Prevalence and Predictors of Internet Bullying
Williams KR, Guerra NG.
The Issue
It used to be that everyone knew the schoolyard bullies. Their victims could at least try to avoid confrontations. With increasing use of electronic devices and online social networking a more stealthy form of harassment has surfaced: bullying over the Internet. The main problem now is that the victim can’t identify the bully. Not only do their classmates and peers know the gossip being spread, there is a potential that anyone using one of the popular Internet social networks can be privy to it. The victims’ sense of shame, fear, and helplessness are magnified because they may not know how, or even whether,to fight back. For school officials, parents, and other concerned about bullying, there has been little good information about Internet bullying. Being able to understand what leads to bullying of any kind is the first step to countering it.
The Research
This study was part of an on-going bullying prevention program in the state of Colorado. One of its main goals was to determine the frequency of different kinds of bullying, including Internet bullying. Children in Grades 5, 8, and 11 at 78 schools filled out questionnaires asking if they had ever been bullied or if they had ever bullied anyone else. There were also questions about the types of bullying, the students’ beliefs about how common bullying is in their school, how normal or acceptable they feel it is, how they describe their school’s climate (whether it is positive or negative), and whether or not they feel that peers are trustworthy, caring, and helpful.
The Outcome
The study found that most bullying was of the verbal type (name-calling, insults, or threats), followed by physical threats or attacks (e.g., pushing, shoving, picking fights with students perceived to be weaker), with Internet bullying being the least common. Both physical and Internet bullying tended to peak during the middle school years and then decline in high school. Boys were more likely to report physical bullying, but both boys and girls reported the same rates of verbal and Internet bullying. Like verbal and physical bullying, Internet bullying was related to whether or not students believed that it was acceptable, believed their school had a bad climate, and if they believed there was little or no feeling of peer support.
Conclusions
Internet bullying, like verbal and physical bullying, tends to occur when students believe the climate in their school is poor and that their peers are not supportive of each other, and when there is widespread belief that bullying is morally acceptable. Programs to stop bullying should focus on changing attitudes and behaviours that contribute to these problems.
The preceding is a summary of:
The preceding is a summary of: Williams KR, Guerra NG. Prevalence and Predictors of Internet Bullying. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2007; 41: S14-S21
^top
