Patterns of coping with cyberbullying: Emotional, behavioral, and strategic coping reactions among middle school students

The aim of the present study was to examine coping patterns among victims of cyberbullying in middle school. The study included 232 adolescents, of whom 20.7% reported having been the victim of cyberbullying. Findings show that the most common emotional reactions to cyberbullying among the cyber victims were anger, rage, and frustration. The most commonly found behavioral reactions to cyberbullying were informing a friend, counterattacking, and ignoring the cyber incident. Examining the types of coping strategies that were used, we found that the victims of cyberbullying reported a lower use of problemfocused coping strategies for stressful situations, compared to adolescents who were not cyber victims; in addition, cyber victims also reported a much greater use of emotionally focused coping strategies and avoidance-focused strategies, compared to adolescents who were not cyber victims.