Female Adolescent Cyberbullying: Exploring Students' Intentions to Pursue a Postsecondary Education

Does cyberbullying influence female adolescent students’ postsecondary decisions in the U.S.? Using routine activities theory, this quantitative study explored if cyberbullying was related to female adolescent students’ intentions to attend a college, postsecondary vocational school, and graduate from a 4-year college. Data were gathered from the 2019 National Crime Victimization Survey: School Crime Supplement (NCVS-SCS). The final sample comprised 102 female adolescent students in the U.S. aged 12-18 years old, and the data were analyzed using multinomial logistic regression. Results showed there were no statistically significant relationships overall between cyberbullying and female adolescent students’ intentions to attend and graduate from postsecondary institutions. However, cyberbullying had a limited association with female adolescent students’ intentions to graduate from a 4-year college if students spread rumors or tried to make others dislike them. Ancillary research is needed to examine this predictor in greater detail. These findings helped contribute to the literature and advance the topic of cyberbullying among female students aged 12-18 years old. Additionally, this study offered intervention strategies, implications for practice, and recommendations for future research.