Cyberbullying in Childhood and Adolescence: Assessment, Coping, and the Role of Appearance

"This thesis has three general aims. First, it aims to extend our understanding of an almost unexplored area: the relationship between cyberbullying and appearance. Being the first to study appearance-related cyberbullying through focus groups in the 9th grade, it aims to explore characteristics of the cybervictims and cyberbullies, and the reasons for as well as thecontent and effects of the appearance related cyberbullying. This part of the thesis also addresses whether there is any relationship between cyberbullying and body esteem among the pupils in the 4 , 6 and 9 grades. Finally, it also investigates how common cyberbullying is among pupils in the 4 , 6 and 9 grades, and whether there are any age and gender differences. Second, the thesis aims to investigate the coping strategies that pupils in the 4th and 6th grades suggest they would use if they were cyberbullied, and whether there are differences in these strategies related to age and gender. Third, the thesis aims to present a representative overview of the instruments designed to assess cyberbullying in order to provide information about their conceptual framework and existing data on their psychometric properties." (Author, 33)