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Adolescent bullying victimization can have long-term mental health and well-being outcomes. This study focused on the potential mediating role of the perceived long-term negative and positive impact of adolescent bullying victimization to understand its relations with mental health and well-being problems during emerging adulthood. A retrospective study consisting of closed and open-ended questions was conducted among 1010 Flemish and 650 Dutch emerging adults aged 18-26. Path analyses among early victims (N-Flemish = 644; N-Dutch = 217) demonstrated that the relations between bullying victimization intensity and current self-esteem, social interaction anxiety, and life satisfaction were all mediated by the perceived negative long-term impact of adolescent bullying victimization. Additionally, the open-ended questions provided a better understanding of the perceived negative and positive impact of adolescent bullying victimization. The present study offers insights into the importance of considering subjective perceptions of the overall impact of being bullied to understand long-term bullying victimization outcomes. Implications and limitations are discussed, including the need for longitudinal data-for instance, a three-wave panel study-to establish the temporal order of effects.

The negative effects and the continuation of cyberbullying seem to depend on the coping strategies the victims use. To assess their coping strategies, self-report questionnaires (SRQs) are used. However, these SRQs are often subject to several shortcomings: the (single and topological) categorizations used in SRQs do not always adequately differentiate among various coping responses, in addition the strategies of general SRQs fail to accurately measure coping with cyberbullying. This study is therefore aimed to develop a SRQ that specifically measures coping with cyberbullying (i.e., Cyberbullying Coping Questionnaire, CCQ) and to discover whether other, not single and topological, categorizations of coping strategies can be found. Based on previous SRQs used in the (cyber)bullying (i.e., traditional and cyberbullying) literature (i.e., 49 studies were found with three different SRQs measuring coping with traditional bullying, cyberbullying or (cyber)bullying) items and categorizations were selected, compared and merged into a new questionnaire. In compliance with recommendations from the classical test-theory, a principal component analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis were done, and a final model was constructed. Seventeen items loaded onto four different coping categorizations: mental-, passive-, social-, and confrontational-coping. The CCQ appeared to have good internal consistency, acceptable test-retest reliability, good discriminant validity and the development of the CCQ fulfilled many of the recommendations from classical test-theory. The CCQ omits working in single and topological categorizations and measures cognitive, behavioral, approach and avoidance strategies.

Because of the negative effects of cyberbullying, and because of its unique characteristics, interventions to stop cyberbullying are needed. For this purpose, more insightful information is needed about cyberbullying victims’ (i.e., the target group) experiences, perceptions, attitudes and motivations related to (coping with) cyberbullying. Five schools with 66 low-educated Dutch adolescents between 12 and 15 (53% female) participated in 10 focus group interviews. Results show that victims do not perceive all behaviors as cyberbullying and traditional bullying is generally perceived as worse than cyberbullying. Cyberbullies are perceived as sad, cowards and embarrassing themselves. Victims are perceived as easy targets, they wear strange clothes, act in a provocative manner and have a bad appearance. These perceptions often depend on context, the level of anonymity, being in a fight or not, the person sending the message and his/her behavior. Further, victims reacted to cyberbullying by acting nonchalant, by not actually saying anything and seeking help from others (i.e., parents are not often asked for help because they do not want to bother them, fear of restricted Internet privileges). It can be concluded that asking cyberbullying victims about their experiences in an open manner, and allowing them to discuss these experiences, likely results in new and insightful information compared to using self-reports. In this questioning the perception of adolescents is key to see what is perceived as cyberbullying.

