The nature of cyberbullying, and strategies for prevention

The review covers definitional issues such as repetition and power imbalance, types of cyberbullying, age and gender differences, overlap with traditional bullying and sequence of events, differences between cyberbullies and traditional bullying, motives for and impact of cyber victimization, coping strategies, and prevention/intervention possibilities.

Abstract

Cyberbullying has been identified as an important problem amongst youth in the last decade. This paper reviews some recent findings and discusses general concepts within the area. The review covers definitional issues such as repetition and power imbalance, types of cyberbullying, age and gender differences, overlap with traditional bullying and sequence of events, differences between cyberbullying and traditional bullying, motives for and impact of cyber victimization, coping strategies, and prevention/intervention possibilities. These issues will be illustrated by reference to recent and current literature, and also by in-depth interviews with nine Swedish students aged 13–15 years, who had some first-hand experience of one or more cyberbullying episodes. We conclude by discussing the evidence for different coping, intervention and prevention strategies.