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The growth of cyberbullying among youth in higher learning institutions: a bibliometric analysis

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Vol. 10 (2024)

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Articles

The growth of cyberbullying among youth
in higher learning institutions:
a bibliometric analysis

Placidius M. Ndibalema[0000-0002-9119-4255]

The University of Dodoma, 1 Benjamin Mkapa Rd, 41218 Iyumbu, Dodoma, Tanzania

[email-masked]

https://www.udom.ac.tz/staff/staff_profile?id=VDBSalBRPT0=

Abstract. Cyberbullying has become one of the misconducts among
the youth due to an increased use of the internet in the educational
context. The bibliometric analysis was carried out to determine the
global trends in the evolution of cyberbullying among the youth in
higher learning institutions (HLIs). The analysis involved 1073 research
articles published between 2008 and 2022 retrieved from the Dimensions
scientific database. The VOSviewer 1.6.20 software was used to establish
visualisation networks. The results indicate a rapid growth of research
articles on cyberbullying from 2019 to 2022, where most HLIs migrated
to virtual teaching due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The developed
countries had high rates of research publications and strong collaboration
patterns in cyberbullying. The results also indicate factors such as harsh
parenting and moral disengagement to be the causes of cyberbullying.
The analysis shows that publications on cyberbullying from developing
countries are very low compared with their developed counterparts.
Examining the trends in cyberbullying among youth in HLIs offers new
insights into the prevalence, forms, and concerns of cyberbullying within
this specific population of HLIs. This study enhances our understanding
of cyberbullying consequences and broadens our knowledge about how
increased autonomy among youth in using technology immorally can
fasten the growth of cyberbullying in HLIs. This study informs the
development of appropriate intervention strategies within HLIs that
promote digital safety and citizenship. HLIs can also utilise the findings
to develop rules and regulations that address cyberbullying within their
institutions. Conducting a systematic review of the effective prevention
and intervention strategies on cyberbullying employed by HLIs in
different contexts may provide more insights into shaping youth in
promoting digital safety.

Keywords: cyberbullying • bullying • bibliometric • digital divide •
victimisation • digital well-being • digital safety

1 Introduction

This paper has been triggered by various concerns about increased internet use
globally. Global statistics show a tremendous increase in the use of the internet, which
has resulted in an increased incidence of cyberbullying. Although internet-based
learning is considered an option in many HLIs, an alternative to traditional learning
during the Coronavirus pandemic, it became an essential element for maintaining the
activity of schools and universities [22]. Most recent statistics indicate that about 50%
of the global population is using the internet, of which 70% of that population are the
youth [38]. It is clearly stipulated that the youth (69%) of the total population use
the internet.

Although there are some indicators of the prevalence of the digital divide across
different regions, during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many HLIs
donated or loaned out devices and offered students internet bundles to give
them access to online resources [60]. According to Jain et al. [39], there
was a noticeable increase in the factors affecting cyberbullying susceptibility
during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the increased use of online learning.
With the growing use of electronic communication technologies, interest in
cyberbullying is accelerating and catching up with the substantial knowledge base
concerning traditional bullying [16]. The recent study by Mkhize and Gopal [48]
indicates that the increase in the use of social media during the lockdown has
increased victims of cyberbullying in which the youth experience most posts and
comments about sexting, sexual comments on young girls’ pictures and videos of
insulting each other. In the context of this paper, the term youth has been used
interchangeably with students in HLIs. At the same time, the term cyberbullying
was also considered as the repeated actions of using technologies such as
social media, instant messaging, and e-mails to harm, harass, intimidate
or humiliate others, causing emotional distress and potential harm to the
victims.

There have been several incidences reported by different researchers on the
prevalence of cyberbullying in HLIs in different countries. A study carried out in
Israel by Peled [56] found that 57% of the students had experienced cyberbullying
at least once or twice through different types of media, of which instant
messaging was found to be the most common means of cyberbullying among
the students. In another study in Myanmar, it was revealed that two out of
five students had been the victim of cyberbullying in the past 12 months.
Non-resident students and students who had been studying in the university
for three years or less were at a higher risk of being cyberbullying victims
[41]. Indeed, Nwosu et al. [54] found that over 50% of the students in one
University in Nigeria were aware of the incidents of cyberbullying within

their cycles in and outside the school environment of which the most typical
forms of cyberbullying they were aware of in the past couple of months were
text message, phone calls and chat room bullying. Also, a range of 48%-57%
undergraduates were bullied through various cyber media listed and 28.6%-
40.0% had bullied others through these devices in the past couple of months
[54].

