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Impact of Cyberbullying in the classroom

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An example of a display that can be used in classrooms/schools

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Research and Data regarding Cyberullying

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Research and Data regarding Cyberullying

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The information provided links research to suicide and Cyberbullying

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There continues to be a lot of discussion involving bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide both in the media as well as in social circles of parents, educators, and other youth professionals. I just looked up " suicide and bullying " on Google News and in just this past weekend alone there are multiple stories involving different kids in different states who have taken their life in part due to peer harassment and cruelty offline and/or online. And almost every time I visit different school communities, this topic comes up in conversation. Even though it is such a heavy and tragic subject, it has seemed to galvanize adults in their efforts to care even more about youth as they navigate the challenges of adolescence these days.

Very recently, we received word that our latest paper on the topic - entitled "Connecting Adolescent Suicide to the Severity of School Bullying and Cyberbullying" was published in the Journal of School Violence (Impact Factor 2.721). You can access it here; reach out if you have trouble obtaining it.

For those who don't want to read the article, or who simply want a summary, I thought I'd share a bit about the piece below. I have italicized the most important points. If you have any questions, just ask and I can clarify or expand upon anything.
Data
Our data for the study came from a survey administered to a nationally-representative sample of English-speaking 12 to 17-year-old middle and high school students across the United States (mean age = 14.5). Our final sample of 2,670 was evenly divided by sex (49.9% female, 49.6% male) and comparable to the population of middle and high school students in the U.S. by race (66% of the sample is White/Caucasian, 12% is Black/African American, 11.9% is Hispanic/Latin American, and 10% were another race).
Measures
Two dependent variables were utilized in this study. The first, suicidal ideation, included four items adapted from the American School Health Association's (1989) National Adolescent Student Health Survey.

They included:
[in the past year, have you]
(1) felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that you stopped doing some usual activities;
(2) seriously thought about attempting suicide;
(3) made a specific plan about how you would attempt suicide; and
(4) seriously attempted suicide.

In addition to suicidal ideation, we also wanted to focus on the subset of students who have engaged in suicide attempts.

We also used two measures of bullying: one for school bullying and another for cyberbullying. School bullying represented the student's experience in the previous 30 days as a victim of ten different forms of school bullying. The measure included a variety of behaviors representing relatively minor and common forms of bullying ("I was called mean names") to more serious and less common forms ("I was threatened with a weapon").

Cyberbullying represented the student's experience in the previous 30 days as a victim of eleven different forms of cyberbullying. This measure also included a variety of behaviors ("Someone posted mean or hurtful comments about me online"; "Someone threatened to hurt me while online.").

Finally, to explore the importance of the magnitude (or relative seriousness) of the bullying experience, we included four single-item indicators (two each for school bullying and cyberbullying) that assessed the student's view of how serious the bullying incident was. We first asked students who reported that they had been bullied (at school or online) to rate on a scale of 0 to 10 their overall experience with school bullying and cyberbullying during the last 30 days, with 0 meaning they were not bothered at all and 10 meaning they were really hurt and bothered. Next, we asked students whether they had been bullied or cyberbullied in a way that "really affected their ability to learn and feel safe at school."
Findings
Across our sample, 16.1% of students experienced suicidal ideation (16.7% of females; 15.3% of males) while 2.1% reported they had attempted suicide (2.2% of females; 2.0% of males). Even though females have a markedly higher incidence rate of suicidal ideation than males during adolescence, major gender disparities were not found in our work.

With regard to school bullying, prevalence rates for individual behaviors ranged from 8.3% to 50.9%. Older students were generally more likely to report suicidal ideation and to have attempted suicide, while white students were more likely to have attempted suicide.

We then examined the relationship between school bullying and cyberbullying on suicidal ideation. Students who experienced only school bullying or only cyberbullying were about 1.6x significantly more likely (for each) to report suicidal ideation. Students who experienced both forms of bullying, however, were more than 5x as likely to report suicidal ideation compared to those who had not been bullied or cyberbullied.

Interestingly, those who experienced only school bullying or only cyberbullying were at no greater risk for attempted suicide, while those who experienced both forms of bullying were more than 11 times as likely to attempt suicide compared to those who had not been bullied.

