New Directions in Understanding Cyberbullying
This chapter focuses cyberbullying, or bullying messages that are transmitted via electronic technologies. This chapter synthesizes research focusing on predictors and outcomes associated with cyberbullying into an overall conceptual message-based model that highlights both the role of messages as products of various influences, and the messages themselves as influences upon numerous affective, behavioral, and cognitive outcomes. The chapter provides (1) an initial review of how cyberbullying and related behaviors are termed and defined; (2) an overview of message factors that predict cyberbullying messages and tactics, and (3) a discussion of the outcomes of cyberbullying. The chapter concludes by offering potential solutions and recommendations to problems associated with cyberbullying.