Here is the research we’ve found on cyberbullying in Austria, with the most recent first. Please email us if you have any articles to add with the details ordered in the same format as the others.
Authors: Mahlknecht, B. and Bork-Hüffer, T.
Year: 2022
Title: ‘She felt incredibly ashamed’: gendered (cyber-)bullying and the hypersexualized female body
Journal: Gender, Place, and Culture
URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0966369X.2022.2115981
Abstract: Cyberbullying has become an ever-pressing topic for young people in a time of ubiquitous media. Some of the existing, mostly quantitative studies reveal that (cyber-)bullying is gendered and that female and genderqueer young people are bullied more often and differently than males. However, there is a lack of qualitative studies that look into the specific reproduction and dynamics of gendered discourses in bullying that stretches across entangled socio-material-technological spaces. Informed by insights from digital geographies, gender(-queer) geographies, and interdisciplinary research on (cyber-)bullying, and taking a feminist perspective, this article investigates gendered discourses in young adults’ narratives about (cyber-)bullying. The analysis is based upon 42 written narratives produced by young adults attending upper secondary schools in Austria describing (cyber-)bullying they were involved in as (co-)perpetrators, targets or bystanders. (Cyber-)bullying reported ranges from early undesired reception of sexual content to hypersexualized harassment (by peers) to sexual grooming (by unknown adults). Rather than focusing on the narrators’ active or passive roles in the bullying practices themselves, through narrative analysis we reveal how, in their accounts of (cyber-)bullying attacks, our participants—often unintentionally—reproduce gender roles and ideals of femininity and masculinity, and therewith deeply ingrained heteronormative discourses that prevail in Austrian society. For female young people, the persistent and complex ‘sexual double standard’ is particularly harmful in serving to legitimize undesired hypersexualization of their bodies online while simultaneously prohibiting their right to self-determined sexual practices online.
Authors: Dagmar, S. and Petra, G.
Year: 2022
Title: Cyberbullying and cyber victimization as online risks for children and adolescents.
Journal: European Psychologist
URL: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-52267-005
Abstract: Cyberbullying is one example of a psychosocial developmental phenomenon caused by mediatization, a meta-process that increasingly shapes everyday practices and social relationships via mediating technologies and media organizations. Research on cyberbullying started less than two decades ago and has grown exponentially during the last few years. Despite the large body of evidence, the research field still is in its “forming” phase, and there are still major topics of debate. The main goal of this paper is to discuss some of the major challenges, identify major research gaps, and give some directions for future research. Summarizing the main findings from meta-analyses and systematic reviews, topics like definition and measurement, theoretical perspectives, risk and protective factors, developmental patterns, as well as prevention and intervention of cyberbullying and cyber victimization are discussed, and promising avenues for future research are outlined.
Authors: Bork-Hüffer, T., Mahlknecht, B., and Kaufmann, K.
Year: 2021
Title: (Cyber)Bullying in schools – when bullying stretches across cON/FFlating spaces
Journal: Children’s Geographies
URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14733285.2020.1784850
Abstract: This article posits that analyses of (cyber)bullying among digitally connected young people need to explore the interdependences, intersections and cON/FFlation of bullying in ONline and OFFline spaces. It combines digital geographers’ works on relationalities between digital and offline spaces with studies on children’s and young people’s geographies and digitization as well as with interdisciplinary work on cyberbullying and traditional bullying in the school context. Drawing on narratives written by young people in Austria, the article lets participants speak through their own voices. There is an urgent need for disparate research examining either or both traditional and cyberbullying, to take note not only of each of their inimitable spatialities, but also their intersections. Through taking a perspective of cON/FFlating spaces we seek to produce a better understanding of the cON/FFlating nature and spaces of bullying in the digital era and to deepen the conceptualization of these interlinked and entangled socio-material-technological spaces.
Authors: Strohmeier, D., Gradinger, P., and Yangida, T.
Year: 2021
Title: The Role of Intrapersonal-, Interpersonal-, Family-, and School-Level Variables in Predicting Bias-Based Cybervictimization
Journal: The Journal of Early Adolescence
URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02724316211010335
Abstract: This study investigated whether social position (e.g., gender, migration, family status), intrapersonal-level (e.g., online risk behaviors, motives of Internet use), interpersonal-level (e.g., victimization and bullying), family-level (e.g., parental mediation), and class-level (e.g., teachers’ mediation, ethnic diversity) variables predict bias-based cybervictimization. Self-report questionnaires were completed by 1,018 Austrian adolescents (52.3% girls), aged 12 to 17 years (𝑋 = 13.55, SD = 0.88). The logistic part of a multilevel zero-inflated Poisson model showed that higher levels of offline victimization and a higher proportion of immigrants in classes were predictors for students reporting at least one form of bias-based cybervictimization. The Poisson part of the model showed that being a girl, higher levels of cybervictimization, lower levels of avoiding online risks, and more discussions about media use with teachers in classes were predictors for students reporting a higher number of bias-based cybervictimization. Implications for prevention are discussed.
Authors: Dantchev, S. and Zemp, M.
