Understanding Adolescent Cyberbullies: Exploring Social Media Addiction and Psychological Factors

ABSTRACT

A substantial number of adolescents in various countries have histories of cyberbullying perpetration, cyberbullying victimization, or both. Research examining characteristics of cyberbullies is growing, yet more empirical studies are needed utilizing North American adolescent samples. This article describes a cross-sectional study in which we surveyed a national sample of adolescents (N = 428) in the United States to examine the relationships between social media addiction, general mattering, school connectedness, depression/anxiety, and cyberbullying perpetration. Our results indicated that higher social media addiction scores, more hours spent online, and identifying as male significantly predicted cyberbullying perpetration. Thus, those who spend more time online, have elevated social media addiction scores, and identify as male may be at higher risk for committing acts of cyberbullying. We provided implications of these findings for clinicians working with adolescent clients.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescents
• cyberbullying
• social media addiction
• mattering
• school connectedness

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.