My Research Project Paper Bullying/Cyber-bullying

Bullying: an Epidemic in Today’s Society

Bullying vs. Cyberbullying

Research Project

Samantha Joelle Geller

Dr. Miki Bomgarden

Research Methods Psy

December 12th 2011

Abstract

Background: The goal of the following study was to: (1) explore the affects of technology on the generation of young adults who where the products (being born in the beginning of) the new technological era, society has become immersed in today. (2) How the growth of new technologic forms of communication has had affects on their bullying versus cyber bullying experiences growing up, and continuing into their late teen years to early twenties. (3) The overlap of targets for bullying versus cyber-bullying. (4) The similarities and differences between bullying and cyber-bullying. (5) The correlations between those who have been bullied and those who have bullied others, both through traditional forms of bullying, and cyber-bullying. (6) The similarities and differences between male and female incidents of being bullied and bullying others, both in traditional forms and cyber-bulling.

Methods: This study was conducted through the use of an anonymous survey/questioner given to 19 college students both male and female with the mean age of 20.89.

Results: 100% of the subjects reported being bullied; with the highest occurrence rate being only (1-10 experiences) which was reported by 52.6% of participants; only 21.1% of participants had experienced cyber-bullying, while 78.9% of participants had not been a victim of cyber-bullying; 52.6% of participants admitted to bullying others, while a small difference of 47.4% said they had not bullied others; with the highest occurrence rate of those who admitted to bullying was only (1-10 occurrences) which was reported by 42.1% of participants; lastly, the smallest percentage was found in those who admitted to cyber-bullying others, being only 1 subject out of the 19 participants with a percentage of 5.3%.

Conclusion: In conclusion, the results that I would have expected to find based on other research done on this or similar topics, the high amount of media coverage on this topic, as well as the surge of programs and organizations dedicated to the research of bullying and cyber-bullying, is not cohesive with the result that I found in my study, however I was looking at a much smaller and limited population compared to the populations studied in similar research.

Introduction: Bullying and Cyber-bullying, have become increasingly more prevalent in recent years, affecting larger percentages of not only youth in their early teens, but those in their early twenties as well. It has been found to cause lasting harm, especially in schools; affecting both the physical and mental health, self-esteem, safety, and educational experience of millions of students nationwide. According to www.http://bullyingstatistics.com: “2.7 million students are bullied each year in relation to about 2.1 million students who are taking on the roll of bully each year” (2011). Although there is a smaller percentage of those who bully, most likely confirming the fact, that people who are bullied are more empathetic, and therefore do not bully back. There is also a question about the percentage of people who are bullied, taking revenge by bullying others, because the percentages found above are so close. According to www.isafe.org: “The tradition of home as a refuge from bullies on the school playground is over. The internet is the new playground, and there are no off hours. Kids are targets: 24 hours per day, 7 days a week” (2011). According to www.http://www.stopbullying.gov “Over half of adolescents and teens have been bullied online, and about the same number have engaged in cyber bullying” (2011). According to www.http://www.stopbullying.gov: The Harford County Examiner found in their research that “Girls are somewhat more likely than boys to be involved in cyber bullying” (2011). The following study was done based on these facts about bullying/cyber-bullying, and was my own attempt at finding out about bullying/cyber-bullying amongst my peers, who are products of the technological age, being affected by the epidemic of bullying/cyber-bullying.

Background: There are many correlations that have yet to be discovered or understood about bullying/cyber-bullying which is why it is such an important topic to research. Cyber-bullying (digital abuse) is particularly a serious problem and one of extreme interest to researchers because it is such a new and recent issue. There has been increasingly more cyber-bullying taking place in recent years due to the growing list of technological forms of communication. There is still much that needs to be learned about Cyberbullying, and the best way to find out, is to ask those who live in it, youth ages 12-24. The majority of 12-24 year olds have constant accesses to technology, giving them more and more resources for bullying/cyber-bullying to take place, and taking away the need to be face to face with someone, for abuse to take place. Not being face to face with the person you are bullying, makes it easier to bully them. I chose to use college students as my participants, to take my survey, because the college students of today are those who were born into and have grown up with the birth of a new technological era. In my research project I wanted to investigate the percentages of people being bullied compared to those being cyber-bullied, which I thought would be higher. I also wanted to find the percentages of how many people were bullied/cyber-bullied compared to how many people admitted to having bullied or cyber-bullied someone else. Lastly I wanted to find the similarities and differences between the prevalence and type of bullying/cyber-bullying affecting males versus females.