A similar situation was found in Kenya by Ndiege et al. [52], who reported the
highest form of cyberbullying through deception, in which 49.7% of the respondents
reported sending a rude message to someone electronically. Onditi [55] reports that
cyberbullying is a concern among Tanzanian adolescents, of which victims reported
experiencing negative emotional, social, cognitive, behavioural, and academic
outcomes as a result of online victimisation. Although there are some indicators of the
prevalence of cyberbullying in the global context, several studies indicate a
concern about ethical dilemmas. Undoubtedly, the trend of using electronic
devices instead of printed materials has increased, but it is unclear how it
contributes to cyberbullying. In addition, how ethical issues are addressed in HLIs
is under-researched despite their implications for students’ behaviour and
learning.

There has been a growing interest in bibliometric analysis in education,
particularly e-learning among the youth. In some recent bibliometric analyses, it
has been revealed that there has been an increase in using digital devices
among the youth due to the adoption of smart learning environments to
suit learning beyond four walls of the classroom [4, 25, 51]. However, these
studies have limited information about possible behaviour associated with
excessive use of digital devices or some malpractices, such as cyberbullying,
that are likely to occur among the youth. Other researchers have employed
bibliometric analysis methodological procedures to analyse the impact of
integrating educational technologies into peer assessment in online learning,
professional development, distance learning and new emerging learning strategies
such as collaborative learning, discovery learning and inquiry-based learning
[29, 35, 44, 69].

Despite these studies, inadequate information regarding youth perspectives
towards behavioural changes due to increased exposure to digital learning space could
still be noticed; thus, there is a need for the current study. However, there are a few
bibliometric analyses that indicate a growing interest among researchers in
Cyberbullying and the emotional aspects not only among youth or adolescents but
also children [24]. The risks associated with a lack of digital well-being strategies for
implementing online learning have inadequately been addressed. Thus, the current
bibliometric presents evidence regarding the risks associated with cyberbullying
among the youth that is a result of inadequate consideration of digital well-being
principles in online learning.

1.1 Proliferation of technology and cyberbullying among the youth in

HLIs

With the increased access to the internet, technology and social media, the problem of
cyberbullying has been on the rise among the youth. Since higher education
necessitates access to information technology, university students are found
comparatively more exposed and involved in the incidences of cyberbullying [61].
Available empirical evidence indicates that there is a higher rate of male youth in
HLIs who commit acts of cyberbullying compared to their female counterparts [52]. In
the study, which involved 412 university students aged 18 years and older at one
medical university in Magway, Myanmar, it was indicated that about 40.8% of males
and 51.1% of females in the study had suffered cyberbullying victimisation in the past
12 months due to an increased use of internet [41]. In most HLIs, ICT has been
normalised to be part of daily life, something that increases the risk of students being
involved in cyberbullying [8]. According to Jain et al. [39], there has been an
increased rate of incidences of cyberbullying in India due to increased use
of technology during COVID-19 among the youth in universities, of which
the most prominent forms have been stalking (71.21%) followed by posting
derogatory comments (64.39%), leaking pictures/videos online (41.67%),
and harassing (21.97%). This is an indication that the proliferation of new
technological gadgets such as smartphones with the use of the internet has made
a significant contribution towards the growth of cyberbullying among the
youth.

Despite the prevalence of cyberbullying among the youth in HLIs, there is limited
research regarding the evolution of it. Thus, utilising a bibliometric analysis
would bring insights into the growth of cyberbullying in HLIs. Because of the
above, the objective of this study was to analyse the evolution of this topic by
employing the bibliometric method to get an overview of cyberbullying in the last
fifteen years through indicators such as the number of publications, types of
documents, countries and institutions, authors, and so forth. Further analysis
was made to identify the trends in publications on cyberbullying among the
youth in HLIs during this period. The analysis focused on examining the
global trends in research about cyberbullying in HLIs, identifying key terms
related to forms of cyberbullying in HLIs and exploring factors, conditions and
impacts associated with increased forms of cyberbullying among the youth in
HLIs.

