Content area

Abstract

Cyberbullying is a relatively new area of research which has developed over the last decade. Although its popularity has taken off recently, more research is needed to discern cyberbullying behavior. This dissertation seeks to address whether weak commitment to school, deviant peers, and cyberbullying victimization-strain variables can explain cyberbullying offending. In addition, it attempts to explain the mediation effects among weak commitment to school, deviant peers, cyberbullying victimization-strain, and cyberbullying offending variables. Using data from two middle schools in the United States, the findings suggest that weak commitment to school, deviant peers, and cyberbullying victimization-strain variables were able to predict cyberbullying offending. The findings also show that deviant peers and cyberbullying victimization-strain mediated, at least partly, the effect of weak commitment to school on cyberbullying offending. Overall, this dissertation indicates weak to moderate support for the commitment to school concept of social bonding theory and moderate to strong support for both the differential association and strain concepts of social learning and general strain theories. Theory and research implications are discussed.

Details

Title
Weak Commitment to School, Deviant Peers, and Cyberbullying Victimization-Strain in Adolescent Cyberbullying
Author
Lee, Charern
Year
2017
Publisher
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
ISBN
978-0-355-13387-5
Source type
Dissertation or Thesis
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1937915933
Copyright
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.