Cyber Risk and Resilience: Investigating the demographic and psychographic antecedents of adolescent cyberbully-victim behaviour

Cyberbullying is a critical societal issue, yet current strategies fall short of effectively combating it. This study takes a psychological approach to cyberbullying mitigation by identifying factors that could predispose an individual to be a cyberbully, cybervictim, or cyberbully-victim. From a survey of 1,004 adolescents (aged 14-15 years) and their caregivers, 736 respondents’ results were analysed to glean the prevalence of each cyberbullying role—based on adolescents’ perceptions of their cyberbullying history—and locate the strongest psychosocial predictive factors for each role—based on parents’ perceptions of their child’s behaviour. Using multinomial logistic regression, four roles (Bully, Victim, Bully-Victim and Neither) were examined in relation to gender, socioeconomic status, and two composite scores from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): externalising problems and internalising problems. As predicted, Bullies were more likely to have high externalising problems ratings; Victims were more likely to have high internalising problems ratings; and Bully-Victims were more likely to have high ratings for both. This study only found Bullies were more likely to be male, whereas other roles were more likely to be female. Socioeconomic status significantly predicted one’s likelihood of becoming a Bully-Victim, suggesting Bully-Victims are the most psychologically, socially at-risk group, despite the lack of attention they receive in bullying and cyberbullying interventions.