Creating Effective Interventions to Reduce or Eliminate Cyberbullying
Unit 1 MBA 5652, Research Methods
David E. Couch Jr.
The proposed research study explores the perceptions of secondary students with regard to cyberbullying interventions. The hypothesis of the study is that students' perceptions of cyberbullying will be influenced by the instructional and curricular intervention as measured by increased empathy and willingness to report or intervene when they learn about or witness cyberbullying. The research findings will be of interest to educators and parents, and it will add to the literature on interventions for cyberbullying.
Key terms: cyberbullying, bullying, interventions, student perceptions
Creating Effective Interventions to Reduce or Eliminate Cyberbullying
Introduction
Cyberbullying is something new to the youth of the modern world today. In years past, bullying was something that happened within school contexts and at events that students attended where other students their age. In the contemporary high tech world, it is common for students to be online 24/7 with computers, tablets, and cell phones. There are many types of social media websites and apps that students use today to communicate and connect with peers and others (see Figure 1. Teen Use of Technology). The Common Sense Media website lists common dating applications and websites such as Omegle, MeetMe, Skout, and Tinder." (Conway 2015). Texting applications, such as Kik Messenger, ooVoo, and WhatsApp." (Conway 2015). Young people may also find out about secret apps and/or self-destructing applications, such as Snapchat, Burn Note, Whisper, and Yik Yak." (Conway 2015). A wide variety of chatting, meeting, micro-blogging applications and sites also exist, such as Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, and Vine." (Conway 2015).
The Cyber Bullying Research Center (mediastampede.wordpress.com) illustrates the technology that is being used by tweens and teens from 10 to 18 of age.
Figure 1. Teen Use of Technology
Source: Hinduga, S. & Patchin, J.W. (2010).
Educators have a duty to act and must work with students to develop citizenship and healthy personalities, and to improve students' self-responsibility. Educators are aptly placed to conduct interventions to alter behaviors and attitudes that are linked with victimization or bullying in person or online. There is opportunity to facilitate education programs to address the issues of bullying and victimization with students in school settings -- which is of critical importance before they become adults.
Cyberbullying vs. bullying in schools.
Experts recognize how bullying has changed from being picked on in school or in the neighborhood to being a non-stop assault that can cause an otherwise well-adjusted child to take their own life (Rice, et al., 2015). Cyberbullying can be more insidious than traditional bullying, since cyberbullying can reach wide audiences (e-mails sent to everyone at a school), can be done in most cases anonymously. Cyberbullying has received widespread media attention as students have killed themselves, often posting online before doing so with no one taking action. Anti-bulling programs exist at all levels of education, including higher education. A strength of a number of the current programs is that they include students who once bullied or harassed other students, either in person or in digital environments. The literature on bullying and cyberbulling personalities has grown right along with the problem:
"Cyberbullying perpetrators are more likely to have problems with their behavior, peer relationships, and emotions, and are less likely to be prosocial than their peers who are neither cyberbullying perpetrators nor victims of cyberbullying. Specifically, female cyberbullying perpetrators express greater anxiety and depression than their female peers who are not cyberbullying perpetrators" (Rice, et al., 2015).
Proposed Study on Bullying vs. Cyberbullying
Definitions of bullying may vary but generally the unacceptable behavior is seen as having a repetitive aspect that is perpetrated by only a few individuals -- whether students or co-workers -- and consists of a highly adverse actions or communications (Harris, 2012). Hirsch (2014) stated, "cyberbullying is the use of technology to harass, threaten, embarrass, or target another person. By definition, it occurs among young people." Bullying can be thought of as an artifact of the existence of groups -- in other words, a long-standing problem -- whereas, cyberbullying is has only been around for a few decades -- following the trajectory of technology innovations -- and has only really been studied in the past 11 years. One of the first reported cases of cyber bullying was in 1998 when a student in middle school had designed a website that contained derogatory statements and threatening messages about his teachers and school administrators (Citation, XXXX).
A gap in the body of knowledge exists about how to prevent cyberbullying and how to help the victims of cyberbullying. Ferlazzo (2010) conducted a study to ascertain the number of students...
More and more children are becoming victims of cyberbullying with an estimated range of between 19% and 42% being bullied online at least one time (Wolak, Mitchell & Finkelhor, 2006). Reports also indicate that children who participated in traditional bullying are becoming increasingly more involved in cyberbullying; reflecting very high percentages of those children acting as cyber bullies (Kowalski & Limber, 2007). In a recent study of 177 seventh grade
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