Ann Frisén

The nature of cyberbullying, and strategies for prevention

Cyberbullying has been identified as an important problem amongst youth in the last decade. This paper reviews some recent findings and discusses general concepts within the area. The review covers definitional issues such as repetition and power imbalance, types of cyberbullying, age and gender differences, overlap with traditional bullying and sequence of events, differences between cyberbullying and traditional bullying, motives for and impact of cyber victimization, coping strategies, and prevention/intervention possibilities. These issues will be illustrated by reference to recent and current literature, and also by in-depth interviews with nine Swedish students aged 13-15years, who had some first-hand experience of one or more cyberbullying episodes. We conclude by discussing the evidence for different coping, intervention and prevention strategies.

Cyberbullying Definition Among Adolescents: A Comparison Across Six European Countries

Several criteria have been proposed for defining cyberbullying to young people, but no studies have proved their relevance. There are also variations across different countries in the meaning and the definition of this behavior. We systematically investigated the role of five definitional criteria for cyberbullying, in six European countries. These criteria (intentionality, imbalance of power, repetition, anonymity, and public vs. private) were combined through a set of 32 scenarios, covering a range of four types of behaviors (written-verbal, visual, exclusion, and impersonation). For each scenario, participants were asked whether it was cyberbullying or not. A randomized version of the questionnaire was shown to 295 Italian, 610 Spanish, 365 German, 320 Sweden, 336 Estonian, and 331 French adolescents aged 11-17 years. Results from multidimensional scaling across country and type of behavior suggested a clear first dimension characterized by imbalance of power and a clear second dimension characterized by intentionality and, at a lower level, by anonymity. In terms of differences across types of behaviors, descriptive frequencies showed a more ambiguous role for exclusion as a form of cyberbullying, but general support was given to the relevance of the two dimensions across all the types of behavior. In terms of country differences, French participants more often perceived the scenarios as cyberbullying as compared with those in other countries, but general support was found for the relevance of the two dimensions across countries.

13-Year-Olds' Perception of Bullying: Definitions, Reasons for Victimisation and Experience of Adults' Response.

This study formed the second wave of a longitudinal research project examining bullying from the students’ perspective. A sample of 877 Swedish 13‐year‐olds filled out a questionnaire regarding the definition of bullying, reasons for why some students are bullied and the experience of adults’ response to bullying. In their definitions, girls were more likely than boys to include the victims’ experience of bullying, whereas boys were more likely than girls to mention bullying as an imbalance of power and a set of repeated actions. Assigning responsibility for the bullying to the bully was more common among girls and bullied adolescents than among boys and non‐bullied adolescents. Furthermore, among bullied adolescents, 23% had not told anyone about the bullying and 35% had not received any help.

Processes of cyberbullying, and feelings of remorse by bullies: A pilot study

We investigated cyberbullying in Swedish pupils, distribution processes of the bullying material, the role of actively targeted bystanders, and whether bullies feel more or less remorse when cyberbullying compared to bullying others via traditional means. Seven hundred fifty-nine children and adolescents (aged 9–16 years) participated. Cyberbullies not only targeted their victims, but quite often showed bullying material to other people they knew (39% of cases) and uploaded it onto the internet for others to see (16%). The actively targeted bystanders of cyberbullying mostly did nothing further to distribute the material (72% of cases). However, when they did distribute it further, they tended to help the victim by showing him/her what had been done (13%) more often than showing it to the victim in order to bully him/her further (6%); some others (9%) forwarded the material to other friends. Cyberbullies expressed less remorse than traditional bullies. Findings are discussed in relation to the definition of bullying, and the need for preventive strategies and for empathy raising awareness for cyberbullies.

Body dissatisfaction across cultures: findings and research problems.

