Perceived long-term outcomes of early traditional and Cyberbullying victimization among emerging adults

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to investigate long-term outcomes of traditional bullying and cyberbullying victimization during childhood and adolescence. Today's emerging adults are the first generation that could have been victimized both offline and online. In order to understand the perceived impact of past bullying victimization on emerging adulthood, the biographic-narrative interpretive method (BNIM) was used among 10 emerging adults aged between 19 and 25 who were bullied both offline and online during multiple years of childhood and/or adolescence. The results showed that the emerging adults attributed a wide range of outcomes to early bullying victimization. Emerging adults perceived impacts on one's current social interacting, including sharing personal information and coping with conflicts, aggression, and bullying, and who one is as an emerging adult (i.e. one's anxieties, self-esteem, empathy, and resilience).

KEYWORDS:

• Bullying victimization
• long-term outcomes
• qualitative research
• biographic-narrative interpretive method
• early experiences
• emerging adults

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen), grant number 12J8216N. The funding source has no involvement in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.