Citation

Zych I, Ortega-Ruiz R, Del Rey R. Aggress. Violent Behav. 2015; 23: 1-21.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.avb.2015.10.001

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Bullying and cyberbullying are present all over the world and have serious consequences for individuals and societies. The number of research studies on the topic has increased exponentially throughout the history, but many questions related to the phenomena remain unanswered. The current study is a systematic review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the topic. Systematic searches were conducted in 7 databases and Aggressive and Violent Behavior journal. A total number of 66 studies met the inclusion criteria. The main findings are that one of every three children is involved in some forms of bullying and one of every five in some forms of cyberbullying. Boys are more involved than girls but with small or trivial effect sizes, and relationship with age is also weak. There is strong overlap between bullying and cyberbullying and bullying is an important problem among minorities.

RESULTS show risk and protective factors for bullying and cyberbullying, together with short- and long-term devastating consequences. Anti-bullying interventions are usually effective in reducing bullying, although the effect sizes are small and depend on the components of the programs. Bullying and cyberbullying evaluation strategies need to be improved.

FINDINGS are discussed introducing also the Special Issue on Bullying, Cyberbullying and Youth Violence: Facts, Prevention and Intervention. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

protection; human; age; violence; sexual abuse; systematic review; Review; morality; Cyberbullying; suicidal ideation; depression; prevalence; sex difference; Bullying; social support; bullying; school; substance use; suicide attempt; personality; empathy; sexual minority; gender identity; risk factor; obesity; sexual orientation; victim; health program; priority journal; geographic distribution; academic achievement; self concept; child parent relation; high risk behavior; offender; problem solving; social status; parental behavior; ethnic difference; minority group; physical abuse; Meta-analyses; family relation; predictor variable; social belief; correlational study; peer pressure; social competence; home environment; internet addiction; meta analysis (topic); systematic review (topic); cyberbullying; Systematic reviews