Cyberbullying Coping Questionnaire (CCQ)

Abstract

The Cyberbullying Coping Questionnaire (CCQ) is a psychological scale designed to assess the specific coping strategies utilized by victims of cyberbullying. Developed to address the unique challenges presented by online victimization, the CCQ moves beyond traditional bullying coping measures by focusing on behaviors relevant to digital interactions, such as saving evidence or contacting website administrators. This self-report questionnaire identifies four distinct coping dimensions: Mental Coping, Passive Coping, Social Coping, and Confrontational Coping. The CCQ is crucial for researchers and practitioners seeking to understand how young people manage and respond to online aggression.

Keywords

Cyberbullying, coping strategies, psychological assessment, self-report questionnaire, adolescents, victimization, mental coping, social coping, confrontational coping, passive coping.

Authors

Jacobs, Niels C.L., Völlink, Trijntje, Dehue, Francine, Lechner, Lilian

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Cyberbullying Coping Questionnaire (CCQ) is to systematically measure the range of cognitive and behavioral responses employed by victims immediately following or during an incident of cyberbullying. The scale aims to provide a reliable instrument for differentiating between various coping styles—ranging from internal cognitive reframing to active social support seeking or direct confrontation—to better inform intervention strategies.

The development of the CCQ was driven by the recognition that existing coping measures often failed to capture behaviors specific to the digital environment, such as blocking users, deleting content, or saving digital evidence. By quantifying these specific coping strategies, the CCQ allows researchers to identify which responses are most adaptive or maladaptive in the context of online harassment.

Construct

The CCQ measures the overarching construct of coping strategies used in response to cyberbullying. Coping is defined here as the conscious effort to solve personal and interpersonal problems, minimize stress, or tolerate difficult situations related to online victimization. The scale is structured around four empirically derived, distinct dimensions of coping behavior:

• Mental Coping: Involves cognitive strategies such as reappraisal, finding meaning, planning steps to stop the bullying, or trying to understand the cause of the harassment.
• Passive Coping: Characterized by avoidance, denial, waiting for the event to cease, or acting as if the event did not occur. This dimension often reflects emotional disengagement.
• Social Coping: Focuses on seeking help and support from others, including friends, family, teachers, peers, or online forums. It also includes taking practical steps such as saving evidence (print screens, messages) for later reporting.
• Confrontational Coping: Involves direct action toward the bully, such as expressing irritation, telling the bully to stop, or communicating how their behavior is bothersome.

Validity

While the source material does not explicitly detail comprehensive validity coefficients (such as criterion or predictive validity), the development process implies strong construct validity. The scale items were generated through qualitative research, including focus group interviews with Dutch victims of cyberbullying, ensuring content relevance and ecological validity specific to the population and phenomenon.

The subsequent factor analysis provided evidence for the scale’s underlying structure, supporting the theoretical distinction between the four proposed coping dimensions. This statistical confirmation indicates that the items successfully group into meaningful factors that align with established psychological models of coping behavior applied to a digital context.

Reliability

The reliability of the CCQ was assessed using Cronbach’s Alpha (α) to measure internal consistency, and inter-factor correlations (r) were also reported for the subscales. The reliability coefficients generally indicate acceptable to good consistency for research purposes, confirming that the items within each subscale reliably measure the same underlying construct.

• Mental Coping: Internal Consistency (α) = .70; Inter-factor Correlation (r) = .65
• Passive Coping: Internal Consistency (α) = .73; Inter-factor Correlation (r) = .47
• Social Coping: Internal Consistency (α) = .73; Inter-factor Correlation (r) = .74
• Confrontational Coping: Internal Consistency (α) = .68; Inter-factor Correlation (r) = .60

Factor Analysis

The CCQ structure was confirmed through factor analysis, which identified four primary factors representing distinct coping styles employed by victims of cyberbullying. Although the initial item pool may have been larger (35 items are listed in the instrument section), the four key factors, based on the retained items, are:

• Mental Coping: Items 3, 5, 9, 11, 18.
• Passive Coping: Items 1, 17, 19, 23, 27, 28.
• Social Coping: Items 24, 26, 29.
• Confrontational Coping: Items 6, 31, 35.

