Cyberbullying under its theoretical prism: an integrative review

Abstract

Through an integrative review, this paper analyzes the theoretical models used to analyze cyberbullying among adolescents, the elements they make visible, and the types of knowledge they produce. The corpus comprised 47 articles surveyed in the bibliographic databases BVS, PubMed, Scopus and SciELO. In the results we present the Theory of Moral Disconnection, the General Theory of Frustration, the Theory of Routine Activities, the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Theory of the Spectator Effect, the General Model of Aggression, the Barlett-Gentile Model, the Mimetic Theory and Theories of Social Identity. The models from a positivist perspective underline an objectivist, reductionist, and causalist conception of cyberbullying. We discuss these aspects from the anthropology of moralities, symbolic interactionism, and violence as origin and reinforcement of moral and social boundaries. The findings allow us to discuss explanations and prevention proposals while offering a theoretical repertoire on cyberbullying useful to avoid explanatory confinement and the consequent reification of the theories used.