Cyberbullying: An overrated phenomenon?

TLDR

The authors argue that the negative effects of cyberbullying have received insufficient research attention and propose strategies and methodological recommendations for future studies. Their conclusions are based on two large longitudinal student samples from the United States and Norway covering four to five years. The study finds that media claims exaggerate cyberbullying, which remains a low‑prevalence, stable phenomenon largely overlapping with traditional bullying, and recommends schools focus on traditional bullying and system‑level strategies to further reduce cyberbullying.

Abstract

The paper argues that several claims about cyberbullying made in the media and elsewhere are greatly exaggerated and have little empirical scientific support. Contradicting these claims, it turns out that cyberbullying, when studied in proper context, is a low-prevalence phenomenon, which has not increased over time and has not created many "new" victims and bullies, that is, children and youth who are not also involved in some form of traditional bullying. These conclusions are based on two quite large samples of students, one from the USA and one from Norway, both of which have time series data for periods of four or five years. It is further argued that the issue of possible negative effects of cyberbullying has not received much serious research attention and a couple of strategies for such research are suggested together with some methodological recommendations. Finally, it is generally recommended that schools direct most of their anti-bullying efforts to counteracting traditional bullying, combined with an important system-level strategy that is likely to reduce the already low prevalence of cyberbullying.