These factors provide a comprehensive, multidimensional view of coping responses, moving beyond simple active/passive dichotomies to include social support mechanisms and cognitive restructuring specific to the online environment.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-Report Questionnaire

Format: 5-point Likert scale, with response options ranging from “never” to “almost always.”

Language Available: Dutch (Original development language) and English (as presented in the provided items).

Population Group: Adolescents and young adults who have experienced cyberbullying.

Age Group: Typically utilized with youth populations (adolescents and young people).

Population Details: The initial development and validation study utilized samples of young people, specifically including focus group interviews with Dutch cyberbullying victims.

Test Methodology: Respondents indicate the frequency with which they engage in the described coping behavior when faced with a cyberbullying situation. The response options are: “never”, “sometimes”, “regularly”, “often”, or “almost always”.

Keywords

Coping mechanisms, digital aggression, online harassment, self-report, psychological instrument, internal consistency, factor structure, adolescent mental health.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source content.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source content.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 2015

Permissions & Fee: The instrument was published in the open-access journal Societies, suggesting it is freely available for non-commercial academic research, though users should always consult the original publication for specific usage rights and permissions.

The original article detailing the development of the CCQ can be accessed here: http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/5/2/460. A direct link to the associated materials or PDF is available via the DOI link: doi:10.3390/soc5020460.

Reference’s

• Price, M., Dalgleish, J. (2010). Cyberbullying: Experiences, impacts and coping strategies as described by Australian young people. Youth Stud. Aust. 29, 51–59.
• Jacobs, N.C.L., Goossens, L., Dehue, F., Völlink, T., Lechner, L. (2015). Dutch Cyberbullying Victims’ Experiences, Perceptions, Attitudes and Motivations Related to (Coping with) Cyberbullying: Focus Group Interviews. Societies 5, 43–64, doi:10.3390/soc5010043.
• Jacobs, Niels C.L., Völlink, Trijntje, Dehue, Francine and Lechner, Lilian. (2015). The Development of a Self-Report Questionnaire on Coping with Cyberbullying: The Cyberbullying Coping Questionnaire. Societies, 5, 460-491, doi:10.3390/soc5020460.

Items of the Cyberbullying Coping Questionnaire (CCQ)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

• I wait for the cyberbullying to stop
• I ask for help on a forum
• I focus on solving the cyberbullying problem immediately
• I vent my emotions to myself
• I think that other people are experiencing things that are much worse
• I tell the cyberbullies when their behavior is bothering me
• I think the cyberbullying event will make me a “stronger” person
• I retaliate by cyberbullying
• I try not to think about the cyberbullying
• I think that the cyberbullying is not hurting me personally
• I try to find a new way to stop the cyberbullying
• I express my feelings
• I think that I cannot change anything about the cyberbullying event
• I laugh about the cyberbully/event
• I de‎lete the message from my profile or e-mail
• I constantly think how terrible the cyberbullying is
• I let the cyberbullying happen without reacting
• I try to find the cause of the cyberbullying
• I act as if the cyberbullying did not happen
• I throw or break stuff
• I contact the people behind the website
• I think that there are worse things in life
• I think that the cyberbullying will stop
• I talk about the cyberbullying event with friends‚ family or someone I trust
• I weep with grief
• I save print screens‚ messages and text messages as evidence
• I think about fun things that are not related to cyberbullying
• I ignore the cyberbullies
• I ask someone (parent‚ teacher‚ friend‚ peer) for help
• I cannot think about anything else than being cyberbullied
• I tell the cyberbullies to stop
• I joke about the cyberbullying event
• I think that it is just a game with the computer or telephone
• I think about which steps I need to take to stop the cyberbullying
• I show my irritation to the cyberbully