Social Media Use and Cyberbullying Perpetration: A Longitudinal Analysis

Social networking (e.g., blogging and social networking website use) frequency among adolescents has increased exponentially in the last decade. An unfortunate by-product of increased communication via the Internet is cyberbullying; however, there is a paucity of longitudinal research exploring the relationships between social network use and cyberbullying in an adolescent sample. The current study used a three-wave longitudinal study of over 3000 (at Wave 1) Singaporean youth to examine whether the relationship between Wave 1 social network use and Wave 3 cyberbullying perpetration was mediated by an increase in Wave 2 development of positive cyberbullying attitudes. Results using structural equation modeling showed support for this hypotheses: Wave 1 social networking use predicted Wave 2 positive cyberbullying attitudes 2 years later. Finally, Wave 2 cyberbullying attitudes predicted Wave 3 cyberbullying perpetration 1 year later. Overall, these results suggest that social networking can be used to harm others through the development of positive cyberbullying attitudes - a link that has received very little empirical attention.