ABSTRACT
In this chapter, rationales are presented for the types of data that would allow researchers to advance our collective understanding of the phenomenon of cyberbullying. While other authors in this book have considered the ways in which we define the behavior we now describe as “cyberbullying,” these definitions are not used uniformly by those who research the field. To date, reports of the incidence of cyberbullying have varied dramatically from 4% (Ybarra & Mitchell, 2004) to 36% among girls (Hinduja & Patchin, 2008) and higher. Researchers have also presumed that they are measuring the same phenomenon across studies as well as longitudinally. For example, Williams and Guerra (2007) studied “Internet bullying” while Li (2005) focused on e-mail, Internet chat room communication, and cell/mobile phone usage. In a review of studies conducted by 18 different individual researchers or groups, Rivers and Noret (2010) noted that there was a great deal of inconsistency in the ways in which bullying via electronic media was operationalized. While the majority of researchers included SMS/text and e-mail bullying, others, but not all, included blogs, instant messages, website comments and uploads, Internet chat rooms, newsgroups, and the sending of pictures and video clips to others. Consequently, researchers have differed substantially in their estimates of frequency or prevalence. Kowalski and Witte (2006) asked students if they had ever been cyberbullied, whereas Smith, Mahdavi, Carvalho, Fisher, Russell, and Tippett (2008) used two or three times in the past couple of months as the marker. Hinduja and Patchin (2008) asked students to report on repeated experiences in the last year, and Li (2006) asked her participants about cyberbullying taking place during school.
