Cyberbullying in adolescent victims

Cyberbullying in Adolescent Victims: Perception and Coping
Veronika Sleglova1
, Alena Cerna2
1,2
Faculty of Social Sciences, Masaryk University, Brno
Abstract
The present qualitative explorative study deals with cyberbullying from the perspective of
adolescents. It focuses mainly on the impacts and consequences of cyberbullying, and on
the coping strategies chosen by victims to deal with the situation. The data was obtained
through semi-structured interviews with 15 adolescents aged 14-18 years, all of whom
were cyberbullying victims.
It was found that cyberbullying experiences led to changes in the victims' behaviour, and
that these could be positive in the form of behavioural changes in cyberspace. Mainly this
was due to victims creating a cognitive pattern of bullies, which consequently helped
them to recognise aggressive people. Bullying also provoked feelings of caution, and
brought about restriction in the use of risky online sources of threats as victims tried to
prevent its recurrence. Critical impacts occurred in almost all of the respondents’ cases in
the form of lower self-esteem, loneliness and disillusionment and distrust of people: The
more extreme impacts were self-harm and increased aggression towards friends and
family.
Based on their experience, the victims of cyberbullying developed coping strategies in
order to cope with cyberbullying. These strategies took several forms: technical defence,
activity directed at the aggressor, avoidance, defensive strategies, and social support.
The activities of the victims when dealing with this stressful situation varied, which was
probably influenced by different contexts, personal traits, and the development of the
respondents. The findings further revealed that some coping strategies (i.e. technical
coping or telling parents) are in many situations either non-functional or just cannot be
used, a theme which is further discussed with respect to previous research in the field.
Keywords:cyberbullying, adolescence, coping, bully, victim
Introduction
Cyberbullying has been repeatedly analysed in the last few years, but its
definition has often varied in different studies. This sometimes had striking
impacts on results, and as it is difficult to reach consensus, the "definition" is
still debated by researchers across the world. However, with respect to the most
current research in the field and for the purpose of this study, we define
cyberbullying as "an aggressive, intentional act or behaviour that is carried out
by a group or an individual repeatedly and over time against a victim who
cannot easily defend him or herself"(Smith & Slonje, 2007, p. 249). This
terminology was further expounded on by Price and Dalgleish (2010, p.
51):"Cyberbullying is the collective label used to define forms of bullying that
use electronic means such as the internet and mobile phones to aggressively
and intentionally harm someone. Like "traditional" bullying, cyberbullying
typically involves repeated behaviour and a power imbalance between aggressor
and victim." Across these definitions, the attributes of intentionality, repetition,
and imbalance of power are stressed, and they arguably represent the most
important identifiers of cyberbullying. If those identifiers are present, we can
speak about direct cyberbullying; but, given the opportunities of online space,
the aggressor has even more opportunities to reach the victim when compared
to traditional offline settings. That is why Aftab (no date) distinguishes between
direct cyberbullying (which is more common and what the present study is

primarily focused on), and indirect cyberbullying (or cyberbullying by proxy).
Indirect cyberbullying is represented by the situation when someone else does
the "dirty work“ for the aggressor, i.e. the administrator, who blocks the victim's
profile after the agressor's report, etc. The term refers mainly to the fact that
people who are being used to represent the aggressor in the role of the
cyberbully often do not know about being used in this way. That is considered
dangerous as adults are often unconsciously involved in it.
Victims’ reactions and the impacts of cyberbullying
Victims of cyberbullying, faced with such a distress situation, which is often
difficult to escape, show a variety of reactions. Beran and Li (2005) investigated
reactions to cyber harassment, focusing on the incidence of different emotions
and the subsequent behaviour of the victims in connection with cyber
harassment. The emotions were those of anger, sadness, anxiety,
embarrassment, crying, fear, and self-blame. Other impacts were also
discovered: worsened concentration and school grades, and absence from
school. The authors were inclined to connect this with the theory of social
dominance, wherein the victims feel they are in a subordinate position with
respect to the aggressor, which consequently causes negative emotions and
affects the victims’ behaviour in the school environment. The authors added that
many respondents mentioned that they were not affected by cyber harassment.
The authors thought this was due to the fact that harassment is considered
"normal“ or is "expected.“
In connection to cyberbullying – for example in Campfield’s (2006) research -
most victims also showed signs of stress, triggered by bullying. From a clinical
point of view, the victims showed internalised symptoms, loneliness and low
self-esteem connected to externalisation, and overall problems (both emotional
and behavioural). These were triggered by aggressive acts such as (e.g.
Campfield, 2006): having cell phone pictures of the victims taken without their
permission; putting down or embarrassing the victims on the Internet; hurtful
emails from peers, offensive, sexual emails from peers, emails threatening
victims with physical harm; lies or rumours started about the victims over the
Internet.
Another form of cyberbullying is the combination of traditional bullying and
cyberbullying. The individuals experiencing this combination become global
victims. In the case of those who are victimised in multiple ways and
environments, there is a higher probability of an outbreak of extreme stress
(Shariff & Churchill, 2010). Campfield (2006) characterises these victims' cases
as a "double whammy" and her research confirms the presence of a whole range
of problems caused by double bullying: social problems, behaviour problems,
perception of negative evaluation by peers, low self-esteem, and loneliness.
Based on the various manifestations of cyberbullying, Dehue, Bolman and
Vollink (2008) researched the emotional reactions of adolescents to
cyberbullying. Most often the experience of bullying provoked feelings of anger
in the victims (10.3%), sadness (4.9%), not liking going to school (3.6%), and
disillusionment and distrust of peers (2.9%).
The only study exploring connections between psychosocial, psychiatric,
psychosomatic elements and the experiences of cyber-victims and cyberbullies
is a Finnish study, the findings of which show a number of basic facts
(Sourander et al., 2010): Girls in the role of the aggressor may be physically
weaker than their victims; on average 34% of the respondents who experienced

