Introducing the social-ecological model of cyberbullying and uncovering post-secondary students’ perceptions of cyberbullying through interviews with young adults
Abstract
Cyberbullying is a problematic social-digital phenomenon impacting individuals at varying stages of the life course, bringing with it negative and potentially damaging consequences (e.g., increased depression and anxiety, suicide ideation). Despite this, the literature has been plagued by gaps, which have made a complete understanding of cyberbullying out of reach. For instance, cyberbullying scholars have overlooked the digital context (e.g., what aspects and features of digital media help facilitate cyberbullying; the overlap of the digital context with the individual and societal contexts). Also, limited research has investigated cyberbullying occurring among young adults, particularly from their own points of view (e.g., young adults’ perceptions and evaluations of cyberbullying; cyberbullying prevention and response strategies). Thus, this dissertation seeks to remedy these oversights, thereby making three central contributions. First, I present the social-ecological model of cyberbullying, which is based on Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (EST) and Swearer’s and Espelage’s social-ecological model of bullying. This new model fully integrates the digital context, highlighting how the digital heavily intertwines with the individual, social, and communal contexts, so much so that the boundaries are blurry. By building the social-ecological model of cyberbullying, cyberbullying scholars are provided with a theoretical model that they can test, finetune, and expand to evaluate cyberbullying more effectively and holistically. Second, drawing from data collected via 21 semi-structured interviews with second-, third-, and fourth-year undergraduate students, I uncover post-secondary students’ perceptions and evaluations of cyberbullying. Alternative to the academic criteria posited in the literature (e.g., repetition; intentional/willful; experienced harm; an imbalance of power), this work reveals a set of key dimensions young adults use to classify cyberbullying behaviours and their corresponding level of severity. These include who was involved, the scope of harm, the context in which the behaviour occurred, and the platform on which the behaviour occurred. Third, again drawing from young adults’ perspectives of cyberbullying, I identify key barriers young adults perceive as impacting the development and implementation of cyberbullying prevention and response initiatives on their institution’s campus. To remedy these barriers, young adults offered several solutions for how cyberbullying could be taken more seriously and be better handled by post-secondary institutions (e.g., increased cyberbullying-specific awareness and education).