2 Methodology

The central methodology used for this study was a bibliometric analysis of the
research trends on cyberbullying in HLIs. The consideration was on research articles
published between 2008 and 2022. The consideration of the publications between 2008
and 2022 was based on the fact that before 2008, there were very limited published
empirical articles about cyberbullying [59]. The bibliometric analysis was adopted to
evaluate researchers’ patterns in terms of collaboration, institutions’ and countries’
productivity, and the occurrence of key terms related to cyberbullying in

HLIs.

2.1 Search database and strategy

This study was conducted using a scientific database known as Dimensions. This
digital platform includes citation data, research analytics features, and scholarly
e-content. The consideration of the dimensions database was based on its ability to
link and offer rich contextual search and data visualisation of huge amounts of data,
which include the number of citations per publication [30, 36]. The Dimensions
database constitutes the overall research landscape. It helps to bring a broader
context of research, the researcher, a research field, an institution, a country, and
many other major research issues that may be of interest to stakeholders in the
research world [37].

2.2 Literature search strategy

The search keywords strategy was used to identify resources to be included in the
bibliometric analysis. The keywords employed in searching include “Cyberbullying”
OR “cyber-bullying” AND “Youth” OR “Student” OR “Learner” AND “Higher
Learning Institution” OR “Higher education” OR “Universities” OR “Colleges”. The
search for publications was limited to the period from 2008 to 2022. A search filter
was applied to the type of documents by selecting open-access articles in journals.
The consideration of open-access articles was purposeful to enable the author to read
the full article if extra information was needed apart from what was in the abstract.
On this basis, book chapters, monographs, edited books, proceedings and preprint
materials were excluded because they could lack empirical evidence to support a
broad picture of global trends in research about cyberbullying in HLIs. A total of
1073 research articles were found, which were exported in Excel format for later
analysis.

2.3 Inclusion and exclusion criteria

The inclusion and exclusion criteria considered are summarised in table 1.

Table 1: Inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Criteria

Inclusion

Exclusion

Accessibility

Open access empirical
articles only

Closed access empirical articles

Language of
articles

Articles reported in the
English language

Articles not reported in the English
language

Publication
type

Empirical
articles that are from a
peer-reviewed journal

Thesis, dissertations, review paper,
edited books, proceedings book
chapters and other papers that were
not from journal articles

Publication
years

Articles
published between 2008
to 2022

Articles published before 2008 and
after 2022

The focus of the
articles

Articles focusing
on cyberbullying among
youth in HLIs

Articles that did not focus on
cyberbullying in HLIs

Population
(students/youth)

Students/youth in HLIs

Students or youth or children who
are not in HLIs

2.4 Process flow of the systematic review

The process of selecting articles for review considered PRISMA guidelines as shown in
figure 1.

Fig. 1: Flow diagram for the systematic review following the PRISMA statement.

2.5 Data analysis procedures

The VOSviewer 1.6.20 software was used to analyse the publications visually. Both
networks and overlay visualisation analysis of citation network of authors, most
productive journals, most productive organisations, most productive countries and
co-occurrence of keywords were conducted through VOSviewer 1.6.20 software.
Further analysis was done to establish the relationship among authors regarding
collaborations in which several clusters were established across organisations and
countries. The analysis was also based on the strength of the total links, which
indicates the total strength of the co-authorship links of a given researcher with other
researchers.

3 Results

3.1 Global trends on research about cyberbullying in HLIs

The analysis was made to globally trace the growth of research on the prevalence of
cyberbullying among the youth in HLIs. Figure 2 provides further descriptive data on
the number of publications per year.

Fig. 2: Trends on publications in cyberbullying among youth in HLIs.

The findings in figure 2 indicate a sudden increase in publications since 2019. The
reasons for such an increase could be an increased demand and use of online distance
learning in many HLIs due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
where face-to-face teaching sessions (on-campus) were suspended in most
countries.

3.2 Authors with higher citations on cyberbullying

The results of the analysis of authors with higher citations are summarised in
table 2.

Table 2: Authors with the highest citation links.

Rank

Author

Documents

Citations

Total link strength

1

Hinduja, Sameer

2

336

4

2

Patchin, Justin W.