cyberbullying consequently feared for their own safety. Further, fearing for one’s
safety is likely stronger in the case of cyberbullying than in traditional bullying
because traditional bullying takes place mainly in the school environment and
the victim at least feels safe at home. When cyberbullied, the victims are
accessible around the clock, and there is no time when text messages, emails,
or other messages cannot be sent; the reactions of adolescents when in contact
with strangers are also indirectly pointed out – the findings show that
cyberbullying by an adult of the same/opposite gender, a stranger or a group of
people triggers feelings of fear in the victims, which can subsequently indicate
possible trauma. This is connected to a much higher imbalance of power in
comparison to cyberbullying by the victim’s peers.
Much like traditional bullying, cyberbullying is connected to a wide range of
psychiatric and psychosomatic problems. Adolescent victims who came from a
non-two-biological-parent family, experienced (Sourander et. al, 2010) more
frequent psychosomatic problems, headaches, sleep disorders, repeated
stomach-aches; a higher number of perceived problems; emotional and peer-
related problems; and feeling insecure at school and neglected by teachers.
These manifestations also occurred in the cases of adolescent-aggressors, along
with signs of hyperactivity, frequent smoking, drunkenness, and low levels of
positive prosocial behaviour (Sourander et al., 2010).
Hinduja’s and Patchins’s (2010) research focused on students’, both aggressors’
and victims’, experiences with traditional and cyberbullying within the 30 days
prior to the research. The authors looked into the correlations between these
experiences and thoughts of suicide. Youths who experienced traditional bullying
or cyberbullying, as either an offender or a victim, had more suicidal thoughts
and were more likely to attempt suicide than those who had not experienced
such forms of peer aggression. Also, victimization was more strongly related to
suicidal thoughts and behaviors than offending.
The impacts of cyberbullying can be measured by an impact factor – Smith et al.
(2008) calculated "an impact factor to display the severity of each subcategory
of cyberbullying in comparison to traditional bullying (−1 = less effect, 0 =
same effect and +1 = more effect, divided by total number of respondents
excluding "don’t know’s“). If an impact factor is positive, that category is
perceived as having more of an effect compared to traditional bullying; if
negative, then less of an effect". This is based on perceiving the issues on the
basis of the intensity of their impacts on a particular victim. Picture/video clips
had the highest impact factor which shows that many students believe this the
worst of all forms of cyberbullying. Phone calls also scored highly on the impact
factor. Text messages and websites have, according to the students, a neutral
score; the respondents evaluated this in the same way as the issue of traditional
bullying. Email, chat rooms and IM had impact factors slightly lower and the
students perceived these forms as less effective and mainly less hurtful to the
victims (Smith et al., 2008).
Price and Dalgleish’s research (2010) on cyberbullying victims, which also
followed up on the impact of cyberbullying, quotes self-esteem (78%), self-
evaluation (70%) and friendship as the most common impacts in victims. 35%
of the respondents stated negative impacts on school grades, 28% on school
attendance, and 19% on family relationships. Many of the respondents stated a
wide impact on emotional behaviour. 75% of the respondents felt sad, 54%
mentioned feelings of extreme sadness. Moreover, 58% felt frustrated, 48%
embarrassed, and 48% felt fear, including 29% who felt terrified. 3% were
thinking of suicide and 2% self-harmed due to cyberbullying (Price & Dalgleish,

2010).
Coping strategies in cyberbullying
According to available research and the experiences described above,
cyberbullying can produce a number of negative, stressful, even traumatic
feelings which often bring about intense impacts on the well-being and other
behaviour of the victims (e.g. Beran & Li, 2005; Campfield, 2006; Dehue,
Bolman & Vollink, 2008, etc.). In extreme cases, cyberbullying may have fatal
results. Coping strategies in cyberbullying are, when compared to the number of
studies on general coping strategies, a new issue. Research into coping with
cyberbullying has only begun in the last few years.
The efficiency of a coping strategy lies in its capacity to reduce immediate stress
as well as to prevent its long-term consequences, such as, influences on
psychical well-being, or the development of an illness. The effectiveness of a
given coping strategy may appear different to the individual employing it than to
those observing and evaluating it (Snyder, 1999).
Traditionally, coping strategies have been divided into dichotomous categories -
probably the most well-known coping models are the transactional model
(Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and the approach-avoidance model (Roth & Cohen,
1986). In the transactional model, coping is defined as problem-focused and
emotion-focused; the approach-avoidance model describes particular strategies
which can be categorised either as approach or avoidance. The individual’s
consideration as to whether they have the resources for a solution to the given
situation is the most important aspect in both of these models. In the approach-
avoidance model, the individual considers whether they have the resources for
coping with the situation and subsequently chooses either the approach mode
(focused on a direct solution to the problem), or the avoidance mode (Roth &
Cohen, 1986). In cyberbullying, this mode takes the form of leaving a website,
deleting threatening messages etc. In the context of cyberbullying, some studies
include technical coping or directly addressing the bully in this model (Parris,
Varjas, Meyers & Cutts, 2011). In the transactional model (Lazarus & Folkman,
1986), there is a process of primary and secondary appraisal: In the primary
mode, there is an appraisal of whether an event is a threat; in the secondary
appraisal, individuals choose a particular coping strategy which is appropriate to
the resources at their disposal. Research into this indicates that classifying
strategies into known general categories can be problematic, and may depend
on the construction of the measuring tool (Riebel, Jager & Fisher, 2009). Some
coping strategies may fall into two categories at the same time, even into those
considered opposite e.g. problem-focused and emotion-focused (Parris et al.,
2011). Skinner, Edge, Altman and Sherwood (2003) thus call for a change in the
use of the categories of emotion-focused vs. problem-focused, approach vs.
avoidance, and cognitive vs. behavioural, and instead suggest a hierarchical
arrangement of coping strategies.
Studies that deal directly with coping strategies build their schematic distribution
differently. Parris et al. (2011) carried out qualitative ethnographic research into
the coping strategies applied directly to cyberbullying among high-school
students. They devised categories which characterise the coping strategies used
in the context of reactions to cyberbullying. They divided the coping strategies
of the respondents in terms of reactive and preventive coping. Reactive coping
included avoiding, accepting, justification, and seeking social support.
Preventive coping (strategies aimed at preventing or reducing the probability of
the incidence of cyberbullying) included talking in person (face-to-face contact in

order to prevent misunderstanding), increased security and awareness, and also
a category "no way to prevent cyberbullying“ occured as a representation of
helplessnes regarding prevention.
Another view is using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods:
Price and Dalgleish (2010) researched the coping strategies used by Australian
participants to manage cyberbullying. Their findings were similar to those of
Parris et al. (2011), including confiding in friends and teachers, staying offline,
not using websites/software used by the bully, doing nothing specific, blocking
the bully etc. Dehue et al. (2008) describes activities used by the respondents in
reaction to cyberbullying: pretending to ignore it (7.2%), actually ignoring it
(6.9%), bullying the bully (5.7%), or deleting the bully’s messages (3.1%).
Other studies focusing on coping strategies to deal with cyberbullying define
similar or identical reactions to cyberbullying (e.g. Staksrud & Livingstone,
2009; Smith & Slonje, 2007), but no further context of those reactions was
examined.
Apart from particular coping strategies, and the perceived impacts of
cyberbullying on the individual respondents, there are questions concerning the
efficiency of particular coping strategies: The efficiency of these strategies for
the victims themselves remains uncharted territory (Parris et al., 2011, Riebel,
Jager & Fisher, 2009), and the same can be said about traditional bullying
(Tenenbaum et al., 2011).
As stated in the overview of existing studies, there are many possible coping
strategies, but our study focuses specifically on the victim’s view of the impacts
of cyberbullying and on the subsequent solutions of the problem. In the present
study, we focus on adolescent victims of direct cyberbullying, using in-depth
approach. As adolescents represent the majority of cyberbullying victims
(Sevcikova & Smahel, 2009), primarily due to their much more frequent online
activities (Lupac & Sladek, 2008; Smahel & Lupac, 2008; Wolak, Mitchell &
Finkelhor, 2006), we focused on this age group.
Our goal is to bring greater understanding of both the victim’s experience of
cyberbullying, which has been mainly quantitatively analysed so far, and to
provide insights into coping strategies and – quite innovatively – the background
of selecting (or non-selecting) particular ways to cope and the victim's
perception of the effectiveness of selected coping strategies. The analysis of
coping strategies in cyberbullying is considered essential in this study, especially
with regard to how difficult it is to better understand these strategies by putting
them into dichotomous categories. Based on previous research, it seems it
becomes very difficult to label multiform reactions as "emotion-focused“ or
"problem-focused.“ Further, it seems that the line between "approach“ and
"avoidance“ in the "approach-avoidance“ model is too thin (e.g. Parris, Varjas,
Meyers & Cutts, 2011).
Another important aim of this study is to monitor the impacts cyberbullying may
have on the victims, and the consequences it may lead to. Our assumption is
that the victim's experience with cyberbullying is multi-faceted, and to grasp
that reality we should take a deeper look into particular stories, which is still
missing in up-to-date research. Thus, through an in-depth approach, our aim is
to address the gap that might be given by the character of previous research
and the fact that research on cyberbullying has been only carried out past few
years, so still can only be understood as a young discipline. In order to address
that gap, we propose research questions as follows:

