Bystander Roles in Cyberbullying: A Mini-Review of Who, How Many, and Why

Abstract

Cyberbullying has progressively increased due to the massive use of the internet and social networks. Bystanders constitute the largest group, occupying a key role in the evolution of the cyberbullying situation and its consequences for the victim. Research shows different ways in which bystanders behave, suggesting different types of sub-roles associated with different study variables. The objective of this literature review is to identify and characterize the roles of bystanders in cyberbullying situations that involve adolescent students. To achieve this objective, a systematic search was carried out in the Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus databases for articles published between 2015 and 2020, resulting in 233 articles. Articles were then selected by relevant title and summary. Subsequently, the inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, resulting in a total of nine articles. The findings of this review allowed us to identify two to five types of bystanders, the largest type representing outsiders and the smallest type representing assistants of the aggressor. The identified types of bystanders are characterized for variables such as sex, age, previous experience, and empathy. The results are discussed considering the available theoretical and empirical evidence.

Psychometric Properties of the Moral Disengagement through Technologies Questionnaire (MDTech-Q) in a Sample of Chilean University Students

“…Society has progressively transformed over time, showing evidence of a significant increase in technological devices and Internet use, considering in particular the mass use of cell phones that allow people to be connected at any time and place [ 83 ]. Currently, people interact on different digital platforms, where violence, aggression, hate speech, cyberbullying, and other social phenomena that negatively affect people are observed [ 20 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 28 , 59 ], and these are important for Chilean university students since 78.3% use the social network daily [ 71 ]. MD through technologies is relevant because this construct is associated with negative Internet behaviors.…”

“…MD is linked to different negative behaviors such as online hate speech [ 20 ], racist behavior on news websites [ 21 ], hostile emotions [ 22 ], sexist memes online [ 23 ], cyberbullying [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], and increased cyberaggression and cybervictimization [ 28 , 29 , 30 ]. In addition, it has a moderating role between social network fatigue and online trolling [ 31 ].…”

Characteristics and effectiveness of interventions to reduce cyberbullying: a systematic review

“…In the case of interventions that measured differences in the prevalence of CBS, none was found to be effective. This could lead us to suggest that this outcome is due to the difficulty of producing changes in this type of behavior or in the difficulty of objectively measuring these changes ( 61 ).…”

School Violence: Causes, Impacts and Solutions

“…But teens with a higher emphasis on empathy would intervene directly in any situation, whether it was anonymous or private. Over time, the higher the frequency of bystanders' cyberbullying, the lower the empathic response [29]. Some studies have shown that teenagers on average choose to be more likely to help a friend of their sex.…”