A Comparison of Traditional Victims, Cyber Victims, Traditional-Cyber Victims, and Uninvolved Adolescents: A Social-Ecological Framework

Abstract

Very few studies explicitly investigate the prevalence, similarities, and differences among adolescents who experience one or both types of bullying victimization. The exploratory study aims to illustrate patterns of concurrence of traditional bullying and cyberbullying victimization and identify similarities and differences of traditional victims, cyber victims, and traditional-cyber victims within the social-ecological theoretical framework. Multinomial logistic regressions were constructed employing the data from the 2013 National Crime Victimization Survey School Crime Supplement with a nationally representative sample of adolescents aged 12 to 18 who were selected through a stratified multistage cluster sample of households across the United States. Traditional victims were the most prevalent type of victims followed by traditional-cyber victims and finally cyber victims. The relationships between social-ecological contexts and bullying victimization were relied on whether bullying victimization was offline, online, or both. There were shared and unique predictors observed that distinguished between traditional victims, cyber victims, and traditional-cyber victims. Findings suggest the social-ecological theory may not work similarly for explaining different forms of bullying victimization. It may be beneficial to the development of intervention programs that consider both universal and unique strategies targeted specifically for youth who are victimized by traditional bullying, cyberbullying, or both.