To examine the relationship between children's and adolescents' experiences with cyberbullying and traditional bullying and psychological health, physical health, and academic performance. Nine hundred thirty-one students in grades 6 through 12 completed an anonymous survey examining their experiences with cyberbullying and traditional bullying. Also included were measures of anxiety, depression, self-esteem, physical well-being, school attendance, and academic performance. Participants were categorized as belonging to one of four groups: cyber victims, cyberbullies, cyber bully/victims, and those not involved in cyberbullying. A similar categorization was done with traditional bullying. Those in the bully/victim groups (and particularly the cyber bully/victim group) had the most negative scores on most measures of psychological health, physical, health, and academic performance. There appears to be a substantial, although not perfect, overlap between involvement in traditional bullying and cyberbullying. Additionally, the physical, psychological, and academic correlates of the two types of bullying resembled one another.

Recent years have witnessed a surge of research on cyberbullying. In this article, three studies examined prevalence rates of cyberbullying among college-age students, venues through which cyberbullying occurs, with a particular focus on social media, and perceptions of cyberbullying as a function of features of the target (e.g., peer, celebrity, groups). Study 1 found texting and social media to be the most commonly used venues for cyberbullying victimization. Study 2 determined that features of the target of cyber aggressive comments influenced perceptions of cyberbullying. Online aggressive comments directed toward peers were perceived most negatively whereas those targeted toward random people known only online were evaluated least negatively. Using an innovative methodology for examining cyberbullying, Study 3 found that venue (e.g., Facebook, comments, forum posts) and features of the target influenced the nature of online exchanges. Implications for prevention and intervention are discussed.

Although traditional bullying and cyberbullying share features in common, they differ in important ways. For example, cyberbullying is often characterized by perceived anonymity and can occur any time of the day or night. Conversely, perpetrators of traditional bullying are known to the victim, and most traditional bullying occurs at school. Yet, some researchers have suggested that involvement in the two types of bullying may be related. However, little research has modeled the system of relationships among the perpetration and victimization of traditional bullying and cyberbullying. The present study uses path analysis to arrive at a suitable model of these relationships, and describes the gender differences in these relationships. Students (N = 4,531) in grades 6 through 12 completed a survey examining their involvement in traditional bullying and cyberbullying. Analysis proceeded by making fit comparisons among hypothesized path models. More frequent traditional bullying perpetration and victimization were associated with higher frequency of their electronic counterparts. However, the relationship between traditional perpetration and victimization was stronger for females than males as was the effect of traditional victimization on cyber-victimization. Implications for school practitioners are presented.

Two studies generated profiles of cyberbullying/cyberincivility and traditional bullying/incivility in adults, particularly within the workplace. In Study 1, 20% of 3,699 participants had the majority of cyberbullying victimization and 7.5% had the majority of traditional bullying victimization occur in adulthood, with 30% saying they were bullied at work. Relationships between bullying and negative outcomes were found. Because of the clear evidence of bullying and cyberbullying in the workplace in Study 1, Study 2 addressed the relationship of these constructs to workplace incivility. Workplace face-to-face incivility and bullying were related among 321 participants, as were workplace cyberbullying and cyberincivility. Face-to-face incivility was more common than online incivility, face-to-face bullying, or online bullying, yet all four behaviors were associated with negative outcomes. Differences in intentionality, acceptability, and severity were observed, with workplace face-to-face bullying perceived as the most severe and having the greatest intentionality to harm. These results emphasize the importance of studying bullying among adults, and highlight the conceptual independence of bullying and incivility. Correlates of workplace aggression are discussed using job demands-resources theory.

The current study examined the role of the components of the Protection Motivation Theory of Health (PMT) in predicting protective health behaviors related to the COVID-19 virus. Through a snowball sampling procedure, in Wave 1 424 respondents completed a survey in March 2020. One hundred thirteen of these participants completed the same survey in Wave 2 in May 2020. Consistent with research on SARS, females and older individuals engaged in the behaviors more often than men and younger individuals. After accounting for these variables in predicting frequency of protective health behaviors, components of the PMT accounted for an additional 12% of the variance in Wave 1 and 16% in Wave 2, with perceived severity and outcome efficaciousness correlating positively with frequency. Anticipatory regret mediated the relationship between PMT and protective health behavior frequency. The results suggest that public health announcements that are tailored toward the severity of the virus and the efficacy of the health behaviors in decreasing the spread of the virus may meet with more success than those that heighten people’s vulnerability to the disease.