The emotional responses of victims of cyberbullying: Worry and indifference

Abstract

Background: Research has shown that the specific emotional consequences of bullying for victims are different depending on the type of bullying that they experience and certain personal characteristics of the victims. Some victims are negatively affected, whereas others report indifference. The specific factors involved in these responses are not yet clear. Aims: The study analysed the emotional consequences of cyberbullying for victims. It examined the relationship between background variables (age and gender), victimisation variables (duration of aggression and victim role, victim vs. bully/victim), individual variables (peer self-esteem, perceived support of parents and friends, and coping strategies used) and the different profiles of emotional consequences. Sample: Participants were 1671 students (48.7% girls) aged 12 to 17 years from the 1st and 3rd year of Compulsory Secondary School and the 1st year of High School from schools in Cordoba (Spain). From this sample, 70 were identified as cyber mobile phone victims and 124 as cyber internet victims. Method: A self-report instrument, the DAPHNE Questionnaire (Genta et al., 2012), was used. The questionnaire pack included some pre-existing questionnaires and some new items on the key variables of interest, plus demographic information. Results: Variables that helped to predict the emotional consequences of cyberbullying for victims included: gender, peer self-esteem, parental support and loneliness with friends for cyberbullying via mobile phone and only peer self-esteem for cyberbullying via the internet. In addition, some coping strategies were different according to the emotional profile of the victim for both kinds of cyberbullying. Conclusions: Results suggest that the emotional impact of cyberbullying on the victim depends on some individual variables but also on the type of cyberbullying. The interpretation that a person makes about the cyberbullying that they experience may be important in determining the emotional consequences suffered. Further research is required to disentangle factors that could help pupils avoid the potentially negative emotional consequences of cyberbullying.