The recently published annual national student survey in Norway reports alarming and steadily increasing rates of cyberbullying among students in primary and lower secondary schools. The largest percentage, 5.9% of students, report being cyberbullied (2-3 times a month, once a week, few times a week) via phone, iPad or PC in 5^th grade. Numbers vary between 4,6% to 5,1% in grades 6^th to 10^th (Utdanningsdirektoratet, 2024). Increasing prevalence rates, paired with large socio-economic losses for the individual and for the society, makes cyberbullying an important research field for practitioners and researchers alike. The available research suggests the need for a holistic approach, involving all stakeholders in the school community, especially parents, as a means of addressing cyberbullying. Parents as primary caregivers are central in any cooperative efforts influencing a child’s development and well-being (Glavin, 2013). To the best of our knowledge, no study with the focus on parental views on the cooperative efforts has been conducted within European or Norwegian context. Thus, the main objective of the study is to extract insights regarding parents’ views and experiences concerning interdisciplinary and interagency cooperation to overcome cyberbullying in Norwegian schools.

The research shows that positive home-school relations, where parents have the chance to genuinely contribute to their child’s education, improve the child’s overall experience and learning outcomes (Drugli & Nordahl, 2016). In this way, parents and the school share the responsibility of raising children and teenagers in school age. The home-school collaboration is seen as crucial to the child’s positive social adjustment (Kim & Sheridan, 2015). In the following study, it will be assumed that all of the families do sincerely care about their offspring: they want to see them succeed, build positive relations to their peers, educators and wider community (Epstein, 2010). The primary goal of this study is to gain a better insight into parental views on how to best channel the cooperative efforts to prevent and combat cyberbullying, which has such a troubling impact on the lives of many adolescents. The research question guiding this inquiry is thus: What are the views and experiences with cooperation to prevent cyberbullying of parents whose children were involved in cyberbullying?

To answer the research question, 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted either in-person or online with parents of children enrolled in Norwegian primary or lower secondary school, as these are the ages where cyberbullying is most prevalent (Kowalski et al., 2012). Purposive sampling was employed, with the population including parents of children and adolescents involved in cases of cyberbullying. The interviews were carried out between November 2022 and January 2024 in either Norwegian, Polish or English. A reflexive thematic analysis was carried out, revealing four major themes: (1) home-school cooperation, (2) types of parental involvement and (3) aspects of cyberbullying affecting cooperation and (4) cooperative strategies to overcome cyberbullying. All the themes are encompassed within one main node: (I) parental views and experiences with cooperation. Careful ethical measures were undertaken to protect the informants’ rights. In the end, implications for researchers and practitioners were presented, to possibly inform a context-specific cyberbullying program in the future.

Qualitative interviewing as a data collection method has been chosen as it is one of the most significant tools to adequately seize the very essence of human experience. It was employed in the study to explore the informants’ experiences on cooperation to overcome cyberbullying. Interviewing is seen as appropriate method in the cases when the studied phenomena cannot be observed or replicated by the researcher (Leavy, 2020; Merriam, 2016). A semi-structured interview guide has been devised to direct the conversation, ensuring that the informants were allowed to subjectively manifest their personal experiences with cooperation to overcome cyberbullying. The four main topics included (1) definition of cyberbullying, (2) the bullying, (3) intervention and (4) prevention. Without compromising the confidentiality and comfort of the informants, the interviews were conducted at the location and time at the informants’ choice. The interviews lasted between 25 minutes to 1 hour and 37 minutes. Data analysis was facilitated using qualitative data software NVivo. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and uploaded into the software, then analyzed. Data analysis followed the thematic analysis framework by Braun and Clarke (2006, 2019, 2022, 2023), which involve six stages: (1) familiarizing oneself with the data, (2) creating codes, (3) generating themes, (4) reviewing potential themes, (5) defining and naming themes, and (6) producing the report. The coding process was further divided into three phases, as described in Corbin (2008): (1) open coding, (2) axial coding and (3) selective coding. The data analysis process was inductive, where the main motivation behind choosing it was to allow for an open-minded engagement with the data, and allowing the data define the possible codes and themes, allowing the researcher to take an active role in the meaning extraction. Reflexive thematic analysis facilitates just that, with themes emerging after considerable immersion and explorative analysis. The data collection and analysis were iterative processes, conducted until meaning saturation was reached.

This study adds to the scarce evidence on stakeholder cooperation from the parental point of view to combat cyberbullying in the educational context. Efforts against cyberbullying should build on the available evidence on traditional bullying, as these two froms of aggression are often related. The parental needs vary regarding the support the need to face the cyberbullying, and they should be taken care of accordingly. Thus, family-oriented practices are vital. The various stakeholders should aim at identifying these needs of parents, which may facilitate earlier and better professional support. The joint responsibility of raising children and the need for cooperation should be emphasized, also in the pre-service education for professionals working with children and adolescents. The children and their caregivers must be provided with channels for reporting cyberbullying in a safe, anonymous and convenient manner.

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