This review had two aims. The first aim was to describe the existing literature regarding body dissatisfaction across cultures. Previous studies were organized and presented according to three general patterns found in the existing literature, patterns that were to some extent based on the differing degrees of affluence and type of lifestyles in the cultures examined. The reviews second aim was to illuminate some of the specific problems that studies of body dissatisfaction across cultures deal with and to provide suggestions for improvement. The suggestions concern how future research may achieve a more inclusive and detailed picture of body dissatisfaction across cultures, for instance by using diversified measurements, providing detailed information about the cultural groups that are examined, investigating how different risk factors may influence the level of body dissatisfaction in different cultures and widening the research geographically.

Health‐related quality of life and bullying in adolescence

Objective:  To investigate if adolescents’ HRQL (Health‐Related Quality of Life) is associated with experiences of school bullying.

Emerging Adults in Sweden: Identity Formation in the Light of Love, Work, and Family

In this study, the identity formation of emerging adults in Sweden was investigated in order to discover how identity issues concerning love, work and family are handled. The study group comprised 136 24- to 26-year-olds. The results revealed differences between men and women with regard to their position in the identity formation process. While women were more likely to have made identity-defining decisions after a process of active exploration (identity achievement), men were less likely to explore identity issues and lacked identity-defining commitments (identity diffusion). The position in the identity formation process was related to romantic relationships and occupational contexts. The results are discussed in relation to the sociocultural context of emerging adults in Sweden.

What actually makes bullying stop? Reports from former victims

School bullying is a serious, worldwide problem which is not easily counteracted. The present study focuses on the perspective of former victims, asking them what it was that made the bullying stop in their case. Participants were 273 18-year-old former victims in Sweden, a country in which schools are doing extensive work against bullying and the bullying prevalence is relatively low. Results showed that although support from school personnel was the most common reason that the former victims gave to why the bullying had ended, it was only mentioned by a fourth of them. In fact, it was almost equally as common that the bullying had ended in that the victims transitioned to a new school level or changed their way of coping with the bullying. Very few of the adolescents reported that the bullying had stopped due to support from peers.

Peer victimisation and its relationships with perceptions of body composition

The present study examined the links between childrens exposure to peer victimisation, in terms of type and frequency, their body composition and subjective perceptions of body composition. A total of 960 Swedish 10‐year‐olds (515 girls and 445 boys) completed questionnaires about their peer victimisation experiences, weight and height, and perceptions of shape and stature. Results showed that whereas overweight girls reported exposure to both appearance‐teasing and bullying, overweight boys mainly reported repeated experiences of appearance‐teasing. When examining the relative importance of body composition (weight and height) and perceptions of body composition on peer victimisation experiences, childrens negative body perceptions were more strongly associated with the outcome than were body composition. This study hence stresses that children who are victimised also seem to battle unfavourable attitudes towards their physical selves, which may cause increasing concern as the child enters adolescence.

Identity Development in the Late Twenties: A Never Ending Story.

The aim of this study was to investigate identity development in the late 20s in order to learn more about the continued identity development after identity commitments have been made. The starting point for the study was the contradiction between ideas of identity development as a lifelong process and identity status research showing that stability in identity development is common, particularly so once identity-defining commitments have been made. Identity status interviews were performed with 124 Swedish individuals (63 women) at ages 25 and 29. The 4 identity statuses were equally common at both ages, and stability in identity status between measurements was a typical pattern for individuals assigned to all identity statuses, except moratorium. Longitudinal analysis of interviews from participants assigned to identity achievement, or foreclosure at both occasions, resulted in a model of continued identity development after commitments have been made. The model showed that relevant processes in this identity development are: the ways in which individuals approach changing life conditions, to what extent they continue to engage in meaning making, and how they continue to develop their personal life direction. Identity achievement was connected to continued identity development, whereas developmental patterns connected to foreclosure were more diverse. In conclusion, the study showed that, regardless of identity status change or stability, identity development continues in the late 20s, also beyond identity achievement. Moreover, continued identity development is needed for an established sense of identity to stay adaptive and flexible.