Search

This study examined cyberbullying among adolescents across United States and Singapore samples. Specifically, the purpose of the investigation was to study the differential associations between proactive and reactive aggression, and cyberbullying across two cultures. A total of 425 adolescents from the United States ( M age = 13 years) and a total of 332 adolescents from Singapore ( M age = 14.2 years) participated in the study. Results of the moderator analyses suggested that nationality was not a moderator of the relationship between proactive aggression and cyberbullying, and between reactive aggression and cyberbullying. As expected, findings showed proactive aggression to be positively associated with cyberbullying, after controlling for reactive aggression, across both samples. Likewise, as hypothesized, reactive aggression and cyberbullying was not found to be significant after controlling for proactive aggression across both samples. Implications of these findings were discussed: (a) Proactive aggression is a possible risk factor for both bullying and cyberbullying; (b) proactive and reactive aggression could be argued to be distinct as they have different correlates—only proactive aggression contributed to cyberbullying after controlling for reactive aggression; (c) this research extends previous work and contributes toward cross-cultural work using similar and comparable measures across different samples; and (d) prevention and intervention programs targeted at proactive aggressive adolescents could adopt a two-pronged approach by changing mind sets, and by understanding and adopting a set of rules for Internet etiquette.

This study examined how proactive and reactive aggression related to traditional bullying and cyberbullying. Participants were 851 students in Grades 6 through 8 who completed a survey that assessed bullying behaviors, proactive aggression, and reactive aggression. Most of these students were Caucasian and from a rural background. For both traditional bullying and cyberbullying groups, uninvolved students were found to have significantly lower proactive and reactive aggression than bullies and bully-victims. Further, it was found that for traditional and cyberbullying groups, bully-victims had significantly higher proactive and reactive aggression than bullies. Implications and future directions are discussed.

This study examined the effects of normative beliefs about aggression and peer attachment on traditional bullying, cyberbullying, and both types of victimization. Cyberbullying departs from traditional forms of bullying in that it is through forms of technology, such as the Internet, which increases situational anonymity. Eight hundred fifty students in Grades 6 through 8 completed a survey that assessed normative beliefs about aggression, peer attachment, and traditional bullying and cyberbullying behaviors, which suggested that students who are involved with traditional bullying are also involved in cyberbullying. Adolescents with higher normative beliefs about aggression are more likely to be traditional bullies, traditional victims, cyberbullies, and cybervictims. Additionally, peer attachment was found to be negatively associated with both types of bullying and victimization. Implications and future directions are discussed. Language: en