Does the COVID-19 Pandemic Increase or Decrease the Global Cyberbullying Behaviors?: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Ning Huang; Shan Zhang; Yakun Mu; Yebo Yu; Madelon M.E. Riem; Jing Guo

doi:10.1177/15248380231171185

Does the COVID-19 Pandemic Increase or Decrease the Global Cyberbullying Behaviors? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Ning Huang, Shan Zhang, Yakun Mu, Yebo Yu, Madelon M.E. Riem, Jing Guo^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Review article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Although cyberbullying is an emerging public health problem, it is unclear how the COVID-19 pandemic affects cyberbullying. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on cyberbullying, to estimate the global cyberbullying prevalence and to explore factors related to cyberbullying during the COVID-19 pandemic. We searched the Medline, Embase, PubMed, Scopus, Eric, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Wanfang, Chinese CNKI, and EBSCO databases to identify relevant empirical studies published between 2019 and 2022. A total of 36 studies were included. Quality assessment, meta-analyses, and subgroup analyses were conducted. The pooled prevalences were 16% for overall cyberbullying, 18% for victimization and 11% for perpetration during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pooled prevalence of postpandemic cyberbullying perpetration is lower in children than in adults. In addition, both virus- and lockdown-related stressors were the main factors contributing to cyberbullying. The COVID-19 crisis may reduce cyberbullying, and the pooled prevalence of cyberbullying during the pandemic in adults is higher than in children and adolescents. In addition, the transient-enduring factor model of postpandemic cyberbullying built in this review could help identify people at high risk of cyberbullying during public health emergencies.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1018-1035
Number of pages	18
Journal	Trauma, Violence, and Abuse
Volume	25
Issue number	2
Early online date	13 May 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380231171185
Publication status	Published - Apr 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number: 82173636] and Beijing Municipal Social Science Foundation [grant number: 22JYA002]. The founders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Funders	Funder number
Beijing Municipal Social Science Foundation	22JYA002
National Natural Science Foundation of China	82173636

Keywords

COVID-19
cyberbullying
meta-analysis
perpetration
transient-enduring factor
victimization

Access to Document

10.1177/15248380231171185

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Cite this

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title = "Does the COVID-19 Pandemic Increase or Decrease the Global Cyberbullying Behaviors?: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis",

abstract = "Although cyberbullying is an emerging public health problem, it is unclear how the COVID-19 pandemic affects cyberbullying. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on cyberbullying, to estimate the global cyberbullying prevalence and to explore factors related to cyberbullying during the COVID-19 pandemic. We searched the Medline, Embase, PubMed, Scopus, Eric, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Wanfang, Chinese CNKI, and EBSCO databases to identify relevant empirical studies published between 2019 and 2022. A total of 36 studies were included. Quality assessment, meta-analyses, and subgroup analyses were conducted. The pooled prevalences were 16% for overall cyberbullying, 18% for victimization and 11% for perpetration during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pooled prevalence of postpandemic cyberbullying perpetration is lower in children than in adults. In addition, both virus- and lockdown-related stressors were the main factors contributing to cyberbullying. The COVID-19 crisis may reduce cyberbullying, and the pooled prevalence of cyberbullying during the pandemic in adults is higher than in children and adolescents. In addition, the transient-enduring factor model of postpandemic cyberbullying built in this review could help identify people at high risk of cyberbullying during public health emergencies.",

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