Although the Internet has transformed the way our world operates, it has also served as a venue for cyberbullying, a serious form of misbehavior among youth. With many of today's youth experiencing acts of cyberbullying, a growing body of literature has begun to document the prevalence, predictors, and outcomes of this behavior, but the literature is highly fragmented and lacks theoretical focus. Therefore, our purpose in the present article is to provide a critical review of the existing cyberbullying research. The general aggression model is proposed as a useful theoretical framework from which to understand this phenomenon. Additionally, results from a meta-analytic review are presented to highlight the size of the relationships between cyberbullying and traditional bullying, as well as relationships between cyberbullying and other meaningful behavioral and psychological variables. Mixed effects meta-analysis results indicate that among the strongest associations with cyberbullying perpetration were normative beliefs about aggression and moral disengagement, and the strongest associations with cyberbullying victimization were stress and suicidal ideation. Several methodological and sample characteristics served as moderators of these relationships. Limitations of the meta-analysis include issues dealing with causality or directionality of these associations as well as generalizability for those meta-analytic estimates that are based on smaller sets of studies (k < 5). Finally, the present results uncover important areas for future research. We provide a relevant agenda, including the need for understanding the incremental impact of cyberbullying (over and above traditional bullying) on key behavioral and psychological outcomes.

Bullying in the Digital Age: A Critical Review and Meta-Analysis of Cyberbullying Research Among Youth

Bullying Prevalence Across Contexts: A Meta-analysis Measuring Cyber and Traditional Bullying

Cyberbullying Prevalence Among US Middle and High School–Aged Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Quality Assessment

This study examined the use of moral disengagement among children indirectly involved in bullying (bystanders). A sample of Danish adolescents (N = 660, M age 12.6 years) were divided into four groups depending on their bystander status: (a) outsiders, who did not experience bullying among their peers; (b) defenders, who were likely to help the victims in bullying episodes; (c) guilty bystanders, who did nothing to help bullied peers but felt guilty about it; and (d) unconcerned bystanders, who witnessed peers being bullied, without feeling responsible. Results indicated that, besides from active personal involvement in bullying others, being an unconcerned bystander to bullying also associates with moral disengagement. Unconcerned bystanders had significantly higher moral disengagement than guilty bystanders and defenders. Outsiders also showed significant higher disengagement than defenders. Implications are discussed, highlighting the importance of further research and theory development.

Moral Disengagement Among Bystanders to School Bullying

Bullying involves an individual or a group repeatedly harming another person—physically (e.g., punching, pushing, tripping, or destruction of property), verbally (e.g., teasing, name-calling, or intimidating), or socially (e.g., ostracizing or spreading hurtful rumors).2 Sometimes these harmful actions are plainly visible, but other times, such as when gossip and rumors are used to isolate the target, the actions are covert. With the advent of the Internet, bullies are able to maintain a more persistent presence in the lives of their victims through cyberbullying. Researchers define cyberbullying as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices.”3

What Is Bullying

The suicide of a cyberbullied student prompted the school-aged authors of this article to administer a Child Abuse Prevention Services survey to 587 students in seventh and eighth grades at four schools. Results showed that 4 of 5 students felt bullying is a problem, with 1 in 3 admitting to having bullied someone. Of those who did nothing when they witnessed bullying, 4 of 10 gave as the reason, “It wasn't my business.” While three quarters of respondents felt “safe/very safe” in school, many are perpetrators (one third) and victims (half). With over half reporting doing nothing the last time they saw someone being bullied, and 1 in 4 stating they did not intervene because they “didn't care,” a concerning level of apathy toward bullying was revealed.

Bullying in Middle Schools: Results from a Four-School Survey

A survey conducted in 2008 among 346 American middle school students in several cities determined that 82.7% of respondents found bullying to be a problem of some degree, with 46.0% rating it a "medium", "bad", or "very bad" problem. It was found that 89% had witnessed an act of bullying and 49.1% said they had been the victim of a bully. Boys were significantly more likely than girls to say that a victim deserved to be bullied (11.1% vs. 1.3%, p = 0.01), whereas girls were significantly more likely than boys to fail to intervene because they did not know what to do (30.3% for girls vs. 11.1%, p < 0.01). There was no significant difference in this study between boys and girls in terms of being a bully: 43.6% admitted they had bullied another (46.2% boys, 41.1% girls, p = 0.34); however, girls were significantly more likely than boys to bully by excluding others and gossiping about them than by hitting, teasing, or threatening. Cyberbullying, surveyed as a distinct entity, had affected 31.1% of respondents directly, with similar results from 2006 to 2007 surveys. Of those who found conventional bullying a "bad" or "very bad" problem at their schools, numbers fell from 17.3% in 2006-2007 vs. 11.3% in 2008.

Bullying in middle school: results from a 2008 survey

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Bullying in Middle Schools: Results from a Four-School Survey

Bullying in middle school: results from a 2008 survey