2

336

4

3

Livingstone, Sonia

2

296

4

4

Ortega-ruiz, Rosario

2

263

12

5

Aydin, Selami

2

202

0

6

Espelage, Dorothy L.

2

167

2

7

Walrave, Michel

5

164

8

8

Ponnet, Koen

4

158

8

9

Ziemba, Ewa

3

152

4

10

Cross, Donna

2

151

3

11

Lester, Leanne

2

151

3

12

Shin, Wonsun

2

135

2

13

Van Ouytsel, Joris

3

126

6

14

Tomczyk, Łukasz

7

124

6

15

Khan, Naseer Abbas

2

121

1

16

Veletsianos, George

2

113

0

17

Khan, Ali Nawaz

4

107

2

18

Alonso-Fernández, Cristina

2

88

1

19

Calvo-Morata, Antonio

2

88

1

20

Fernández-Manjón, Baltasar

2

88

1

The citations were analysed by reflecting on the minimum number of 40 citations,
and the results indicate that Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin had the highest
citations (336). In contrast, Rosario Ortega-Ruiz had the highest total link strengths
(12).

3.3 Organisations with highest citation

The analysis was made based on the minimum number of 40 citations in the
organisation, and the results are presented in figure 3.

Fig. 3: Patterns on organisations with the highest citation.

The results indicate that the University of Toronto has the highest citations,
followed by Harvard University, the University of Antwerp, and Arizona State
University.

3.4 Countries with higher publications on cyberbullying among the
youth

The bibliometric coupling analysis was made to identify popular countries and
collaborative patterns in research publications about cyberbullying among
the youth in HLIs. The analysis was based on the minimum number of 5
documents of the country and the minimum of 5 citations of the country, whereby
out of 222 countries, 40 met the threshold. The findings are presented in
figure 4.

Fig. 4: Network on popular countries on publications about cyberbullying.

The findings in figure 4 indicate that developed countries such as the United
States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada have high rates of research
publications and strong collaboration patterns in cyberbullying. This could be an
alert that there is high internet use for networked learning compared to other
developing countries such as Mozambique, Nepal, Rwanda, and Kenya, which have
low connection patterns.

Further analysis was made to identify popular journals which have strong
links to cyberbullying among youth in HLIs. The results are presented in
table 3.

Table 3: Distribution of articles by journal with total highest links.

Rank

Journal

Articles

Citations

Total

link

strength

Quartile

H-Index

SJR

1

Children and Youth
Services Review

21

741

746

Q1

107

0.97

2

International Journal
of Environmental Research
and Public Health

28

436

674

Q2

167

0.83

3

Computers in Human
Behaviour

16

998

531

Q1

226

2.46

4

Current Psychology

11

31

466

Q2

54

0.66

5

Frontiers in Psychology

21

246

413

Q2

157

0.89

6

Integration of Education

56

92

251

Q2

10

0.19

7

Journal of Interpersonal
Violence

5

23

243

Q1

119

1.04

8

Child Indicators Research

5

56

195

Q1

39

0.89

9

International Journal of
Bullying Prevention

8

68

167

Q1

12

0.75

10

Sustainability

14

365

164

Q1

136

0.66

11

Child Abuse & Neglect

6

128

159

Q1

164

1.72

12

Education and Information
Technologies

12

101

152

Q1

61

1.25

13

Information Technology and
People

5

131

135

Q1

71

1.08

14

Education Sciences

7

54

111

Q2

40

0.61

15

Journal of Children and
Media

5

242

65

Q1

26

0.86

Further analysis was made to establish a network visualisation map of the
patterns indicating strong links between the journals, and the results are presented in
figure 5.

Fig. 5: Network visualisation of popular journals about cyberbullying among
the youth.

The results indicate that journals such as “Integration of Education”,
“International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health”, “Computers in
Human Behaviour”, “Behavioural and Brain Sciences”, “Frontiers in Psychology” and
“Children and Youth Services Review” have strong links in publishing research articles
on cyberbullying among youth.

3.5 Co-occurrence of keywords about cyberbullying

The co-occurrence analysis of keywords was carried out to explore the popular key
areas associated with cyberbullying. The analysis was based on ten minimum number
of occurrences of a term, where out of 19186 terms, 747 met the threshold. A
relevance score was calculated for each of the 747 terms, and selection was based on
the default choice of 60% of the most relevant terms. The results are presented in
figure 6.

