Following you home from school: A critical review and synthesis of research on cyberbullying victimization

More than 97% of youths in the United States are connected to the Internet in some way. An unintended outcome of the Internet's pervasive reach is the growing rate of harmful offenses against children and teens. Cyberbullying victimization is one such offense that has recently received a fair amount of attention. The present report synthesizes findings from quantitative research on cyberbullying victimization. An integrative definition for the term cyberbullying is provided, differences between traditional bullying and cyberbullying are explained, areas of convergence and divergence are offered, and sampling and/or methodological explanations for the inconsistencies in the literature are considered. About 20-40% of all youths have experienced cyberbullying at least once in their lives. Demographic variables such as age and gender do not appear to predict cyberbullying victimization. Evidence suggests that victimization is associated with serious psychosocial, affective, and academic problems. The report concludes by outlining several areas of concern in cyberbullying research and discusses ways that future research can remedy them. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.