and the differences of men and women, and the roles they play.

Information breaches – the inappropriate sharing of sensitive information (e.g., account credentials or location information) online.

Life-skills – the abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. UNICEF, UNESCO, and WHO list the ten core life skill strategies and techniques as: problem solving, critical thinking, effective communication skills, decision-making, creative thinking, interpersonal relationship skills, self awareness building skills, empathy, and coping with stress and emotions. Also see “Social and Emotional Skills.”

Longitudinal Studies – In a longitudinal study subjects are followed over time with continuous or repeated monitoring of risk factors or health outcomes, or both. Most longitudinal studies examine associations between exposure to known or suspected causes of disease and subsequent morbidity or mortality.

Marginalized population – Marginalized communities are those excluded from mainstream social, economic, educational, and/or cultural life. Examples of marginalized populations include, but are not limited to, groups excluded due to race, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical ability, language, and/or immigration status.

Measurement – How a variable is defined, operationally defined, and assessed in research

Media Parenting – the specific methods parents employ to guide the media use of their children

Meta-analysis – Analyzing data across multiple scientific studies in order to create a fuller understanding of trends

Mixed-Methods Research – an emergent methodology of research that advances the systematic integration, or “mixing,” of quantitative and qualitative data within a single investigation or sustained program of inquiry

Multi-sectoral strategy – Multi-sectoral approaches refer to the collaboration between organisations in different areas of policy (e.g. health, social, environment) and different sectors (e.g. public, private, third), as well as communities and people, working together to achieve policy outcomes.

National Crime Records Bureau – The National Crime Records Bureau, abbreviated to NCRB, is an Indian government agency responsible for collecting and analysing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code and Special and Local Laws. NCRB is headquartered in New Delhi and is part of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India.

Norms – a standard or range of values that represents the typical performance of a group or of an individual (of a certain age, for example) against which comparisons can be made.

Online risks – see “Digital risks among adolescents”

Online sexual predation of youth – unwanted sexual solicitations (regardless of age) or any solicitations of a sexual nature made through internet-enabled technologies.

Parental Mediation – any strategy parents use to control, supervise, or interpret content for children and adolescents. Active mediation refers to parent-child discussions of media use and the active use of media together whereas restrictive mediation includes placing limits on media, whether through house rules or technology controls. Compared to restrictive media parenting, parents are less likely to actively educate or discuss online behavior with their adolescents

Policy – Policy is a law, regulation, procedure, administrative action, incentive, or voluntary practice of governments and other institutions. Policy decisions are frequently reflected in resource allocations.

Predictor – A variable that is associated with the subsequent occurrence of another variable

Prevention – An action or approach taken with the intention of stopping something from occurring; reducing its intensity, frequency, or severity; or mitigating its impact.

Prevention – Primary prevention: An action or approach taken to stop something before it begins

Prevention – Secondary prevention: An action or approach taken to reduce the intensity, frequency, or severity of something after it begins

Privacy violations – see “Information breaches”

Promotive factor – A variable that is associated with an increased likelihood of a desirable outcome or a decreased likelihood of an undesirable outcome

Protective factor – A variable that weakens the relation between a risk factor and an undesirable outcome

Qualitative research – A structured, systemic process to gaining knowledge that focuses on understanding phenomena from the perspective of the informant. This research is often conducted when phenomena are difficult to understand quantitatively (using numbers and statistical analysis) or when a phenomena is newly explored or discovered

Quantitative research – a systematic investigation of phenomena by gathering quantifiable data and performing statistical, mathematical, or computational techniques. Quantitative research collects information from existing and potential customers using sampling methods and sending out online surveys, online polls, questionnaires, etc., the results of which can be depicted in the form of numerical.

Resilience – The continuous process whereby an individual continues to develop healthily after overcoming difficult or traumatic experiences. Support from an individual’s internal or external resources may help with this process.

Resilience based approaches to online safety – approaches to online safety that emphasizes youth self-regulation to overcome the negative effects of online risk exposure.

Rights-based perspective – is a conceptual framework that is normatively based on international human rights standards and operationally directed to promoting and protecting human rights. It seeks to analyse obligations, inequalities and vulnerabilities, and to tackle discriminatory practices and unjust distributions of power that impede and undercut human rights.

Risk factor – A variable that is associated with an increased likelihood of an undesirable outcome

Risky online sexual behaviors – technology mediated sexual exchanges, such as sex talk, sharing sexual imagery, and meeting online contacts of offline sexual encounters.

Sex-ratio – is the ratio of males to females in a population.

Sexual solicitation- Sexual solicitation is defined as requests to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk or to give personal sexual information that were unwanted or, whether wanted or not, were made by an adult.

Social and emotional Skills – refer to the abilities to regulate one’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour. These skills differ from cognitive abilities such as literacy or numeracy because they mainly concern how people manage their emotions, perceive themselves and engage with others, rather than indicating their raw ability to process information. OECD describe it under big five domains of; task performance, emotional regulation, collaboration, open-mindedness, engaging with others,

Social-ecological model – see “Ecological Perspective”

Socioeconomic status (SES) – Social standing or social class; typically assessed by a combination of an individual’s or family’s income, education, and occupational status; may include accumulated wealth and assets. Higher SES refers to higher income or education or a higher-status occupation.

Somatic complaints – Somatic symptom disorder is diagnosed when a person has a significant focus on physical symptoms, such as pain, weakness or shortness of breath, to a level that results in major distress and/or problems functioning. The individual has excessive thoughts, feelings and behaviors relating to the physical symptoms.

Stakeholders – A stakeholder is a party that has an interest in an issue and can either affect or be affected by an issue.

Substance-use disorder- the recurrent use of alcohol, tobacco and/or drugs causes clinically significant impairment, including health problems, disability, and failure to meet major responsibilities at work, school, or home

Systematic Review – A systematic review attempts to identify, appraise and synthesize all the empirical evidence that meets pre-specified eligibility criteria to answer a specific research question. Researchers conducting systematic reviews use explicit, systematic methods that are selected with a view aimed at minimizing bias, to produce more reliable findings to inform decision making.

Trafficking– the act of buying or selling people, or of making money from work they are forced to do, such as sex work: human/people trafficking.

Vocational training– Vocational education or Vocational Education and Training (VET), also called Career and Technical Education (CTE), prepares learners for jobs that are based in manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic and totally related to a specific trade, occupation or vocation, hence the term, in which the learner participates. It is sometimes referred to as technical education, as the learner directly develops expertise in a particular group of techniques or technology.

Violence – the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation

Young People – persons between ages of 10 and 24 years (UNICEF/WHO)

Youth – The United Nations, for statistical purposes, defines ‘youth’, as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years