Fig. 6: Bibliographic coupling of co-occurrence of keywords about cyberbullying.

The word patterns relating to cyberbullying can be classified into six
clusters as follows: the first cluster (red colour) shows how cyberbullying
has a number of effects such as suicidal ideation, disruption, depression and
loneliness. The second cluster (light blue) indicates some causes of cyberbullying,
which include perpetration and moral disengagement. The third cluster (blue)
indicates some facilitative conditions for cyberbullying, which include frequent
internet use and low self-control. The fourth cluster (green) is linked with a
frequent virtual environment (i.e., technology) used by the youth, indicating the
occurrence of cyberbullying, which includes Facebook and Instagram. The fifth
cluster (yellow-green) indicates possible risks such as sexual abuse, social
exclusion, sexual orientation and online safety. The sixth cluster (purple)
indicates that most victims are girls who are likely to have low academic
performance.

4 Discussion

The findings indicate that there has been an increase in publications on
cyberbullying in HLIs since 2008. This increase has been rapid from 2019 to 2022,
which is a period when the world witnessed the outbreak of the COVID-19
pandemic. It has also been revealed in most recent studies that there has been
rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic in most countries [14, 39].
With this rapid growth of technology, the internet and migration to online
distance learning in most HLIs, it is evident that most students have been
victims of cyberbullying. Even before COVID-19, some studies indicate the
prevalence of cyberbullying in many HLIs in several countries. For instance, the
study conducted at U.S. metropolitan North-Eastern Catholic University by
Webber and Ovedovitz [65] indicates that out of 187 students, a total of
4.3% of them indicated that they had been victims of cyberbullying while in
college and 7.5% indicated that they had participated in cyberbullying at the
university level. Another study, which involved 242 students at Malaysia’s
Universiti Teknologi by Al-Rahmi et al. [6], revealed that more than half of
the students indicated that they had been bullied, harassed, and stalked
online.

The findings from the previous studies reveal that the prevalence of cyberbullying
is due to increased use of the internet for learning and social networks among youth
in HLIs. Increased internet use among the youth in HLIs aligns with the
sustainable development goals in which there is more emphasis on exploring several
opportunities through technology to enhance technical and vocational skills
for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship [1]. This suggests that if
technological opportunities among the youth are explored thoroughly, it
will be possible to witness continued cyberbullying actions and victims in
HLIs.

Further findings revealed that there is a higher publication rate on cyberbullying
among developed countries compared to developing countries. This could indicate

a high rate of internet users in developed countries, which attracts many
researchers to research the impact of its misuse. Another bibliometric study found
that most developed countries such as the United States, Spain, China, and
Germany had high publications on cyberbullying [62]. Another study by
Barragán Martín et al. [15] revealed that the United States, Spain, England,
Australia, Canada, China and Italy have the highest rates of publications
on cyberbullying among adolescents. This is an indication that there is an
increase in the use of new technologies among the youth in HLIs in developed
countries. The increase in cyberbullying behaviour among the youth is also
attributed to a lack of knowledge among educators and their students on
what could be the legal consequences and social impact of being a victim
[50].

While the literature indicates an increased publication rate in developed countries,
one could notice very little hope in developing countries, as the pattern indicated a
few countries such as Mozambique, Nepal, Rwanda, and Kenya. Most HLIs have faced
many technological challenges, leading to the low usage of technologies in
teaching and learning. Thus, the probability of many students being victims of
cyberbullying is low. Recent literature indicates that some HLIs in developing
countries have limited or no internet at all, leading to failure in running
e-learning activities [7, 23]. One could also notice little effort in research on
the impact of adopting technological innovations in some HLIs as there are
variations in terms of culture, beliefs, and habits compared to developed countries
[42].

Although technological adoption in some HLIs in developing countries appears to
be slow, the literature indicates that online communication is increasing in most
educational institutions, which invites the prevalence of cyberbullying behaviour
among students [46]. It is possible to conclude that the prevalence of cyberbullying
depends on many factors, which may include increased time one spends on
social media, meeting strangers online, individual perspectives toward others’
opinions, increased posting of private information, increased risk of being a
victim of cyberbullying, [10, 39]. It makes sense to conclude that although
there are very few publications on cyberbullying in developing countries,
it does not guarantee the absence of the same. The problem has probably
received limited attention among researchers. It is not a common phenomenon
since technology adoption in most HLIs in developing countries is still in its
infancy.