How does the experience of cyberbullying manifest itself in adolescent victims?
In what ways do adolescent victims cope with cyberbullying?
Methods
Participants and context
In the first round of selecting respondents, users of the Czech social sites (or
community servers) Libimseti.cz, Lide.cz and Xchat between the ages of 11-18
were contacted. These sites were chosen due to the large number of users aged
between 11-18 on which the research focuses. Also, these sites are very well
known Czech community servers among contemporary Czech youth. The contact
was carried out in the form of an invitation, which included all information on
the research, and a description of the situation that can be classified as
cyberbullying. In the invitation, we explained the situation as follows: "For the
purpose of research, we are looking for young people aged 11-18 years who
have experienced any of the following situations: Someone has been repeatedly
harassed over the Internet for a long period of time – has received inappropriate
messages on ICQ and Facebook from their classmates, friends, or strangers;
someone is deliberately denigrating and mocking them on some website or a
blog or is regulating their photos and videos or is impersonating them on the
Internet. " The selection of respondents was conditioned by age (11-18) and the
online activity of the users (only active users were contacted – on Libimseti.cz,
this meant having logged on in the last week, for Lide.cz and Xchat this meant
having had regular chat sessions). Overall, 18,950 users from all regions of the
Czech Republic were contacted.
In the next step, those respondents who had replied to the invitation were
asked to participate in an ICQ or Skype chat interview. Overall, 35 respondents
(30 girls and 5 boys) responded via e-mail (riziko.na.internetu@email.cz) or a
social site message. The disproportion between girls and boys was caused
mainly by their use of the selected websites – girls’ having many more accounts
than boys. The comparatively low feedback probably lies in the incidence of
cyberbullying among adolescents, which, according to Ybarra et al. (2007),
ranges from 2 to 3%. According to Sevcikova and Smahel (2009), the incidence
is around 3.6% in young adolescents and around 3.2% in middle and older
adolescents in the Czech Republic. It is also possible that, even though the
approached users had experienced cyberbullying, they did not want to be
interviewed (as some stated in their replies to the invitation).
The research sample included 15 respondents (13 girls and 2 boys), between
the ages of 14-18 years. Out of the original 35 respondents, their experiences
with online bullying were assessed as cyberbullying. Other respondents who
replied to the invitation and have had experience with cyberbullying did not
respond to the subsequent request for an online interview or in further contact
with them we found that their experience was not cyberbullying. The duration of
the cyberbullying differed from case to case: in some cases, it occurred for a few
days, in others for much longer, even up to two years. It needs to be mentioned
that in eight cases bullying took place in the past, or started in the past and is
still taking place. Thus, the respondents were younger when they experienced
cyberbullying than they were at the time of the interview. In six cases, bullying
is still taking place (respondent no. 7 experienced cyberbullying a year ago and
is now experiencing cyberbullying again from another aggressor – see Table 1).
The respondents described their situations without expressing any knowledge of
the concept of cyberbullying itself. This information was not provided to them
because an awareness of what in fact had happened to them could have

distorted their description of the situation, and led them to think of different
concepts.
The data was gathered over three months on the three aforementioned
websites, where all users meeting the selection criteria (aged 11 – 18 and active
on the websites) were contacted. Responses to the interview invitation, whether
positive or negative, were replied to within several hours of receipt. It is
probable that the respondents who replied to the invitation trusted the
researcher, which was consequently reflected in the amount and quality of
information provided to the researcher. Potentially, this trust was built through
the detailed information on the research project and the interviewer’s identity
made publicly available on the given websites as well as on the research’s
Facebook page.
Table 1. Basic information about respondents.

Instrumentation and Data Analysis
For data gathering, semi-structured interviews were used. These were carried
out using ICQ and Skype chat; these are types of online Instant Messengers,
allowing to asses online interviews in real time. The interviews focused generally
on cyberbullying, however, the focus of the present study is narrowed down to
the impacts of, and coping strategies in cyberbullying: Both of these emerged as
essential and strong categories in the course of the interviews. This form of
online interview was preferred to face-to-face interviews due to the geographical
spread of the respondents - there were respondents from all regions of the
Czech Republic - making it more accessible in terms of time and finances; and
also due to the nature of the research, it dealing with a primarily virtual-reality
phenomenon. The respondents themselves tried to actively ascertain if their
anonymity was guaranteed, and stated that they preferred online contact.
Further, as respondents feel safer, being anonymous and "invisible“ online, they
are willing to disclose more personal information (Coomber, 1997; Joinson,
2001). When researching sensitive issues like cyberbullying, online interviews
can in fact allow researchers to acquire more information than in face-to-face
interviews, despite the other advantages of the face-to-face environment over
virtual reality.
The qualitative method of grounded theory was used in the research – it
explores phenomena inductively, based on the systematic gathering of
theoretical and analytical data. Then, corresponding to the field studied, a
theory is created explaining the issue. The analysis, or coding, is carried out in
three stages: open, axial, and selective coding.
The stage of open coding was carried out using ATLAS.ti 6.0. It was carried out
through creating codes representing the respondents’ statements. Here are
some examples of coding:
Table 2. Examples of coding.
Next in axial coding, the individual codes were divided into 36 categories, which
were then merged and dimensionalised. In the last stage of selective coding,
relations and connections between categories and subcategories were found.

