ABSTRACT

This chapter extends cyberbullying research beyond the cyberbully-cybervictim dyad, acknowledging the interactive, social context where bystanders play an important role. Focus group interviews among college students who witnessed cyberbullying were conducted to explore empirical associations between cyberbullying bystander behaviors, perpetration, and victimization. Using multiple goals theories, analysis revealed a typology of cyberbullying bystanders. The typology describes bystanders’ actions as goal-oriented, communicative functions of proximity, severity, environment, audience, and potential consequences. Goals contribute to five bystander types: the oblivious/distant bystander (who ignores), the entertained bystander (who observes), the conspiring bystander (who intentionally instigates), the unintentional instigating bystander (who unintentionally instigates), and the active/empowered bystander (who intervenes, reports, responds, or reaches out). Practical implications concerning the prevalence of cyberbullying among college students are discussed, as well as considerations for ameliorating cyberbullying incidents by considering bystanders’ pro-social attitudes and behavior. Further, theoretical implications for extending multiple goals theories are presented.