Furthermore, the findings from the current review revealed limited co-authorship
between authors in developing and developed countries. This indicates that
there could be limited evidence and interventions that could work in different
contexts. Some funding agencies may need to fund projects addressing global
phenomena, but if authors are not collaborating to generate co-authorship, it
is possible to generate some solutions that lack contextual reality. Lack of
strong collaboration between HLIs may limit researchers to combine their
expertise and potential to generate innovations and ideas to solve existing
problems. Universities may also have inadequate access to funding and research

grants.

The results also indicated a strong pattern between a journal focusing on learners’
behaviour and learning. Journals such as “Behavioral and Brain Sciences”, “Frontiers
in Psychology”, and “Integration of Education” were found to have strong
collaboration and significant impact on the field of cyberbullying. Most recent
literature indicates that these journals, more specifically the journal “Computers in
Human Behavior”, is a well-established source with a wide range of audiences,
publications impact factors and citations in the field of human interactions with
computers for more than 35 years [20, 40, 42]. It is the journal with the largest
number of publications on cyberbullying. It stands out from the rest by a wide
difference because of its production statistics, given the large number of
volumes it publishes yearly [15]. Additionally, in the bibliometric analysis of
journal articles from 2004-2019 by López-Meneses et al. [45] it was found that
the journal of Computers in Human Behavior was the most productive one
followed by the “International Journal of Environmental Research and Public
Health”, “Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking”, “Frontiers in
Psychology”, “Children and Youth Services Review”, just to mention a few. It
is perhaps appropriate to conclude that evidence about the prevalence of
cyberbullying in HLIs has been published widely in most reputable journals,
which is a good indicator that the upcoming researchers can really trace its
historical underpinnings and devise possible insights to inform the practices in
HLIs.

Further analysis was made to capture frequently used keywords among researchers
in addressing the cyberbullying problem over time. The findings from the occurrence
of keywords revealed that there are several factors, such as harsh parenting, electronic
aggression, moral disengagement, perpetration and emotional problems. The
prevalence of such factors suggests that families and HLIs seldom support students in
developing digital safety skills. It is possible that when youth lack digital safety skills,
they are likely to abuse the potential of technology. As a result, they develop
addictions which affect their social and emotional well-being. Similar findings have
been revealed by López-Meneses et al. [45], who found that cyberbullying caused by
psycho-sociological factors associated with aggressive behaviour was associated with
the use of technologies such as e-mail, software, video recording, information
technology, internet and inadequate parent-child relations or parenting. Another
study on a systematic literature review about the factors for cyberbullying by Shaikh
et al. [61] found that emotional problems such as depression, anxiety and stress
were the highest reported cyberbullying factors, followed by self-esteem and
aggression.

Other factors include personality, poor relationships, parenting style, lack
of empathy, anonymity and internalising behaviour, revenge, peer-to-peer
relationship, technology exposure and ease of internet access [61]. Unlike the
present review, other researchers found that the occurrence of cyberbullying
among university students was highly associated with the time spent on the
internet use [41, 70]. It is well known from other researchers that increased
acts of cyberbullying among students in HLIs are due to increased use of

computer-mediated communication and digital solutions as pedagogical tools [63].
Harsh parenting and electronic aggression could also be linked with imitation
behaviour.

In the context of social learning theory, imitation may facilitate students’
engagement in cyberbullying. In social learning theory, imitation refers to
the process by which an individual engages in behaviour after observing
similar behaviours in others [5]. Similarly, the concept of imitation is similar
to modelling in which individuals learn different sets of complex behaviour
through observing [12]. It is on this basis that students in HLIs are likely
to imitate harsh and aggressive treatment from their parents or peers on
campus. Given this scenario, parents or other members of HLIs have the
moral obligation to ensure that they reinforce proper characters that students
can model as a means to reduce or prevent the occurrence of cyberbullying
behaviour.