In this introduction, the definition of cyberbullying will be discussed, instruments to measure cyberbullying will be described, and the state of the art of research on cyberbullying will presented. To date, most studies of cyberbullying investigate demographic factors such as the prevalence of bullying and being victimized, gender, age, and negative outcomes. Some studies investigate responses to cyberbullying, but most of them are limited to technological solutions and informing adults. Hardly any attention is paid to the underlying social psychological mechanisms in relation to antisocial behaviour in online communities and to the role of peer groups. Moreover, most studies are cross-sectional self-reports. The present special issue aims to fill these gaps by presenting studies which are focused on alternative topics using alternative methodologies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study investigated the relationship between the use of coping strategies to deal with daily stressors in general (n = 325) and the use of coping strategies to deal with cyberbullying in particular (n = 88) among children aged 11 and 12 years. Additionally, it investigated the impact of coping strategies on depression and health in victims of cyberbullying (n = 88). The results showed that victims differed significantly from bully-victims (i.e. victims that also bully) and from children not involved in cyberbullying, in that they use certain emotion-focused coping strategies for daily stressors in general more than others. Additionally, this study investigated among victims of cyberbullying the relation between coping strategies in daily life, cyberspecific coping, depressive feelings and health complaints. Coping through emotional expression, avoidance and depressive coping in daily life will lead to more cyberspecific depressive coping when confronted with cyberbullying. This in turn will lead to more depressive feelings and/or health complaints for victims of cyberbullying. These results stress the importance of teaching children how to stand up for themselves and employ effective coping strategies to deal with stress in daily life in general and to deal with cyberbullying in particular. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Language: en

The purpose of this article is to give an integrative insight into the theoretical and empirical-based development of the Online Pestkoppenstoppen (Stop Bullies Online/Stop Online Bullies). This intervention aims to reduce the number of cyberbully victims and their symptoms of depression and anxiety (program goal), by teaching cyberbully victims how to cope in an adequate and effective manner with cyberbully incidents (program’s outcomes). In developing the program the different steps of the Intervention Mapping protocol are systematically used. In this article we describe each step of Intervention Mapping. Sources used for the development were a literature review, a Delphi study among experts, focus group interviews with the target group, and elements from a proven effective anti-bullying program. The result is a fully automated web-based tailored intervention for cyberbully victims (12-15 years) consisting of three web-based advice sessions delivered over three months. The first advice aims to teach participants how behavior is influenced by the thoughts they have, how to recognize and dispute irrational thoughts and how to form rational thoughts. In the second advice, participants will learn about the way bullying emerges, how their behavior influences bullying and how they can use effective coping strategies in order to stop (online) bullying. In the third advice, participants receive feedback and will learn how to use the Internet and mobile phones in a safe manner. Each advice is tailored to the participant’s personal characteristics (e.g., personality, self-efficacy, coping strategies used and (ir)rational thoughts). To ensure implementation of the program after testing it for effectiveness, the intervention was pretested in the target-population and an implementation plan was designed. Finally, we will elaborate on the planned randomized controlled trial in which the intervention will be compared to a general information group and waiting list control group. This evaluation will provide insight into the intervention’s efficacy to reduce cyberbullying and its negative effects. Intervention Mapping is a time consuming but profound way to ensure that each step of developing an intervention is taken, and resulted in three web-based tailored pieces of advices that teach adolescents how to cope more effectively with cyberbullying experiences. NTR3613 , 14-09-2012

Bullying at work: the relation with health en absenteeism and the role of coping Bullying at work: the relation with health en absenteeism and the role of coping F. Dehue, C. Bolman, T. Völlink & M. Pouwelse, Gedrag & Organisatie, volume 20, June 2009, nr. 2, pp. 97-117 In this study, the influence of coping on the relation between bullying experiences at work and health complaints and absenteeism has been investigated. One thousand randomly chosen employees received a questionnaire which was completed and returned by 361 employees. Results revealed that 139 employees (39%) were bullied at least once a month and 64 employees (18%) at least once a week on at least one of the bullying experiences listed in the questionnaire. Employees who have been bullied weekly, report more health complaints and were absent during more days than employees who have been bullied monthly or who have not been bullied at all. They are also more often inclined to compensate as a means of coping with problematic situations. Compensating and a positive active attitude towards problematic situations are coping strategies which moderate the relation between bullying experiences and health complaints and absenteeism. However, using these coping strategies as a response to bullying experiences is detrimental to one's health and supports absenteeism, just as negative organizational and leadership aspects, which are also associated with bullying experiences.