Individual categories, subcategories and their connections are depicted in the
Figure 1:
Figure 1. Paradigmatic model of coping strategies and the impacts of
cyberbullying.
Results
The category of impacts and consequences of cyberbullying was divided into two
parts: changes in online behaviour, and offline psychological impacts. Another
category which emerged during the coding was that of coping strategies, where
respondents stated the ways they dealt with cyberbullying.
Impacts and Consequences of Cyberbullying: Changes in online
behaviour
Changes in online behaviour were one of the consequences of cyberbullying:
they involved more careful and more cautious approaches of the victims to
further communication, use of the Internet and their movements in virtual
reality. These changes manifested themselves in:
(1) The creation of a cognitive pattern for identification of aggressors -
respondent no. 14 a 15-year old female, stated that she learned to assess
people on the basis of their language use:
"5 words are enough for me to know whether to end the conversation or not.“
Similarly, respondent no. 8, a 17-year-old male, believed he could recognise
aggressors based on their style of communication:
"For example I’m detached from it, but there are a lot of people who don’t have

the will power and they get pushed into things and they have no idea who’s
sitting on the other side and that something could be made public on the
Internet."
(2) The restriction of risky online sources of threats or the adoption of a more
cautious approach – in the case of restricting risky online sources of threats,
respondent no. 11 (female, age 16) mentioned restricting personal information
which had previously been public on the Internet:
"I deleted all my pics from the net."
Respondent no. 4 (female, age 14) reacted in a similar way:
"Now I know I shouldn’t give my phone number to just anyone."
Three respondents either completely abandoned the possibility of getting in
touch with people online, or they severely restricted it. They are now much
more cautious in virtual reality, and they choose to communicate primarily with
users they know offline. Respondent no. 11 (female, age 16) also added that
she realised how real the experience of cyberbullying was:
"It showed me that it can actually happen, and it’s not just something people
tell you about. Now I know it’s real."
Respondent no. 7 (female, age 16) thought about her future and her approach
towards cyberbullying in regards to her future children. She is ready to adopt a
much more cautious approach towards her activities in the online
environment: "I am definitely supportive of parents checking their children’s net
and messages. Too bad my parents did not do that. I am definitely going to do
that."
In some cases, there were no significant changes in the respondents’ online
behaviour despite their experience with cyberbullying. The 18 year old female
respondent no. 12 explains it in her view of the Internet:
"I know the Internet is never going to be so protected as to completely get rid of
this…that’s one of the negative sides of democracy."
Impacts and Consequences of Cyberbullying: Offline psychological
impact
The psychological impact on the respondents varied greatly. The impacts seems
to depend on the intensity of the cyberbullying, its duration, and, as mentioned
above, on the psychosocial context of the respondents, their degree of resilience
to the stress of cyberbullying, and other aspects which could not be further
studied and analysed here. The respondents described the following impacts of
cyberbullying: Two respondents claimed that the experience of cyberbullying
had no impact – no. 8 (male, age 17) perceived the intensity of cyberbullying as
lower than the other respondents. The other respondent no. 10 (male, age 17)
is still experiencing cyberbullying and thinks (perhaps due to the continuation of
the problem) he will keep visiting the website.
"I will not allow them to treat me that way."
Negative emotions caused by bullying, which had ceased, occurred in the case
of the 16-year-old female no. 11. The impact of bullying has had lasting
consequences, influencing her state of mind:
"It’s still in my psyche…but I know I’m never going to repeat that and it’s going
to stay with me forever."

The 15-year-old female respondent no. 14 describes her feelings when thinking
of the aggressor in a similarly negative manner, and the impact of bullying in
her case is also lasting:
"He is still in my head and it makes me sick."
A feeling of helplessness was one of the recurring emotions. It was
characterised mainly by having no opportunity or possibility to act or deal with
the problem:
"It’s horrible because I know I can’t do anything, just ignore him and
delete." (female no. 1, age 15).
The 15-year-old female no. 14 even likened cyberbullying to hunting and it is
thus possible that she felt helpless like prey:
"I think he didn’t want to accept my refusal… that it was like hunting for
him…and he couldn’t be a bad hunter, couldn’t lose his prey."
Disillusionment and distrust of other people, caused by cyberbullying, occurred
in the cases of six respondents – for example in the case of the 16-year-old
female no. 7 where its manifestation is intensifying:
"I see bad things in everyone."
The 15-year-old female respondent no. 13 specifies her feelings of
disillusionment and distrust in this way:
"I don’t trust guys, I’m careful.“
Disillusionment and distrust also occurred in the cases of three female
respondents. Female no. 1 associates the occurrence of disillusionment and
distrust with her own self-change:
"I’m no longer so naive and I don’t trust everyone.“
Lower self-confidence occurred in the case of the 18-year-old female no. 15 in
reaction to negative comments from Facebook-group members who targeted her
weight. She mentioned lower confidence and also speculated about the truth of
the comments:
"I’m maybe no longer so confident…or I think about whether they were right
that I’m bigger etc."
Nightmares occurred in the case of the 16-year-old female respondent no. 7
during her first experience with cyberbullying, when she was ten:
"I couldn’t sleep a few nights and had weird dreams, I know that…they were
about someone forcing me to do something I didn’t want to do etc. Or someone
was chasing me. I experienced a period during which I just couldn’t go to sleep
alone."
Social isolation manifested itself in the case of the 15-year-old female no. 3,
who experienced both offline and cyberbullying:
"I don’t want to meet new people…and I’ve been a nervous wreck ever
since…and I don’t go out much.“
Reluctance towards meeting new people, which was successfully overcome,
occurred after cyberbullying in the case of the 16-year-old female no. 5:
"I didn’t want to date anymore, I saw the bad side in everyone and was afraid I
would end up like that again.“
The 15-year-old female respondent no. 3 also mentioned an increasing feeling of

loneliness, which may have been caused by less contact with her girlfriends who
she used to go out with prior to experiencing cyberbullying:
"I kind of wander about on my own."
Impacts of cyberbullying in terms of changes in physical manifestations occurred
in the cases of three female respondents. In two cases, self-harm manifested in
the form of cutting. One of them started cutting herself after being
cyberbullied:
"Ever since I’ve been cutting myself whenever I feel really anxious."
The 16-year-old female respondent no. 11 cut herself during stressful situations
and cyberbullying caused regression in her behaviour:
"I used to cut myself before and as I was feeling down I started doing it again."
The 15-year-old female no. 3 gained weight (10 kilos) when dealing with
traditional and cyberbullying. She also showed signs of physical aggression
targeted at other people. This is a case of, as she calls it herself, a change in her
personality:
"I deal with conflicts physically when the other person’s argument is equally
strong…when someone is being fresh I slap them and leave…I have been a
nervous wreck ever since."
The 15-year-old female respondent no. 14 experienced a similar type of
aggression. While thinking about her aggressor she hurt her male friend during
a sharp-weapon practice:
"I remembered this guy [aggressor’s name] and I got mad, and I cut fast and
cut through his hand…luckily I managed to slow down and didn’t cut it off
completely…but he ended up with a katana to the bone."
Coping strategies: Technical Coping
The activities of the victims when dealing with the stressful situations of
cyberbullying were various, and it is probable that they were dependent on
other contexts, personal traits, and the respondents’ evolution. One of the most
frequently used coping mechanisms was the use of technical aspects of the
given tool, which helped restrict communication from the aggressor. To name a
few examples:
Contacting administrators (server administrators, Internet help pages, asking
mobile providers to block particular numbers) and reporting the user-bully.
Blocking the aggressors (putting them on ignore lists on ICQ, Facebook, Lide.cz,
Libimseti.cz and Skype). Communicating with the aggressors from a different
account/user name (newly created, friend’s account).
Technical coping was the most frequently used mechanism, but it often did not
work permanently or was insufficient. One of the reasons for this was the
administrators’ disregard for notices of bullying. Even though the respondents
reported aggressive users, the administrators did not react:
"I sent them three notices and nothing happened." (female no. 14, age 15)
The 18-year-old female respondent no. 12 found herself in a similar situation as
she was trying to prevent the aggressor from contacting her:
"Well I put his address into blocked and I reported him, but I kept getting
messages…I do not know whether it was someone’s mistake or it could not be