Year: 2021
Title: Sibling, Peer, and Cyber Bullying Among Children and Adolescents: Co-occurrence and Implications for Their Adjustment
Journal: Frontiers in Psychology
URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8728088/
Abstract: Bullying across the sibling, peer, and cyber context has consistently been associated with a range of long-term health and well-being consequences for children and adolescents. Although research examining different bullying forms simultaneously in the same study are emerging, it remains unclear to what extend sibling, peer, and cyber bullying co-occur and in what ways they are associated. Moreover, previous work has demonstrated that children and adolescents who experience multiple forms of victimization are at a particular risk of adverse outcomes. However, whether different constellations of co-occurring bullying forms have differential impacts has not yet been investigated sufficiently. The aim of the present study was to examine the frequencies of isolated and co-occurring sibling, peer, and cyber bullying as well as to explore their independent and cumulative relationships with child adjustment. This study was based on a sample of 329 children and adolescents aged between 9 and 15. Bullying experiences across the sibling, peer, and cyber context in the previous 6 months were assessed via self-report. Youth further reported on emotional problems, conduct problems, sleep problems, and academic achievement via an online questionnaire. Sibling, peer, and cyber bullying were uniquely associated with child outcomes. A cumulative relationship between bullying victimization across contexts and emotional problems, conduct problems, and sleep problems could be identified, while bullying perpetration across contexts was only linked to more conduct problems in a cumulative manner. The findings have important practical implications arguing for the adoption of a holistic approach toward bullying in prevention and intervention.
[Study was based in Austria even though the abstract does not explicitly say]
Author(s): Gradinger, Petra; Strohmeier, Dagmar; Spiel, Christiane
Year: 2017
Title: Parents’ and teachers’ opinions on bullying and cyberbullying prevention: The relevance of their own children or students’ involvement.
Journal: Journal of Psychology
URL: https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000278
Abstract: The goals of the present study were (1) to examine parents’ and teachers’ opinions on bullying and cyberbullying prevention, and (2) to investigate whether the involvement of their children or students in bullying affects their opinions. Altogether, 959 adults (466 parents, 493 teachers) reported on their opinions. More than 95% of parents and teachers regarded bullying as an important topic. Cyberbullying was seen as the least serious form and physical bullying as the most serious one. Ninety-five percent of parents and 90% of teachers stated that they would accept a bullying prevention program; 61% of parents and 75% of teachers were willing to actively participate in bullying prevention; 34% of parents and 66% of teachers reported that their own children or students were victims of bullying. This involvement moderated the teachers’ opinions. Teachers of students affected by bullying rated verbal and cyberbullying as more serious, accepted prevention programs more readily and were more willing to actively participate in a program compared to teachers whose students were not involved.
Year: 2016
Title: Effectiveness and sustainability of the ViSC Social Competence Program to prevent cyberbullying and cyber victimization: Class and individual level moderators
Journal: Aggressive Behavior Special Issue: School‐Based Interventions Against Cyberbullying in Adolescence
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21631
Abstract: We investigated whether the general anti bullying program ViSC sustainably prevents cyberbullying and cyber victimization. A longitudinal randomized control group design was used to examine (i) program effectiveness immediately after a 1 year implementation phase and (ii) sustainable program effects 6 months later taking several moderators on the class level (class climate and ethnic diversity) and on the individual level (gender, age, internet usage, traditional bullying/victimization) into account. Effectiveness (e.g., the change between waves 2 and 1) was examined in 2,042 students (47.6% girls), aged 11.7 years (SD = 0.88) enrolled in 18 schools and 103 classes. Sustainability (e.g., the change between waves 3 and 2) was examined in a sub sample of 6 schools and 35 classes comprising 659 students. The self assessment multiple item scales showed longitudinal and multiple group invariance. Factor scores were extracted to compute difference scores for effectiveness (Posttest minus Pretest) and sustainability (Follow up test minus Posttest) for cyberbullying and cyber victimization. Multilevel Modeling was applied to examine (i) the effectiveness and (ii) the sustainability of the ViSC intervention controlling for several individual and class level variables. Controlling for covariates, it was demonstrated that the ViSC program is effective in preventing cyberbullying and cyber victimization and that the effects are sustainable after 6 months. The consequences for cyberbullying prevention are discussed.
Author(s): Gradinger, P., Yanagida, T., Strohmeier, D., & Spiel, C.
Year: 2015
Title: Prevention of cyberbullying and cyber victimization: Evaluation of the ViSC Social Competence Program.
Journal: Journal of School Violence
URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15388220.2014.963231
Abstract: It is well-documented that cyberbullying and victimization co-occur with traditional forms indicating that they share similar mechanisms. Therefore, it was hypothesized that the general antibullying program ViSC might also be effective in tackling these new forms of bullying. A longitudinal randomized control group design has been applied to examine the program effectiveness in 18 schools. In total, 2,042 students in Grades 5 to 7 (47.3% girls) aged 11.7 (SD = 0.9) attending 105 classes participated in the study. Utilizing a multiple group bivariate latent change score model controlling for traditional aggression, traditional victimization, and age, results demonstrate program effectiveness for cyberbullying (latent d = 0.39) and cyber victimization (latent d = 0.29) indicating that these behaviors reflect a systemic (school) problem.
Author(s): Gradinger, P., Strohmeier, D., & Spiel, C.
Year: 2009
Title: Traditional bullying and cyberbullying: Identification of risk groups for adjustment problems.
Journal: Zeitschrift für Psychologie/Journal of Psychology
URL: http://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/abs/10.1027/0044-3409.217.4.205
Abstract: We investigated the co-occurrence of traditional bullying, cyberbullying, traditional victimization, and cybervictimization, and analyzed whether students belonging to particular groups of bullies (e.g., traditional, cyber, or both), victims (e.g., traditional, cyber, or both), and bully-victims differed regarding adjustment. Seven hundred sixty-one adolescents (49% boys) aged 14–19 years (M = 15.6 years) were surveyed. More students than expected by chance were totally uninvolved, more students were traditional bully-victims, and more students were combined bully-victims (traditional and cyber). The highest risks for poor adjustment (high scores in reactive and instrumental aggression, depressive, and somatic symptoms) were observed in students who were identified as combined bully-victims (traditional and cyber). In addition gender differences were examined.