Rational: I choose to do my research project on bullying/cyber-bullying because it not only plays a large part in my life, being something I have both experienced and am very aware of, but because it is a huge issue for youth today. Whenever I would see someone else being bullied, it would affect me deeply. I was also bullied a lot when I was younger, and this has helped me to feel more empathy towards others who are bullied; I can relate to them, and have experienced similar feelings. Over the last couple of years I have become involved in advocating for lesbian, gay, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth. Bullying/cyber-bullying is a widely known problem and popular occurrence in the LGBTQ community. In September 2010 six gay teens committed suicide in a 4 week period because of bullying/cyber-bullying. The following information is the names, ages, and dates of death for these 6 young boys: 15-year-old Billy Lucas: September 9, 2010, 17-year-old Cody J. Barker: September 13, 13-year-old Seth Walsh: September 19, 18-year-old Tyler Clementi: September 22, 13-year-old Asher Brown: September 23, and 19-year-old Raymond Chase: end of September. These tragedies brought the crisis of bullying to a pubic front. It is being brought up in the media with increasing frequency because of the serious impact bullying has had on youth in recent years. According to www.http://bullyingstatistics.com “Revenge for bullying is one of the strongest motivations for school shooting, according to recent bullying statistics and suicide continues to be one of the leading causes of death among children under the age of 14 as the result of bullying. The term Bullycide is used to describe suicides that are the result of bullying”. (2011). With this epidemic of suicides, and media coverage on bullying and especially cyber-bullying I wondered if the percentage of people who were cyber-bullied was higher than those who were bullied at school, or somewhere else face to face. I wanted to do something to impact the fight against bullying, so this was my way of helping, getting people thinking, and getting information out about bullying.

Literature Review: Finding articles about bullying/cyber-bullying was not an easy task because it is such a new epidemic, there has not been a lot of research done on it. However I was able to find a lot of information online because of organization and programs that have been created in recent years to help prevent, and stop bullying/cyber-bullying. For my peer-reviewed research article, I found a study done by Juvonen and Gross, who were suggested for me to look up by another psychology teacher at American Jewish University. Juvonen and Gross did a study on cyber-bulling in 2008 called “Extending the School Grounds?-Bullying Experiences in Cyberspace” which was published in the “Journal of School Health” in September 2008 vol. 78, No 9, as part of the “American School Health Association”. In their abstract they said: The goal of the current investigation was to examine the overlap among targets of, and the similarities between, online and in-school bullying among the internet-using adolescents” (Juvonen, Gross 2008). Some of the questions that they asked in their survey were: “how long the respondent had used the internet, how many hours they spent online the day prior to the survey, and if they knew the person bullying them personally”. I used similar questions in my survey. Lastly, they found out that: “The most frequent forms of online and in-school bullying involved name-calling or insults” (Juvonen, Gross 2008). In my survey, I found similar results with 94.7% of my participants saying that they had been made of fun, name-called, and or insulted by a bully. The next research that I was able to find was a survey that was part of MTV’s ongoing “A Thin Line” campaign. The results were released in September 2011. “Their campaign empowered more than 1 million young people to take action to stop the spread of digital abuse” (Gill 2010). The article that I found was by Gil Kaufman. “Cyberbullying, Sexting Widespread, MTV/AP Survey Reveals: Compared to 2009, more young people said they are likely to intervene when they see digital abuse. “50% of participants said they often or sometimes see discriminatory language being used against others on social-networking sites” (Gil 2011), “51% believe using discriminatory language online is never ok, and 46% think it’s ok to use such language as long as it’s clear that it’s in jest” (Gil 2011). “The pervasiveness of digital abuse and Cyberbullying in the study confirms a disturbing trend in which young people are using the Internet and wireless devices to harass each other. 76% of 14-24 year olds say that digital abuse is a serious problem for people their age, with 56%, reporting that they have experienced abuse through social and digital media. It was 50% in the 2009 study” (Gil 2011). My results were not very similar to those of the MTV study however, I was used a much smaller and more limited population. Only 21.1% of my participants has been cyber-bullied, 3 females out of 9 and 1 male out of 10 and only one male had cyber-bullied someone else being 5.3% of the population. Next I was able to find some definitions and statistics on bullying/cyber-bullying using internet sources. I used many of the definitions to create my survey, using the definitions on the front page of my survey, as a resource guide for my participants, and based my chose in options for questions, from these definitions. The online resources that I used were (1).www.http://isafe.org: a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and empowering youth to safely, responsibly, and productively use technological communication through outreach activities and educational guides, (2). www.http://stompoutbulling.com: a national anti-bullying/cyber-bullying program dedicated to the education and prevention of all forms of violence, abuse, hatred, and racism. It was started by the program “Love Our Children U.S.A” in 2005. Bullying is generally thought of as a problem for elementary school, and especially middle and high school students, but “Stomp-out-bulling” statistics stated that “47% of older youth 18-24 are cyber-bullied” (stompoutbullying). My participants were between the ages of 18-24 and their mean age was 20.89, (3). www.http;//stopbullying,gov: provides information from various government agencies on how to prevent bullying. I got a large percentage of my definitions from this website, as well as from the following website, (4). www.http://bullyingstatistics.com: which provides information on preventing harassment, violence, online bullying/ school bullies. The following are some of their statistics: “160,000 children miss school every day out of fear of being bullied, 15 to 20% students bully others, while 15 to 25% are victims of bullying, and over half, about 56% of all students have witnessed a bully crime take place while at school. Many people believe that bullying/cyber-bulling does not take place in college, that once you are out of high school people stop being mean, but “47% of older youth 18-24 are cyber-bullied”(stompoutbullying). It is a problem, and unless we speak up about it, and inform others it will continue to be an increasing problem for college students today. I wanted to start this process by doing this research project, and informing my classmates and friends, that cyber-bullying is a problem, even for college students.

