Cyberbullying as an Act of Revenge?

By Andreas König, Mario Gollwitzer, Georges Steffgen. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 2010

198 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Despite significant overlaps between victim status in traditional forms of bullying and cyberbullying, and qualitative results about self-reported reasons for cyberbullying, the role of revenge and retaliation as a motive to engage in acts of cyberbullying has not yet been examined systematically. As a first step, this study investigates whether and to what extent traditional victims, when they become cyberbullies, actually choose their former (traditional) perpetrators as targets of their own cyberbullying behavior. Furthermore, the impact of individual differences in relevant traits, such as vengefulness and justice sensitivity, on the choice of cybervictims is examined. Data from 473 students were collected via an online survey. Of these, 149 were identified as traditional victims/cyberbullies. Results show that traditionally bullied students indeed tend to choose their former perpetrators as cybervictims, and that individual differences play a role in the choice of their victims. Implications for further research, as well as for interventions and prevention programmes, are discussed.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Health, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/338a84c7d76dce69862b812dcfe31e435bbd48e2

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Citations in the corpus

Cyberbullying among youth: A comprehensive review of current international research and its implications and application to policy and practice (2013, background): “Given the considerable overlap between cyber and traditional bullying victimization and perpetration (Agatston et al., 2012; König et al., 2010; Kowalski et al., 2012a, 2012b; Monks et al., 2012; Patchin & Hinduja, 2012a; Raskauskas & Stoltz, 2007; Smith, 2012b; Smith & Slonje, 2010; Tokunaga, 2010;”
Do cyberbullies suffer too? Cyberbullies’ perceptions of the harm they cause to others and to their own mental health (2013, background): “König, Gollwitzer, and Steffgen (2010) found that, compared to non-cyberbullies, cyberbullies show less empathy for others being victimized.”
Cyberbullying and victimisation among Turkish university students (2011, result): “Findings of the study by König et al. (2010) were also in accord, as victimised students tend to be cyberbullies after the unpleasant instance.”
Using the theory of planned behaviour to understand cyberbullying: The importance of beliefs for developing interventions (2014, result): “These results are in line with cyberbullying research indicating the role of negative emotions in (pro- and re-active) cyberbullying (Law et al., 2012), especially amongst adolescents with poor(er) emotion regulation and coping skills (e.g., König et al., 2010).”