It has also been recognised in several studies that the prevalence of cyberbullying
among university students is due to a lack of proper understanding about it and
possible legal impacts [27, 61]. This has also been reflected in the findings
by Alsawalqa [8], who found that most of the students who were bullies
admitted that the main reason for cyberbullying was humour and that they were
unaware that their harsh or aggressive behaviours could be categorised as
bullying. Based on these researches, there have been some concerns that female
students are more bullied than male students because more male students are
likely to commit acts of cyberbullying compared to their female counterparts
[50, 52, 58, 61]. In another research, it was found that being involved in
cyberbullying for both males and females was due to being upset after being bullied
by another person. The typical response for male respondents was that it was fun,
whereas, for female respondents, it was that they just did not like the person
[26]. However, sufficient literature concludes that cyberbullying has not been
thoroughly researched [56, 61, 70]. This indicates that much effort among
researchers is needed to explore the possible causes and prevention strategies of
cyberbullying to inform best practices in HLIs. Therefore, it makes sense
to conclude that the preceding discussion suggests that there is a need for
deliberate measures to develop strategies in HLIs that can promote good
personal–emotional and social adjustment [47] and moral commitment towards
effective use of digital media to reduce the occurrence of cyberbullying among
students.

In addition, the bibliometric analysis revealed an increased occurrence of
cyberbullying due to the transition to an online learning environment and distance
learning in most HLIs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such a transition attracted
more risks for students engaging in unwanted behaviour as they were inadequately
oriented on the appropriate digital safety norms. The research evidence indicates
that most HLIs transitioned to virtual learning without proper preparations,
which caused so many problems for students, including social and emotional
challenges such as anxiety and depression [18, 28, 31, 32]. Likewise, the
sudden transition to online learning threw students and their instructors

into traps of cyberattacks and cyberbullying as most of them had to obtain
their learning needs through cyberspace and engagement in social media
and online gaming activities [11, 39]. Most students in HLIs faced several
challenges and higher risks of cyberbullying due to an increased and unstructured
time spent on online learning platforms, which, as a result, increased the
chance of accessing harmful and violent digital content [33, 57]. This indicates
that most HLIs have not fully established e-learning policies that may guide
daily e-learning practices during emergencies. Researching on the transition
from face-to-face to e-learning in South African University in the context of
COVID-19, Mpungose [49] revealed that the university did not have any
policy in place to guide the use of e-learning and no training was provided to
lecturers.

Further evidence indicates that in some HLIs in developing countries, the
e-learning policies are not in place, and some are struggling to develop them [13, 66].
In many HLIs, transitioning to e-learning during COVID-19 has been a challenge due
to a lack of motivation to work in a virtual environment, a lack of proper skills in ICT
and pressure from learners to learn e-learning to manage the spread of COVID-19
[53]. Likewise, Zarei and Mohammadi [68] note that developed countries have
established and adjusted their technological infrastructures to transition from a
face-to-face education to a digital one. In contrast, the developing countries were not
entirely prepared for this transition during COVID-19. This indicates that most of the
HLIs in developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan countries, lag in
technological innovations.

Despite the African Agenda 2063 [2], which emphasises accelerating the
development of human capital, science and technology and innovation through
increasing access to tertiary and continuing education in Africa by capitalising on the
digital revolution and global knowledge, one could still notice minimal efforts being
made to achieve the same. It has been critically recommended that for the online
teaching-learning process, each university needs to develop an online mode of
education as an alternative mode with an education-friendly curriculum, updated
technology, designated faculty and proactive administration [31]. Where possible,
HLIs need to develop specific online learning policies that could guide the effective
utilisation of digital learning opportunities [53]. However, Afsar et al. [3] note that
HLIs lack proper anti-cyberbullying policies, highlighting the need for research to
establish the same.

