Reporting and Clearance of Cyberbullying Incidents

Abstract

Cyberbullying continues to receive growing research attention, but much of this work focuses on prevalence estimates. Little is known about responses to these incidents. The present study relies on traditional theoretical explanations as a basis for modeling predictors for reporting to authorities and police clearance of cyberbullying using two national data sources. Initial support is obtained for the importance of incident seriousness and solvability characteristics for cyberbullying reporting and clearance. These findings suggest the utility of traditional theory to explain responses to cyberbullying, and also highlight a need for measures tailored to the cyber context to comprehensively test such models.