done."
During the same phase, the 17-year-old male no. 10 experienced indirect
cyberbullying by administrators. During a chat session, where he was repeatedly
bullied and attacked by a female aggressor, the administrators warned the bully
but did not deal with the problem any further. Later, male no. 10 became
furious about being cyber bullied and used foul language in the chat room – the
administrators expelled him from the room instead of looking into the
aggressor’s behaviour.
In the case of the 15-year-old female no. 1, the aggressor created a false
account on Libimseti.cz, the Czech social networking site, where he published
slanderous and negative information and, using the victim’s name, contacted
other female users. When she reported this to the administrators, saying that it
was a false account and asked for its deletion, no one reacted and the account
remains active.
Another limitation of technical coping is the aggressor’s ability to create a new
account immediately after having the false account blocked or deleted by the
victim. This scenario occurred in the case of the 15-year-old female no. 14
where even after a fifth blockage of the bully’s account, he again created a new
one. The 17-year-old female no. 11 blocked her aggressor as well, but the
aggressor created a new profile within a week.
In one case, technical coping turned into a disadvantage – after having her
photograph stolen and made public on a Facebook-group page, the 18-year-old
female no. 15 wanted to delete the photograph, but did not have the
administration rights which would allow her to do so. When she tried to contact
the female aggressor, who had made the photograph public, it was not possible,
because the aggressor had her account protected so well that she could not be
contacted by anyone unrequested. In this respondent’s case, cyberbullying is
repeated but in a different manner than in traditional bullying: the photograph
remains on Facebook which means that cyberbullying did not stop with
comments the respondent saw and perceives as bullying, but it may in fact
continue due to new comments added by other users.
Coping strategies: Activity Directed at the Aggressor
This involves three communication dimensions which function as expressions of
reaction, leading from the victim to the aggressor. They are described here from
the weakest to the strongest dimension: Threatening to report the incident to
the authorities, the respondents used reporting of cyberbullying as one of their
defence mechanisms:
"I said that unless he left me alone I would tell someone." (female no. 5, age
16)
Defensive feedback means emphasising a lack of interest/need to end
communication. It can be provided through different communication forms. The
first takes the form of a plea to the aggressor:
"Please I do not want to see you again, I have a headache and my mom is
angry with me. I do not want to be with you anymore, I am scared of
you." (female no. 13, age 15)
The second communication form is that of an order.
"Yeah when there was too much of it I told him I had had enough." (female no.

4, age 14)
The third form is that of an announcement.
"I told him I am not obliged to write to him, that I do not want to write to
anyone I do not know, and that I do not want him writing to me ever
again." (female no. 7, age 16)
Aggression is an open expression of negative emotions directed at the
aggressor. The term "open“ means a direct expression the victim communicates
to the aggressor via the channels used for cyberbullying:
"So I gave up and told him to go to hell." (female no. 4, age 14)
Interviewer: "And how did you pay her back."
"I do not remember - it was something vulgar." (male no. 10, age 17)
The 15-year-old female respondent no. 14 reacted in an interesting manner: as
bullying was increasing, she did not hesitate to indirectly threaten the bully with
violence:
"I got angry and sent him some of my photos from fencing practice and knife
throwing."
Inside (hidden) aggression is also understood as a type of aggression, which the
victim does not express toward the aggressor in an open and direct way, but
rather forms a negative emotion which then helps the victim cope with bullying
and helps let off steam. Even though this is a feeling toward the aggressor, this
category belongs among coping strategies. Potentially, it represents an
opportunity to come to terms with anger the victims cannot express directly at
the aggressor as they do not meet the aggressor in person. Generalisations,
labelling, or obscenities addressed to the aggressor belong in this category as
well. For example, the 17-year-old male respondent no. 10 used labelling as a
defence mechanism against his female aggressor even though he only knew her
language from the chat room and from cyber-attacks:
"No, she does not say anything about herself, she just curses – I know she is an
alcoholic and impulsive and irritable, I remember that."
Vulgar labelling of the aggressor was often used as an expression of anger or
even hatred. During the interview, the 15-year-old female respondent no. 1
called the aggressor an "asshole."
"That the asshole would start threatening me even more."
The 15-year-old female respondent no. 3 called the aggressor "the biggest pig
of the century," and she used this label during open aggression when she tried
to stop communication with the aggressor:
"I do not talk to pigs."
In the case of this respondent, there is a clearly visible development of her
approach toward the aggressor. At the beginning, her perception of him was
neutral:
"As a normal person, neither as an unimpressive someone who waits
somewhere in the corner to be noticed, nor as someone who likes to brag."
Afterwards, her perception changed completely and she started seeing the
aggressor as "someone who is not right in the head." (female no. 3, age 15)

The 18-year-old female no. 15 describes her female aggressor in detail with
very negative overtones:
"That she is a pathetic pseudo-beauty who thinks she is god knows what, but
she is nothing…only idiots care about things like that…and she seems to me like
a little stupid kid really."
The 17-year-old male respondent no. 8 considers all aggressors in general as
mentally unstable, incapable of keeping a partner; as having trouble meeting
people offline. Mental instability or calling the aggressor "ill“ emerged also in the
case of the 15-year-old female no. 14 in a similar fashion to labelling and
generalisations. For instance, the respondent associated particular symptoms
with the aggressor and defined him in detail:
"I think he was hot-tempered and moody, could be hurt easily…I have a feeling
that he was schizophrenic or had a persecution complex…I felt really sorry for
him…I remember that he was self-conscious about his looks and sometimes
there were mistakes in the messages…as if he was talking to someone else but a
strange person wrote it, in my view a very ill person."
Coping strategies: Avoiding Stressful Situations
Considering that blocking an aggressor and other types of technical coping
which can restrict the aggressor’s activity do not constitute mere passive
avoidance it is not included in this section. In fact, technical coping is considered
an active attempt at problem solving.
Avoidance did not only occur in cyberspace but also offline in three females
respondents, in these cases offline contact was involved. For six months during
cyberbullying, female respondent no. 3 walked directly home from school trying
to avoid meeting the aggressors. When respondent no. 13 met the aggressor
she pretended she was being accompanied by someone; female no. 12 opted for
a similar strategy, trying to avoid staying alone with the aggressor on the school
premises.
In cyberspace, avoiding took the forms of: not replying; not answering/hanging
up the phone; deleting or temporary disabling of the risky online sources of
threats, where cyberbullying took/takes place; creating an account at another
server.
Offline avoidance took the form of: waiting until the bully stopped; not thinking
about the problem, not reacting and not contacting the aggressor.
According to the victims’ statements, this offline avoidance manifested itself in
these ways:
"It went away.“ (female no. 5, age 16)
"I guess I tried not to think about it." (female no. 7, age 16)
"I was never rude to him, I did not talk to him about it, I kinda ignored his
messages." (female no. 12, age 18)
"I stared out of the window until he went away." (female no. 13, age 15)
Coping strategies: Defensive Strategies (Diversion tactics)
The respondents sought numerous offline activities and devoted their time to
them in order draw their attention away from the reality of bullying:
Excessive consumption of food became a tool which helped suppress the victims’