Finally, we looked at the impact of serious bullying on suicidal thoughts and attempts among subsamples of those who had been bullied only at school or only online. As expected, even among those who had been bullied, the more serious incidents of bullying or cyberbullying all had a significant and positive association with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Specifically, students who ranked their experience with school bullying or cyberbullying as 6 or higher on a scale that ranged from 0 to 10, or indicated that the experience seriously affected them at school, were more than 3x as likely to report suicidal ideation compared to those who had relatively less serious experiences with school bullying and cyberbullying.

Finally, students who reported that their experience with school bullying or cyberbullying affected them at school were at the highest risk for suicidal ideation and attempted suicide.
Main Takeaways
In line with findings from previous studies, middle and high school students who experienced either school-based or online bullying were significantly more likely to report suicidal ideation. Contrary to the relatively consistent finding in the limited research base that cyberbullying victimization is more strongly tied to suicidal ideation and attempts than school bullying, we found a stronger relationship with the latter. That said, experiencing both forms of bullying compounds the negative effects and greatly increases the likelihood of suicidal ideation among adolescents.

When it comes to suicidal attempts, our research did not find a significant association with school-based or online bullying by themselves - contrary to findings from previous studies. However, experiencing both together was linked to an exponentially higher likelihood of trying to take one's own life. Perhaps some students can manage the emotional and psychological harm associated with a limited amount of victimization in one environment or the other, but are seemingly much less so able when the impact is amplified through its occurrence and persistence both at school and online.

This point is supported by the relationship between the severity of incidents and suicidal ideation and attempts. Those adolescents who rated their victimization as more severe (in terms of a general evaluation of how much they were hurt and bothered, as well as its specific impact on their feelings of safety at school and their ability to learn) were much more likely to report suicidal thoughts (more than three times as likely) and attempts (from twice as likely for serious cyberbullying to more than ten times as likely for school-based bullying), compared to those who experienced milder forms of bullying.

Collectively, these findings bear out the very tangible impact that bullying can have on the mental health of youth today, especially if multiple forms combine and are magnified to plague a student in pointedly negative ways.
Policy Implications
At the end of our paper, we discussed the importance of suicide prevention programs, anonymous reporting systems, and the availability of educators at school to meaningfully care about and support students who might be struggling. We also strongly believe that any prevention programming will be incomplete if only championed and led by school personnel. Students themselves must realize that their individual and collective voice is powerful, and that they should press past their hesitations and fears and use it to: raise awareness; set (or reset) appropriate social norms and considerations around bullying and suicide; promote vulnerability, acceptance, tolerance, and kindness; and collectively stand against hate and harassment of all forms.

To make this happen, educators would do well to supplement their formal schoolwide efforts by repeatedly reminding the student body that they need to come through for their classmates with intentionality by encouraging, defending, supporting, and rallying to their aid as necessary. If this messaging is part of the culture on campus, targeted youth may more readily seek support from their peer group, and nontargeted youth may look for opportunities to come through for those struggling because doing so has been institutionalized as normative in that environment.

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Bullying, Cyberbullying, and Suicide Among US Youth: Our Updated Research Findings - Cyberbullying Research Center

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There continues to be a lot of discussion involving bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide both in the media as well as in social circles of parents, educators, and other youth professionals.

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The videos give insight on a child's perspective about Cyberbullying.

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What Is Cyberbullying?

While the definitions of cyberbullying, sometimes called online bullying, vary from source to source, most definitions consist of:

1. electronic forms of contact

2. an aggressive act

3. intent

4. repetition

5. harm to the target

(Hutson, 2016)

Cyberbullying can be anonymous, which can sometimes make it even worse. It also has a wider audience and can spread quickly. Finally, targets of cyberbullying often feel like they can't escape the bullying. If someone is bullying you at school, it's over when you leave for the day. But cyberbullying can follow you home and continue all night.

Imagine a classmate posts a photo of themselves online. Someone else makes a mean, mocking comment about the photo. Soon, that photo has been shared, liked, reposted-even made into a meme. Thousands of people have seen it, even people the person being targeted doesn't know. That's why cyberbullying can be extra hurtful: it's public, it spreads quickly, and it's 24/7.

Cyberbullying is bullying-unwanted, repeated, aggressive, negative behavior-that takes place using digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyberbullying can happen anywhere online, including over email, through texting, on social media, while gaming, on instant messaging, and through photo sharing.

