Intersectionality and cyberbullying: A study of cybervictimization in a Midwestern high school

Abstract

Cyberbullying has been the focus of much empirical research in the past decade. Several scholars have examined the effects of gender on cyberbullying with mixed results. Little research, however, has considered the effects of race and sexuality, and analyzing these demographic characteristics individually (i.e., non-interactively) provides a limited view of the influences of race, gender, and sexuality on cybervictimization. Accordingly, we employ an intersectional approach that captures more fully the nuances between cyberbullying and social location. For example, given the centrality of race in American society, it is surprising that the research on cyberbullying among adolescents finds little evidence of a “race effect.” We hypothesize that racial identity moderates the degree to which cybervictimization rates vary by gender and sexuality. Evidence from an original survey of students in a Midwestern high school (N=752) lends qualified support to our conditional hypotheses: the relationship between gender and victimization is stronger for white students than it is for students of color, but there are no racial differences in the impact of a student’s sexuality and their experiences with cyberbullying.