fear of the aggressor: "In the morning straight to school and then straight back
from school and then the rest of the day at home, and as I was scared I was
just eating eating eating…" (female no. 3, 15 years)
Devoting attention to hobbies (horses, music, collecting cars, reading) and
sports and exercise. Much like the excessive consumption of food, hobbies and
sports gave the victims an opportunity to take their minds off their problems
and forget that something bad is happening in their lives, or it provided them
with a way of coping with their fear of the aggressor:
"I play sports a lot and I do it competitively. It always helps me to go to practice
where there is no time to think."(female no. 7, age 16)
The 15-year-old female no. 13 perceived sport as a way of coping with her fear
of the aggressor:
"It lets off steam and nerves..learn to live with the fear."
Coping strategies: Personal psychical help
Manifested in the form of own defence mechanisms which were successful in the
cases of cyberbullying. In particular, sport activities had such effect on the
female victim that it gave her a sense of comfort because she became able to
defend herself:
"I always squeezed the blade of my favourite sword more firmly in my hand…I
feel completely safe with it…I know I can use it 100%." (female no. 14, age 15)
A safe social environment helped the respondents not to think about the
situation; instead they focused on the hospitable environment. "When I was
somewhere among people and did not have to think about it." (female no. 11,
age 16)
Trivialising and generalising the situation was opted for as a defence mechanism
by the victims when they did not want to fully admit the existence of
cyberbullying. "I usually send him smileys…like I do not take him
seriously."(female no. 12, age 18)
Trivialising occurred in the case of the 17-year-old male respondent no. 10 and
the 15-year-old female respondent no. 14 who pointed out how widespread
cyberbullying is. They emphasized the commonality of the phenomenon and
their attitude was similar to "it can happen to anyone".
"I mean it is happening all around and all the time…I think that if every other
girl could talk, she would tell you the same things, maybe even worse…" (female
no. 14, age 15)
Coping strategies: Social Support
Seeking social support as a method of coping with this bothersome situation
involved many dimensions:
Confiding and receiving positive feedback and help was the most widely used
form of social support. It was used by ten respondents. It took various forms,
which the respondents perceived as helpful: The first form was
reassurance;"When he was outside with me he reassured me that nothing bad
would happen.“ (Female no. 1, age 15)
The second was psychical support;

"Well they understood and tried to help, Tina went with me to see the mobile
provider." (Female no. 4, age 14)
"I mean she helped me with her talks, like she kept my head above the
water." (Female no. 6, 15 years)
"I remember that they accompanied me to my house and waited until I waved
from the window that I was ok."(female no. 13, age 15)
Sharing bad experiences – in the cases of two respondents (the 16-year-old
female no. 5 and the 15-year-old female no. 14), their friends found themselves
in a similar or identical situation and could thus share their experiences:
"We understood one another, but I felt sorry for her because she got it
worse." (female no. 5, age 16)
Trivialising and making fun of bullying:
"He helped me by deleting it and we laughed at it together." (female no. 7, age
16)
Actually dealing with the aggressor;
"A friend of mine who helps me started dealing with it and told me to keep
writing the guy and when he is on ICQ I should tell him and that he will log onto
my ICQ and will take care of it." (female no. 11, age 16)
"But he stopped because I think my mum wrote to him" (female no. 6, age 15)
Friends of the 18-year-old female respondent no. 15 dealt with the aggressor
indirectly as they took part in the discussion under her stolen photograph. The
respondent felt positive about this:
"I felt relieved…and, mainly, they supported me."
Not confiding in anyone occurred in the cases of five respondents. Male no. 8
explained that he did not want to trouble his girlfriend with issues which were
mere trifles for him. Female respondent no. 2 feels guilty for her situation and
this was why she did not confide: "I thought that since I caused it I have to help
myself." During the first of her two experiences with cyberbullying, female
respondent no. 3 also pointed out that she would rather deal with her problems
by herself:
"I will gladly combat my issues."
Male respondent no. 10 did not want to "add to the worries" of his parents and
friends, and he also thought they would not understand the situation and their
reaction would be exaggerated:
"I did not tell anyone because if I had told my parents they would have
immediately called the cops and I do not want that."
Another aspect of social support is its source. It is important to differentiate
between confiding in friends and in family. Many respondents were too worried
about their parents’ reactions to confide in them. These worries can be strongly
connected to family set-up and principles. For instance, the 15-year-old female
respondent no. 13 confided in her friends who then notified the respondent’s
stepmother. However, the stepmother ignored the situation and even accused
the respondent of making the problem up:
"Yes, to my best friend. She told my stepmother but she did not like me and she
did not care, she said I was making stuff up."
There were seven instances of respondents being helped only by friends, not by
family. Some of the respondents mentioned why they did not tell their parents

about cyberbullying. Female no. 1 – in a similar manner to male no. 10 above –
quoted her mother’s reaction. The respondent told her mother about being
bullied by someone she met on the Internet and the mother reacted by calling
the police: That is why the respondent did not confide in her again:
Interviewer: "And why did you not tell them?"
Respondent: "Dunno, I was afraid, my mum had already gone to the police
because one guy wrote some rude text messages to me."
Female respondent no. 15 thinks that it would "be too much" for her parents,
even though she knows they would support her. But they do not know anything
about this issue.
"They do not understand the Internet and I have no desire to explain it to them
time and again…I only have one set of nerves"
Thus, the respondents did not look for help from their parents because they
thought that their parents would not understand the situation or would
overreact – by contacting the police. In the case of female no. 13 the cause may
have been the disruptive environment she had been growing up in, and so even
though her stepmother did know about the bullying, she did not help the
respondent.
However, in four cases parents were perceived as positive social support, both
present and helpful in dealing with cyberbullying. Female no. 6, whose mother
solved her daughter‘s problems with cyberbullying and was supportive the whole
time, described what particular social support had been provided by her mother,
and added that her mother supports her in every situation:
Respondent: "She held me, told me things that calmed me down…I mean she
said things that helped me, she held my head above the water in this way."
Interviewer: "I understand, and what did she tell you, for example ?"
Respondent: "That I am a pretty girl, that I should not do anything silly and look
for someone on the Internet, that I can find a nice guy and that the one who is
writing to me does not mean anything, that it will stop, that I will fall in love and
get disappointed again many times."
The 16-year-old female respondent no. 7 regrets the fact that her parents did
not supervise her online activities more when she was ten years old, the time
period when she experienced cyberbullying for the first time:
"I am definitely supportive of parents checking their children’s net and
messages. Too bad my parents did not do that. I am definitely going to do that."
The reasons for seeking and not seeking social support can be diverse and the
respondents explained them in some cases using their own personal
characteristics. The 16-year-old female no. 7 called herself the "type of person
who holds everything inside;" as opposed to the 18-year-old female no. 12, who
explained her reason for confiding in her sister and her friends in these
words: "I love to talk and so when it comes to it, I say it.." The 15-year-old
female respondent no. 13 explains the reason why she did not want her friends
to act against the aggressor even though she told them about her experience
with traditional and cyberbullying:
Interviewer: "And did they want to deal with him in some way?"
Respondent: "... the gipsy? It is not easy, yeah they did but they did not do
anything and mainly I did not want them to, he was a psycho and I will not let
anyone get his ass kicked for me."
In the case of this female respondent, one can also see another possible
influence on the respondent’s actions – the environment in which she grew up,