Regarding the impacts of cyberbullying, the findings from the analysis indicate a
strong link between being a victim of cyberbullying and social and emotional
challenges that may lead to suicide, sexual assaults and alcohol abuse. One of the
implications here is that students who are victims of cyberbullying cannot concentrate
fully on their academic activities or seldom have a settled mind, as their mental
well-being is compromised. Along with these findings, many of the recent studies also
clearly indicate other evidence attributed to cyberbullying among students in HLIs.
For example, Khine et al. [41] found that most university students in Myanmar who
suffered cyberbullying victimisation faced academic difficulties and started or
increased smoking, betel chewing or alcohol drinking. Other researchers report

several impacts of being a victim of cyberbullying, such as mental health
problems, including stress, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts [19, 50]. In
the study conducted in Myanmar, it was found that cyberbullying victims
were found to be positively associated with difficulty in concentrating and
understanding lectures and starting or increasing substance abuse [41]. Students
who are exposed to cyberbullying face low levels of concentration due to
undesirable pictures, messages and harassment, which leads to academic problems,
interpersonal problems, family problems, depression, substance abuse, suicidal
ideation, and self-esteem problems [6, 56]. Many questions remain about
the extent to which students are affected by cyberbullying in HLIs, which
might need quasi-experimental measures. Further results indicate that the
victimised bullies have greater difficulties in their organisation and planning for
study and exams and are less able to adapt to university [9]. Most college
students who have been cyberbullied have committed suicide, dropped out,
or endured torment while in school [64]. Further evidence indicates that
cyberbullying can lead to sadness, anxiety, low self-esteem, poor mental health,
and the development of suicide ideation and sometimes suicidal tendencies
[67].

Although the findings from the previous studies indicate several impacts on
cyberbullying, these findings also suggest important recommendations on how
institutions can prevent the occurrence of cyberbullying among students in HLIs.
Most researchers suggest the need to address academic adjustment and effective
means to adapt to the university technological environment and be informed of the
repercussions of technology used so that appropriate conduct may be instilled in them
since they are at the young age [9, 34]. While these researchers recommend effective
strategies for the adoption of the technological environment, others suggest the need
for parental monitoring and regulating the time spent on online activities and the
need for a standardised policy and curriculum that universities can use to implement
and enforce cyber safety behaviour at the university [17, 21]. Periodic screening for
cyberbullying, counselling services, cyber-safety educational programmes, and
awareness-raising campaigns should be implemented in HLIs [41]. Similarly, Lim and
Lee [43] suggest the need to modify the existing adult and peer support groups
to minimise cyberbullying victims’ social and psychological distress [43].
Generally, the study highlights the immoral use of the internet as a source of
cyberbullying, which has led to the prevalence of many perpetrators and victims in
HLIs. Further evidence indicates that most countries have not established
cyberbullying laws, which are ineffective and call for reforming or establishing new
ones [67]. There is a good reason to believe that students in HLIs become
victims of cyberbullying due to a lack of understanding of cyberbullying
impacts.

5 Conclusion and recommendations

This paper analysed global research trends in publications on cyberbullying in HLIs

from 2008 to 2022. It was found that publications on cyberbullying increased
exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic when there was a shift to online
distance learning. This is an indication that there is a growing interest in
research about cyberbullying behaviour in HLIs due to the increased use
of the internet and digital devices. The keywords analysis revealed various
clusters, which have been categorised into several topics, including factors of
occurrence of cyberbullying behaviour and its impacts. This is an indication that
there are many topics for further research for scholars who wish to explore
the causes and impacts of cyberbullying in different levels of education and
contexts.

The results of the current bibliometric analysis suggest that there are limited
studies on cyberbullying in HLIs in developing countries due to the low use of
technology. However, there are some indicators of the adoption of innovations. In that
context, there is a need to explore more opportunities for researchers to capitalise on
the impact of cyberbullying due to an increased use of technology. This bibliometric
analysis provides some insights to HLIs about safe online learning environments while
emphasising developing anti-cyberbullying policies to safeguard internet users. For
the HLIs to be competitive and a safe place for digital natives to learn, the
development of e-learning and anti-cyberbullying policies is inevitable. Helping
the youth to understand the side effects of cyberbullying has the potential
to enable them to value the role of technology in an unchallenged digital
learning environment. This review employed a bibliometric analysis of research
articles from the Dimensions database only, which may have omitted important
information regarding cyberbullying. Further analysis could be done on the
same topic, engaging other scientific databases such as Scopus and Web of
Science. The current review included empirical articles only; future research
may include non-empirical publications such as dissertations and books.
Further research may be carried out, focussing on the systematic review of the
effective interventions and preventive strategies available in different contexts of
HLIs to identify how they shape youth in abstaining from cyberbullying
behaviour.

Conflict of interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.

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