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

Traditional and Nontraditional Bullying among Youth: A Test of General Strain Theory
Bullying at school is a common problem facing youth, school officials, and parents. A significant body of research has detailed the serious consequences associated with bullying victimization. Recently, however, a new permutation of bullying has arisen and arguably become even more problematic. Cyberbullying, as it has been termed, occurs when youth use technology as a tool or instrument […]

Trends in Online Social Networking: Adolescent Use of MySpace over Time
MySpace has received a significant amount of negative attention from the media and many concerned adults, who point to several isolated incidents where predators have contacted, become involved with and even assaulted adolescents whom they met through the popular social networking web site. Furthermore, concerned parents have expressed discontent with the amount and type of […]

Offline Consequences of Online Victimization: School Violence and Delinquency
As increasing numbers of youth embrace computer-mediated communication to meet academic and social needs, interpersonal violence directly and indirectly related to the Internet is occurring more often. Cyberbullying in particular has shot to the forefront of agendas in schools and communities due to the emotional, psychological, and even physical harm to which victims can be […]

Personal Information of Adolescents on the Internet: A Quantitative Content Analysis of MySpace
Many youth have recently embraced online social networking sites such as MySpace (myspace.com) to meet their social and relational needs. While manifold benefits stem from participating in such web-based environments, the popular media has been quick to demonize MySpace even though an exponentially small proportion of its users have been victimized due to irresponsible or […]

Cyberbullying: An Exploratory Analysis of Factors Related to Offending and Victimization
Victimization on the Internet through what has been termed cyberbullying has attracted increased attention from scholars and practitioners. Defined as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text” (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006), this negative experience not only undermines a youth’s freedom to use and explore valuable online resources, but also can result […]

Bullies Move beyond the Schoolyard: A Preliminary Look at Cyberbullying
Bullying in a school setting is an important social concern that has received increased scholarly attention in recent years. Specifically, its causes and effects have been under investigation by a number of researchers in the social and behavioral sciences. A new permutation of bullying, however, has recently arisen and become common: tech-savvy students are turning […]