Unique Characteristics of Cyberbullying

While all bullying is characterized by intentional, often repetitive, hurtful behavior toward another person or group, there are distinguishing elements when it happens online or via smartphone, which include:

Persistent. Most students have access to some form of technology at all times, which means cyberbullying can happen any time-in the morning, afternoon, and evening-not just while children are at school. It happens while at home or in the community.

Hard to detect. While some bullying is very overt, such as pushing or damaging belongings, cyberbullying happens through phones and on computers or tablets, making it much more difficult for adults to detect.

Anonymous. Cyberbullying can be done anonymously. Those being bullied might not even know who is perpetuating the behavior, which makes it easy for one child to hurt another and not be held accountable.

Shared to a potentially larger audience. Information online can be easily and quickly shared, which makes it difficult to contain or stop negative messages once they are posted online.

Easier to be hurtful. It is often easier to bully using technology because of greater physical distance The person bullying doesn't see the immediate response from the person being targeted They might not recognize the serious harm caused by their actions because technology distances them from the real-life pain they could be causing.

Permanent.* Once something is shared on the internet, it is often available to everyone, everywhere It can be challenging to completely delete information once it is on the internet.

Note: The one advantage to "permanence" is that online bullying does leave tangible evidence. Unlike physical or emotional bullying, online bullying leaves a digital footprint; the words, images, or videos posted can be documented through screenshots or saving URLs and texts, which can be useful. Cyberbullying Prevention 101 Quick Guide
What you can do about cyberbullying

If you see someone being bullied online, here's what you can do:
Show support for the individual(s) being bullied.

Choose not to join in on the bullying. You may feel pressure to join in if a lot of other people are. You can make your own choice not to contribute to the situation.

Don't "like" or share posts that are bullying someone. When you see negative behavior happening online, don't contribute to it.

Respond with positive support. If you feel comfortable, and if it's safe for you, publicly show your solidarity with the person being targeted by the bullying. Even one nice comment among a bunch of mean ones can make a world of difference.

Reach out to the person being bullied. Send them a private message letting them know that you don't agree with what's happening, they don't deserve to be treated like that, and they're not along. Encourage them to report the bullying, or to tell an adult.

Document and report

Let an adult know what's happening. Tell your teacher, a social worker, or another trusted adult at school. If outside of school, find an adult you trust and ask for their advice.

Report the behavior to the social media platform. The following companies provide guidelines for how to report and address cyberbullying on their sites:

Let An Adult Know What's Happening
What is the role of schools to address cyberbullying?

Every state has a bullying prevention law or policy that helps districts and schools address bullying. Many of these laws and policies require that schools address cyberbullying in their district policy. Some state laws also cover off-campus behavior that creates a hostile school environment. If a child experiences cyberbullying, check the school's bullying prevention policy to learn more about the role the school can play in helping youth address the issue.
State Law and Policy

Cyberbullying can create a disruptive environment at school and is often related to in-person bullying. The school can use the information to help inform prevention and response strategies.

In many states, schools are required to address cyberbullying in their Anti-Bullying policy. Some state laws also cover off-campus behavior that creates a hostile school environment.

Source: StopBullying.gov

Check Your Knowledge

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While the definitions of cyberbullying, sometimes called online bullying, vary from source to source, most definitions consist of: 1. electronic forms of contact 2. an aggressive act 3. intent 4. repetition 5. harm to the target (Hutson, 2016) Cyberbullying can be anonymous, which can sometimes make it even worse.

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                             Review and Respond

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                             Review and Respond

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Use the following sites to obtain information on Cyberbullying. Add a comment below the site about an "a-ha" moment or insight you received from reading the article

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This site can be utilized to help teachers with warning signs and ways to prevent Cyberbullying

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Warning Signs a Child Is Being Cyberbullied or Is Cyberbullying

A child may be involved in cyberbullying in several ways. A child can be bullied, bully others, or witness bullying. Parents, teachers, and other adults may not be aware of all the social media platforms and apps that a child is using. The more digital platforms that a child uses, the more opportunities there are for being exposed to potential cyberbullying.

Many of the warning signs that cyberbullying is occurring happen around a child's use of their device. Since children spend a lot of time on their devices, increases or decreases in use may be less noticeable. It's important to pay attention when a child exhibits sudden changes in digital and social behavior. Some of the warning signs that a child may be involved in cyberbullying are:

Noticeable, rapid increases or decreases in device use, including texting.

A child exhibits emotional responses (laughter, anger, upset) to what is happening on their device.

