Cyberbullying as a mental health problem in a dynamic socio-informational environment: a conceptual paper

Purpose To provide a wider look at the research on cyberbullying as a mental health governance issue by offering an understanding of how various factors and participants are interconnected and how their dynamics unfold. The goal is to discern the key aspects of the development of the socio-informational system and the factors influencing the key research subject – mental health – as well as to identify the place of cyberbullying processes. Design/methodology/approach This study utilizes an integrative review methodology and analyzes relevant journal publications and reports. The methods include composition and decomposition of the studied objects, identification and assessment of causal relationships, while accounting for the dynamics of technology and social media development. Findings The lack of consensus in defining cyberbullying underscores the need to revisit this concept. The analysis of existing paradigms highlights the non-neutrality of the socio-informational environment. The study identifies the potential for a detailed decomposition of the examined objects based on causal analysis. Originality/value This paper applies a broad identification and evaluation framework of causal relationships to develop the proposed concept. It presents a clear causal classification of the degree to which an active socio-informational environment impacts the primary research object – mental health. Conditional boundaries are established within which the effect of cyberbullying can be discussed.