Cyberbullying among Adolescents: A General Strain Theory Perspective

Cyber bullying has become more pervasive as a result of advances in communication technology such as email, text messaging, chat rooms, and social media sites. Despite the growth in research on correlates associated with engagement in cyber bullying, few studies test the applicability of criminological theories to explain engagement in cyber bullying. This study applies data from the 2009/2010 Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study to examine whether individual and social factors associated with general strain theory explain why children engage in cyber bullying. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify significant factors associated with engagement in cyber bullying. The multivariate logistic regression results show that students who experienced strain engage in cyber bullying. The regression analysis also shows a positive relationship between participation in traditional bullying and engagement in cyber bullying.