A child hides their screen or device when others are near, and avoids discussion about what they are doing on their device.

Social media accounts are shut down or new ones appear.

A child starts to avoid social situations, even those that were enjoyed in the past.

A child becomes withdrawn or depressed, or loses interest in people and activities.

Preventing and Addressing Cyberbullying

Teachers, school administrators, camp, community, and faith-based staff are in unique positions to use their skills and roles to create safe environments with positive social norms. They are also in positions where they may notice children's behavior changes in group settings, like when a group or cluster of children focuses on another child, or other signs that cyberbullying may be occurring. There are things that you can do in the classroom or other group settings to address or prevent cyberbullying.

If you think a child is being cyberbullied, speak to them privately to ask about it. They may also have proof on their digital devices.

If you believe a child is being cyberbullied, speak to a parent about it. Serve as a facilitator between the child, parent, and the school if necessary.

To understand children' digital behavior and how it relates to cyberbullying, increase your digital awareness.

Develop activities that encourage self-reflection, asking children to identify and express what they think and feel, and to consider the thoughts and feelings of others. Help children develop emotional intelligence so that they can learn self-awareness and self-regulation skills and learn how to have empathy for others.

Role model,reinforce, and reward positive behavior towards others.

Encourage peer involvement in prevention strategies.

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Un niño puede verse involucrado en el ciberacoso de distintas maneras. Puede padecer acoso, acosar a otros, o ser testigo de un acoso. Es posible que los padres, maestros y otros adultos no conozcan todas las plataformas y aplicaciones de redes sociales que utiliza un niño.

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This site can be utilized to assist in ways to work through cyberbullying.

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Top 9 Tips For Dealing With Cyberbullying

From our research, we found that up to 17% of young people experience cyberbullying before the age of 25 ... but what is it and who does it effect? Cyberbullying comes in a whole range of different shapes and sizes and is something that is totally subjective to the recipient. We define cyberbullying as the following:

"Cyberbullying is the use of digital technologies with an intent to offend, humiliate, threaten, harass or abuse somebody."

Anybody can become a recipient of cyberbullying, regardless of how old they are or the kind of job that they do or what their hobbies might be. In fact, it is well documented that a lot of our favorite celebrities and role models also experience cyberbullying.

The most important thing is knowing how to deal with it. Here are the top 9 ways to deal with cyberbullying if you're being targeted:

1. Never respond

Do not reply to anything that has been said or retaliate by doing the same thing back. Saying something nasty back or posting something humiliating in revenge may make matters worse or even get you into trouble.

2. Screenshot

If you can, take a screenshot of anything that you think could be cyberbullying and keep a record of it on your computer.

3. Block and report

Most online platforms have this function, make sure you block and report the offending users to the appropriate social media platform.

4. Talk about it.

You may not feel it at the time, but cyberbullying affects you in many different ways. You are not alone. Talking to somebody about bullying not only helps you seek support but it documents evidence and will take a huge weight from your shoulders.

5. How serious is it?

Assess how serious the cyberbullying is. If it is light name calling from somebody that you don't know, it may just be easier to just report and block that user.

6. Report it.

If you are experiencing cyberbullying from somebody you go to school or college with, report it to a teacher. If somebody is threatening you, giving out your personal information or making you fear for your safety, contact the Police or an adult as soon as you can.

7. Be private.

We recommend that you keep your social media privacy settings high and do not connect with anybody who you do not know offline. You wouldn't talk to random people on the street, so why do it online? People may not always be who they say they are and you could be putting you and those that you care about the most at risk.

8. Talk to them.

Sometimes it may be appropriate to request that a teacher or responsible adult hosts a mediation between you and the person who is bullying you online, if they go to the same school or college as you. A mediation can be scary but is often incredibly powerful. It is essentially a face-to-face conversation between you and the person bullying you in a controlled, equal environment. This is a proactive and effective way to deal with online bullying.

9. Sympathize.

Always remember that happy and secure people do not bully others. People who bully are going through a difficult time themselves and will often need a lot of help and support.

Check out the new cyberbullying support hub here or join our community to start a conversation about cyberbullying...

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Cyber Bullying: 9 Tips to Overcome It - What To Do

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From our research, we found that up to 17% of young people experience cyberbullying before the age of 25 ... but what is it and who does it effect? Cyberbullying comes in a whole range of different shapes and sizes and is something that is totally subjective to the recipient.