the geographical region where the respondent lives. This area is characterised
by cohabitation and code mixing of the language of Czech youngsters and Roma
youngsters – the respondent points this out in the very first message her
aggressor wrote to her. He used the expression "caje"which the respondent
explains "means ‘chick’“ in the Roma language…here in the city we use some
words borrowed from their language."
The environmental and educational contexts of the respondents also possibly
influenced what occurred. For example, in the case of the 15-year-old female
no. 6 a probable protective attitude existed on the part of her mother. She was
the only parent, with the exception of the 14-year-old female no. 4’s parents,
who signed the informed consent form, and who showed interest in the research
and was worried about its authenticity. She was subsequently sent an
explanatory e-mail.
Discussion
In the present study, two essential phenomena connected with cyberbullying are
presented, as described by the respondents: impacts and consequences of
cyberbullying and the coping strategies in cyberbullying.
In this study, the impacts and consequences of cyberbullying refer to changes in
online behaviour and its offline psychological impact. It has been discovered
that, apart from the emotional impact, the consequences of cyberbullying can be
perceived as positive in the form of cyberspace behavioural changes.
Subjectively speaking, this occurred mainly where a cognitive pattern for bullies
was created, allowing the victims to more easily recognise bullies due to their
experience with cyberbullying. As one female respondent stated: "I certainly
have changed ... I learned how to tell what people are like quite well ... who
they are, and I need 5 words and then I know whether or not to end the
conversation." Bullying also provoked feelings of caution, and brought about
restrictions in the use of risky online sources of threats in order to prevent the
recurrence of the phenomenon. This implies that the cyberbullying’s impact on
the victim causes them to create preventive coping methods, partly as described
by Parris et al. (2011); in their research, they asked students (non-victims)
about what a person can do to cope with threatening online communication.
Students also often mentioned increased security and awareness as something
to avoid the situation at first (not just after being bullied) and that it is good to
know that something like that can actually happen. In our respondents, the
awareness of the fact that cyberbullying can actually happen through being
victimized was actually something that made them change their behaviour
greatly. The experience of cyberbullying can therefore be considered as having
some positive traits, as we assume from the subjective opinions of our
respondents. Also, in the study of Parris et al. (2011), there were respondents
who stated that there is no way to prevent cyberbullying; and those were non-
victims (or at least researchers did not know). It is thus an interesting insight
into victims' experience as direct victims of cyberbullying can develop a clear
idea of how to accomplish this, and how to behave in the future in order to
reduce new potential risks.
Some critical impacts occurred in the form of lowered self-esteem and
loneliness. This was also found in the research of Campfield (2006), and was
confirmed by Price and Dalgleish, where it was found that the most frequent
impacts of cyberbullying were lowered self-esteem (78%) and self-evaluation
(70%). We are aware that this also depends on the particular person and his or
her story and social context, but this is perhaps something that various studies

could confirm, using different designs across cultural contexts. It is very similar
regarding distrust - in the present study, in the cases of the six female
respondents, cyberbullying brought about a disillusionment in, and distrust of
people, which corresponds to the findings of Dehue et al. (2008), who mention
the category of reaction to cyberbullying: "I don’t trust other boys and girls any
more." (p. 220).
The more serious impacts of cyberbullying took the form of self-harm, which
also occurred in some cases in the research by Price and Dalgleish (2010) – 2%
of respondents started harming themselves due to cyberbullying. Of course,
there are many variables (both situational and personal and - as self-harming is
increasingly common in adolescents in general - even cultural) that make a
person vulnerable to do this, but it is useful to keep in mind that self-harming
might come along with other serious conditions in cyberbullying victims, and
that both cyberbullying and self-harming are very often barely visible to anyone
who might help.
Coping strategies, as described by the respondents in the present study,
included technical coping, activity directed at the aggressor, avoidance,
defensive strategies, and social support. The coping mechanism of avoidance is
connected to the basic coping mechanisms of displacement and repression by
Freud (1946). As a coping strategy, avoidance occurs also in Parris et al. (2011)
and Price and Dalgleish (2010). While avoidance can be understood as the
avoidance-mode, it is important to distinguish between consciously choosing to
avoid or ignore, which the victim may opt for after considering all possibilities
and deciding it is the most efficient mechanism; and avoidance as in "closing
one’s eyes“ to reality, experiencing an intense feeling of helplessness. The fact
that ignoring it can be an efficient way of coping with cyberbullying was also
mentioned by respondents in Parris et al. (2011). On the other hand, one of our
respondents perceived avoidance as a lack of possibilities to protect herself -"It’s
horrible because I know I can’t do anything, just ignore him and delete". We
would like to emphasize the contrast, which we saw in this regard, seeing our
respondents' stories. It is thus another reminder for us to keep in mind how
important it is to be careful while interpreting any data, especially quantitative
where it is difficult to see context and personal reasons for choosing avoidance
or ignorance, or, in general, any coping strategy.
The mechanism of sublimation is also described as one of Freud’s defence
mechanisms – it corresponds to seeking defensive strategies and focusing on an
alternative goal. This occurred, for example, in the cases of the female
respondents who did or, after experiencing cyberbullying, started doing sports
competitively. Trivialising and generalising the situation also falls into the
defensive strategies category – the respondents did not take the situation
seriously or they justified it, stating that it is common and pointing out its wide
range of impacts. This strategy corresponds to research by Parris et al. (2011),
where it is called justification. This can be considered both as emotional and as
cognitive coping. The coping strategy of seeking social support also matches the
findings in Parris et al. (2011), who quote social support as one of the basic
coping mechanisms. Activity directed at the aggressor which, along with
notifying the aggressor about unrequested contact, manifested itself also in the
incidence of internal or open aggression, could be assessed as a ground-
breaking element in the distinction between problem-focused and emotion-
focused coping (Lazarus, 1984). This aggression is manifested directly at the
aggressor with the aim of enabling emotional coping releasing negative
emotions and letting off anger at the aggressor, emotions which cannot be let
off offline. Yet again, it needs to be pointed out that the classification of coping

