Cyberbullying as an Outcome of Strain

• In Event: Assessing Cybercrime Offending, Victimization, and the Law Enforcement Response

Abstract

In recent decades, cyberbullying has emerged as a salient area of research in the field of criminology. As knowledge of this social problem builds, researchers have begun to use criminological theories to explore causal factors leading to cyberbullying. One such theory that has received support is general strain theory. Often, studies of general strain theory examine cyberbullying as a source of strain which predicts offline deviance and delinquency. The present study will examine cyberbullying as an outcome of multiple sources of strain through a social-ecological perspective. Using data from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children 2009-2010 survey, logistic regression analyses will examine whether various strains (including family-, peer-, and school-related strain) in the microsystem (components and institutions that directly impact a child’s development, such as family or school) and mesosystem (interactions between those components, such as how parents and teachers interact) predict cyberbullying perpetration in a sample of American seventh, eighth, and ninth graders.

Author

• Rebecca Malinski, Michigan State University