The Paradigm Model of Cyberbullying Phenomenon

This research attempted to fill the knowledge gap incyberbullying phenomenon by focusing on factors thatcontribute to its activities among adolescents in Malaysia. Theresearch seeks to understand the antecedents and the contextsand prevailing conditions that influence it, as well as thephenomenon, the coping strategies and the consequencesresulting from the coping strategies. Using a grounded theorymethodology, in-depth interviews were conducted on adolescentsaged between 12 to 18 years from different schools in the state ofPerlis. The data were analyzed using NVivo 10 by methodicallycoding and categorizing the data in open, axial and selectivecoding to arrive at a model development. A paradigm model wasobtained based on informants’ individual comments andexperiences which uniquely contribute to the body of knowledgeon cyberbullying phenomenon in Malaysia. The involvedelements derived from the model are; the antecedents ofcyberbullying; the phenomenon; the coping strategies byinformants and the consequences resulting from these strategies.The significance of this study lies in its attempt to provide aworking framework for reducing adolescents’ technology abusethat will eventually lead to cyberbullying and to find solutionsfor adolescents to tackle cyberbullying problems if it everhappened. This study is hoped to benefit all the parties:adolescents, parents, teachers, and other stakeholders tominimize adolescents’ cyberbullying phenomenon