Research we’ve published on various online harms, as well as strategies and solutions to promote healthy online behaviors.

Cyberbullying Among Asian American Youth Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic post thumbnail

Cyberbullying Among Asian American Youth Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

PURPOSE Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a concern that cyberbullying incidents would increase as youth were spending more time online. Additionally, reports emerged that Asian American citizens were being disproportionately targeted due to the purported origination of the disease. The current study explores whether cyberbullying incidents increased among adolescents overall—and Asian American youth […]

Digital Self-Harm and Suicidality Among Adolescents post thumbnail

Digital Self-Harm and Suicidality Among Adolescents

Background Research on digital self-harm – the anonymous online posting, sending, or otherwise sharing of hurtful content about oneself – is still in its infancy. Yet unexplored is whether digital self-harm is related to suicidal ideation or suicide attempts. Methods In the current study, survey data were collected in 2019 from a national sample of […]

Bias-Based Cyberbullying Among Early Adolescents: The Role of Cognitive and Affective Empathy post thumbnail

Bias-Based Cyberbullying Among Early Adolescents: The Role of Cognitive and Affective Empathy

Bias-based cyberbullying involves repeated hurtful actions online that devalue or harass one’s peers specific to an identity-based characteristic. Cyberbullying in general has received increased scholarly scrutiny over the last decade, but the subtype of bias-based cyberbullying has been much less frequently investigated, with no known previous studies involving youth across the United States. The current […]

Bullying and Cyberbullying Offending Among US Youth: The Influence of Six Parenting Dimensions post thumbnail

Bullying and Cyberbullying Offending Among US Youth: The Influence of Six Parenting Dimensions

Bullying and cyberbullying prevention remain a major priority for schools, communities, and families, and research is clear that positive, constructive parenting practices can play a key preventive role. The current work explores six dimensions of parenting (warmth, structure, autonomy support, rejection, chaos, and coercion), and their specific relationship to school and online bullying. Using survey […]

Bullying and Delinquency: The Impact of Anger and Frustration post thumbnail

Bullying and Delinquency: The Impact of Anger and Frustration

Few studies have explored whether individuals who are bullied at school or online are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior. Even less is known about whether negative emotions (i.e., anger or frustration)—as a result of being victimized—mediate the relationships between being bullied or cyberbullied and delinquency (as predicted by Agnew’s general strain theory). The […]

Law Enforcement Perceptions of Cyberbullying: Evolving Perspectives post thumbnail

Law Enforcement Perceptions of Cyberbullying: Evolving Perspectives

Cyberbullying – using technology to intentionally and repeatedly engage in bullying behaviors – has gained considerable public attention over the last decade. Parents and educators regularly instruct students about appropriate online behaviors and threaten consequences for misbehaviors. The role and responsibility of law enforcement officers in preventing and responding to cyberbullying incidents remains uncertain. While […]

It is Time to Teach Safe Sexting post thumbnail

It is Time to Teach Safe Sexting

Research shows that roughly 10-25% of American teens have participated in “sexting,” the sharing of sexually-explicit or sexually-suggestive images. When minors share nude images of themselves with others in the United States, they are distributing child pornography. If these images are received from others and stored on personal devices, individuals are in possession of child […]

Digital Dating Abuse Among a National Sample of U.S. Youth post thumbnail

Digital Dating Abuse Among a National Sample of U.S. Youth

Digital dating abuse is a term used to describe physical, sexual, or psychological/emotional violence that occurs between romantic partners through the use of texting, social media, and related online mediums. Survey data were obtained from a nationally representative sample of 2,218 American middle and high school students (12–17 years old) who have been in a […]