COPING STRATEGIES AND SELF-EFFICACY BELIEFS MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS REPORT WHEN PRESENTED WITH POTENTIAL CYBERBULLYING
Date
2019
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to better understand what constitutes cyberbullying behavior, what types of coping strategies are perceived as being effective, and the role of self-efficacy beliefs to carry out stated strategies with middle school students through a mixed methods design. The study was conducted at two middle schools (N = 189) in the Mid-Atlantic region. In order to investigate these questions, an exploratory mixed methods design was used. Descriptive vignettes of potential cyberbullying situations were implemented to elicit participants’ beliefs about cyberbullying behavior followed by open-ended reporting of coping strategies, and a self-efficacy rating scale to indicate beliefs inability to apply stated strategies. Additionally, interviews were conducted with middle school participants (n = 6) in order to ascertain a deeper understanding of how adolescents perceived potential cyberbullying situations, and whether they were credible. Findings indicated further validity and reliability for the cyberbullying instrument using vignettes. Types of cyberbullying specified through interviews included intent to harm, repetition, repeated victimization, and social dominance. Themes to describe vignettes included denigration and outing/trickery. The most frequent coping strategies students reported were telling an adult and confrontation and blocking. When a coping strategy was not indicated, the main reason reported was hopelessness. For those who did report access to a coping strategy, only moderate ratings were indicated for belief in their capability to apply the stated coping strategy. Implications for educators and adolescent parents are suggested with future research directions presented.