Cyberbullying definitions and measurements in children and adolescents: Summarizing 20 years of global efforts
Despite numerous instruments existing to assist in the measurement of specific cyberbullying behaviors or cyberbullying in general, it is still unclear their purpose, corresponding scenarios, and their effectiveness. This study, therefore, aims to provide a comprehensive review of academic efforts o...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Public Health |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1000504/full |
| _version_ | 1811234487461216256 |
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| author | Wei Zhang Shiqing Huang Lawrence Lam Lawrence Lam Lawrence Lam Richard Evans Chengyan Zhu |
| author_facet | Wei Zhang Shiqing Huang Lawrence Lam Lawrence Lam Lawrence Lam Richard Evans Chengyan Zhu |
| author_sort | Wei Zhang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Despite numerous instruments existing to assist in the measurement of specific cyberbullying behaviors or cyberbullying in general, it is still unclear their purpose, corresponding scenarios, and their effectiveness. This study, therefore, aims to provide a comprehensive review of academic efforts on cyberbullying definitions, measurements, and their effectiveness in children and adolescents in the past two decades. A systematic review was performed using ASReview, an open source machine learning systematic review system. Three bibliographic citation databases, including Web of Science core collection, PubMed, and EBSCO were adopted for all relevant literature published from January 2001 to August 2021. In total, twenty-five studies, mentioning seventeen cyberbullying measurement scales, met the study collection criteria. The results found that most failed to provide a clear definition of cyberbullying, often providing unclear and inconsistent descriptions for the youth. Similarly, studies found it difficult to clearly reflect the three key elements of bullying, namely: harmfulness, repetitiveness, and the power imbalance between bullies and victims. With regard to cyberbullying types, most presented two or three categories, including victimization, perpetration, and bystanding, while some suggested four types based on the nature of the cyberbullying behavior, including written or verbal, visual or sexual, character impersonation, and exclusion. If characteristics are considered, cyberbullying becomes more specific with multiple categories being proposed, including flaming (or roasting), harassment, denigration, defamation, outing, jokes, online sexual harassment, and cyberstalking. With regard to measurements, many scales have been proposed and frequently refined to capture specific cyberbullying experience of the youth. This study emphasizes the value and importance of providing clear cyberbullying definitions and helps scholars in youth cyberbullying choose appropriate measurement scales. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T11:37:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0fdccf2e2ab14facb61a00e96180f0a6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-2565 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T11:37:08Z |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-0fdccf2e2ab14facb61a00e96180f0a62022-12-22T03:34:48ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Public Health2296-25652022-10-011010.3389/fpubh.2022.10005041000504Cyberbullying definitions and measurements in children and adolescents: Summarizing 20 years of global effortsWei Zhang0Shiqing Huang1Lawrence Lam2Lawrence Lam3Lawrence Lam4Richard Evans5Chengyan Zhu6School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, ChinaSchool of Information Resource Management, Renmin University of China, Beijing, ChinaFaculty of Medicine, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, ChinaFaculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaFaculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaFaculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, CanadaSchool of Political Science and Public Administration, Wuhan University, Wuhan, ChinaDespite numerous instruments existing to assist in the measurement of specific cyberbullying behaviors or cyberbullying in general, it is still unclear their purpose, corresponding scenarios, and their effectiveness. This study, therefore, aims to provide a comprehensive review of academic efforts on cyberbullying definitions, measurements, and their effectiveness in children and adolescents in the past two decades. A systematic review was performed using ASReview, an open source machine learning systematic review system. Three bibliographic citation databases, including Web of Science core collection, PubMed, and EBSCO were adopted for all relevant literature published from January 2001 to August 2021. In total, twenty-five studies, mentioning seventeen cyberbullying measurement scales, met the study collection criteria. The results found that most failed to provide a clear definition of cyberbullying, often providing unclear and inconsistent descriptions for the youth. Similarly, studies found it difficult to clearly reflect the three key elements of bullying, namely: harmfulness, repetitiveness, and the power imbalance between bullies and victims. With regard to cyberbullying types, most presented two or three categories, including victimization, perpetration, and bystanding, while some suggested four types based on the nature of the cyberbullying behavior, including written or verbal, visual or sexual, character impersonation, and exclusion. If characteristics are considered, cyberbullying becomes more specific with multiple categories being proposed, including flaming (or roasting), harassment, denigration, defamation, outing, jokes, online sexual harassment, and cyberstalking. With regard to measurements, many scales have been proposed and frequently refined to capture specific cyberbullying experience of the youth. This study emphasizes the value and importance of providing clear cyberbullying definitions and helps scholars in youth cyberbullying choose appropriate measurement scales.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1000504/fullcyberbullying definitioncyberbullying measurementsystematic reviewchildren and adolescentsASReview |
| spellingShingle | Wei Zhang Shiqing Huang Lawrence Lam Lawrence Lam Lawrence Lam Richard Evans Chengyan Zhu Cyberbullying definitions and measurements in children and adolescents: Summarizing 20 years of global efforts Frontiers in Public Health cyberbullying definition cyberbullying measurement systematic review children and adolescents ASReview |
| title | Cyberbullying definitions and measurements in children and adolescents: Summarizing 20 years of global efforts |
| title_full | Cyberbullying definitions and measurements in children and adolescents: Summarizing 20 years of global efforts |
| title_fullStr | Cyberbullying definitions and measurements in children and adolescents: Summarizing 20 years of global efforts |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cyberbullying definitions and measurements in children and adolescents: Summarizing 20 years of global efforts |
| title_short | Cyberbullying definitions and measurements in children and adolescents: Summarizing 20 years of global efforts |
| title_sort | cyberbullying definitions and measurements in children and adolescents summarizing 20 years of global efforts |
| topic | cyberbullying definition cyberbullying measurement systematic review children and adolescents ASReview |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1000504/full |
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