Using the theory of planned behaviour to understand cyberbullying: The importance of beliefs for developing interventions

Abstract

This paper starts from the observation that research on cyberbullying perpetration has paid relatively little attention to proximal determinants of this behaviour. It therefore tests the value of a model that departs from variables representing the beliefs underlying the central concepts of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to explain cyberbullying intention and behaviour. The data stem from a longitudinal study amongst 1606 students (11–17 years). A SEM analysis reveals that these beliefs account for respectively 88.8%, 38.2% and 24.6% of the variance in subjective norm (SN), perceived behavioural control (PBC) and attitude (A). The direct measurements of SN, A and PBC account for 28.8% of the variance of the intention to cyberbully, and intention, in turn, explains 8.6% of the reported behaviour six months later. We conclude that the model provides a detailed insight into the relative importance of several proximal determinants of cyberbullying, which benefits future cyberbullying interventions.

Keywords::

• Cyberbullying
• Perpetrators
• Theory of planned behaviour
• Proximal determinants
• Beliefs