Potent ways forward : new multidimensional theoretical structural models of cyberbullying, cyber targetization, and bystander behaviors and their potential relations to traditional bullying constructs

In this chapter, it is our thesis that a critical key to advancing cyberbullying research is addressing within-construct issues, whereby the structure of hypothetical cyberbullying constructs and their relation to traditional bullying constructs are theorized and then tested. Testing involves utilizing instrumentation with demonstrated psychometrically sound properties, and then revising theory based on the findings of empirical research to ensure the appropriate scientific interplay between theory and research. In this chapter, hypothesized potential theoretical models of the structure of bullying, cyberbullying constructs (namely, cyberbullying, cyber targetization), and their relation to traditional bullying constructs (bullying, victimization, bystander roles) are theorized, grounded upon recent advances stemming from traditional bullying within-construct research. It is hoped that these proposed models may serve as a potentially edifying theoretical basis from which to further test the place of cyberbullying constructs in relation to traditional bullying constructs. The models might also serve as a basis to begin to integrate traditional bullying and cyberbullying research; stimulate advances in within-construct cyberbullying research, in particular; and provide a theoretical basis for operationalizing bullying constructs as complex, dynamic, and interrelated.