strategies into categories can be problematic and depends on the type of
measuring tool used (Riebel, Jager & Fischer, 2009). Some coping strategies can
also be classified in more than one category, even opposing ones (e.g. problem-
focused and emotion-focused) (Parris et al., 2011).
Technical coping was the most frequently used mechanism, but it often did not
work permanently or was insufficient. One of the reasons for this was the
administrators’ disregard for notices of bullying. Even though the respondents
reported aggressive users (sometimes repeatedly) the administrators did not
react. As a result, the respondents perceived technical coping as insufficient.
This can be identified as indirect bullying, when adults – in this case
administrators – indirectly help aggressor to bully the victim. The fact that
technical coping failed so many times and in so many ways (nothing happened
vs. indirect bullying occured) was quite surprising. It is often said that contrary
to traditional bullying, victims of cyberbullying can use wide variety of tools,
which are not available offline (Price & Dalgleish, 2010). Also, it is often
suggested to young people that they should take advantage of these tools and
use them whenever they feel threatened. As studies regarding the effectiveness
of particular coping strategies are still missing, we strongly suggest this to be
addressed in future research, either to confirm that or acquire some more
information.
There were instances of respondents being helped only by friends, not by family.
Some of the respondents mentioned why they did not tell their parents about
cyberbullying. As one of our respondents quoted her mother’s reaction - after
being bullied by someone the respondent met on the Internet the mother
reacted by calling the police. That is why the respondent did not confide in her
again. The fact that adolescents tend not to tell their parents about
cyberbullying is also quoted in other studies (Riebel et al., 2009); the victims of
cyberbullying have a higher tendency, as opposed to the victims of traditional
bullying, to not speak about the event to anyone, and not to seek any help
(Dehue et al., 2008; Li, 2006; Heirman & Walrave, 2008), or rather to tell only
their friends (Slonje & Smith, 2008). The reasons may vary – some studies
quote, for example, fear of parents forbidding the use of technologies, or
restricting their usage in uncomfortable ways (Kowalski et al., 2008; Smith et
al., 2008). Our respondents quoted similar fears of their parents overreacting.
However, in the previous studies researchers either just asked the victims if
they have told someone and, given the limits of the focus of the particular study
or instrument used, could not further search for reasons (and just attributed
some); or their respondents were not victims but students, asked something
like "what would they do, if...“. For us, it was important to get a deeper
understanding of what actual victims felt and thought about telling parents or
peers when it happened, and what reasons did they have for not telling. Based
on our findings, we suggest that besides the technical part (digital divide) it is
the overall situation in the family (e.g. if parents are divorced, who the young
person lives with and many more) that has a strong impact on adolescent
behaviour regarding this. However, the main point is that the respondents
feared that their parents would not understand their situation (also in the sense
that the parents do not know how cyber reality works and do not understand it)
(Campbell, 2005) or they stated that they would rather deal with the situation
themselves, which can be connected with both the previous reasons. Another
reason why cyberbullying victims may avoid confiding in their parents and also,
for example, in their friends, is a feeling that not only is there no way to prevent
cyberbullying, but also while it occurs, there is nothing at all anyone can do
about it (Mishna et al., 2009; Smith, et al., 2008). Feelings of helplessness were
repeatedly mentioned by the respondents. The fact is that, as mentioned above,

technical coping, though some respondents tried using it, did not work at all, or
not in a sufficiently to prevent another threat (the administrators do not react or
react insufficiently, the bully creates a new account and continues attacking
etc.). This may spur a discussion on how to adequately ensure that the
technological side does not lag behind the increasing risks. The feeling of
helplessness may be also closely connected to the failure of technical support,
the inappropriate reactions of parents, or to the feeling that parents cannot
help.
Campfield (2006) mentions an interesting manifestation in one victim –
trivialising, wherein the victims do not even realise that cyberbullying is
something wrong because the event takes place outside of reality. This also
occurred in our respondents, and was not always related to "outside reality“
reason. Some of our respondents just looked at cyberbullying as something that
happens all the time to different people. It is a question whether this attitude is
positive, as it seems to ensure that the victim is not strongly affected by
cyberbullying, or if we should be concerned, as trivialising in one case could lead
to trivialising the situation globally.
In our study, we are aware of some limitations that should be mentioned. The
first limitation is the size of the sample. It is quite difficult to find victims of
cyberbullying, who are willing to talk about their experiences or who have
actually had any experience with cyberbullying. Despite taking the rather small
size of our sample into account, we think that our categories were saturated, as
is needed in qualitative approach.
Another limitation is the terminology. The term cyberbullying is not clearly
conceptualised yet. As can be observed in numerous studies, the terms
cyberbullying, cyberharrasment and cyberstalking are often used
interchangeably. This is why we are working with cyberbullying as a fluid term –
in the future our results can be used, read and interpreted differently.
Also, we decided to do interviews via Internet – using ICQ or Skype chat –
because we wanted to keep victims anonymous and safe, with the possibilities
given by online environment regarding self-disclosure. However, we are aware
of the possibility of face-to-face interview and the fact that these could bring
different results, e.g. by focusing on nonverbal clues. Moreover, the online
environment is the place where cyberbullying takes place; we are well aware
that that could be a factor making victims feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Another
problem in our interviews is that one can see a slight rigidity due to the use of
semi-structured interviews. Due to this rigidity, the data from the first
respondents may be more extensive. Later, we continuously modified the
structure of the interviews and the answers were more detailed.
The last limitation is that the study is situated in the Czech cultural context.
Therefore, our findings have to be interpreted with regard to Czech cultural
context. The psychosocial context of the victims and their environment appears
in the study indirectly in those statements where victims described relationships
and the reactions by their parents or friends. It is evident that these
relationships influence the victims’ view of cyberbullying, in particular the
impacts of, and solutions to it. A hypothesis worth exploring is that if the
adolescents live in a stable family-and-friend environment, they cope with
cyberbullying better and their cyberbullying experience is not as strong as those
whose family environment is unstable and disrupted. So far, this hypothesis has
only been explored in the psychosocial study by Sourander et al. (2010).

Another possible research could be into the issue of bystanders: parents and
peers, who are aware of cyberbullying and who, for example, help the victim
deal with it. This is a possible and desirable focus for subsequent studies –
prevention of this phenomenon.
It remains unanswered whether the parents of adolescents are really so
technically illiterate as far as virtual reality is concerned. As mentioned above,
the respondents mentioned that their parents do not understand the issue and
that they would overreact or would not understand this bullying at all. Teaching
the issue of cyberbullying to parents, and highlighting the dangers and possible
solutions to cyberbullying when it occurs can be a form of prevention. It is also
essential in the preventive context, to focus on younger children who are
starting to work with the Internet.
Based on our findings, we concluded that the victims of cyberbullying perceive
and cope with it in different ways, which may be affected by many other factors.
According to that, it would be useful to focus on connecting cyberbullying (i.e.
telling parents, emotional impact of cyberbullying) with the psychosocial
contexts of the victims, their educational environment, and other contextual
variables which influence the victims (see e.g. Campfield, 2006; Sourander et
al., 2010).
Also, as mentioned above, further research should be done on the success and
efficiency of different coping strategies, as there is generally not a lot known
about the efficiency of different strategies (Parris et al., 2011). Acquiring this
information is important in terms of prevention and education of both children
and adults.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the support of the the Czech Ministry of Education,
Youth and Sports (LD11008, MSM0021622406), the Czech Science Foundation
(GAP407/11/0585) and the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University.
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Correspondence to:
Alena Cerna
Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Family
Faculty of Social Studies
Masaryk University
Jostova 10
60200 Brno
The Czech Republic
e-mail: cernaale(at)gmail.com

Cyberbullying in adolescent victims

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