Hypothesis: Although I was not manipulating any variables, my educated guess was that my results would show a larger percentage of my peers having cyber-bullying experiences than face to face bullying experiences. I know I was cyber-bullied in middle school, and I have seen, my cousins, as well as friends be victims of cyber-bullying in recent years.

Pilot test: I did not do a pilot test, because I did not make my survey early enough in the semester, however I did write up several drafts, and shared them with my cousin. She looked at drafts, in which I had pages of ideas about questions I could ask. She pointed out the questions that she thought would be the most appropriate and useful to ask in my survey as well as several suggested questions of her own. I reviewed her suggestions, and created another survey. I sent this to my professor, who had more suggestions. I then once again revamped my survey, and finally gave it to my peers. I think it was a good survey, and I think that it asked some of the most important questions, although there were so many more questions I would have loved to ask.

Demographics: I tested my peers at American Jewish University, because they were the easiest population of participants for me to test, I also wanted to use this population, because my peers were all born and grew up in a world with increasingly new forms of technological communication. Lastly, I was interested in their responses as 18-24 year olds. I originally had 10 girls and 10 boys take my survey, a total of 20 participants, however I eliminated one of the girls, leaving me with 9 girls and 10 boys, with a total of 19 participants. The one girl that I eliminated was an outlier: she was younger than everyone else, and she answered no to ever being bullied or cyber-bullied, as well as no to ever bullying or cyber-bullying someone else. All 19 of my participants were between the ages of 18-24 and their mean age was 20.89.

My Survey/Questioner: I gave out my survey on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I handed it out to my peers in the school lobby, in the cafeteria, in the lounges on upper-campus, and lastly, I knocked on students’ dorm-room doors and asked them to take my survey and return it to my room. The first page of my survey had a brief description, explaining that it was an anonymous survey, and that they had the right to stop taking it at any time. I then had some definitions about bullying and cyber-bullying for their general information/to refresh their memory. I wanted to make sure they had definitions to look at in order to judge if they had been bullied/cyber-bullied, or if they had bullied or cyber-bullied someone else. On the first page; I asked my participants if they had ever been bullied with the choices yes or no, if their response was yes (which everyone’s was) how many times, giving them several options to chose from. Then I asked about their online activity, asking how much time they spent online a day giving them several options. Next, I gave them all the definitions of bullying, and asked them to circle the types they had experiences. I followed that question with another question about online activity, asking how many social networking sites they used, listing several options. Finally at the bottom of the first page, I asked if they had ever been a victim of cyber-bullying, giving them yes or no choices. On the second page I asked them to choose from several options how many times they been cyber-bullied, if they had. Then I gave them the definitions for cyber-bullying and asked them to circle all the types they had experienced. Next, I asked them if they had ever bullied someone else (yes,no), how many times, and to circle the types if they had. On the third and last page, I did the same thing with cyber-bulling, asking them if they had ever cyber-bullied someone else, how many times, and what tactics they had used. Overall I think that these were very important questions, The only major problem with my survey was that I did not specify what time period I was asking my participants about, and therefore some of them could have been answering based on recent years, while others could have been answering based on middle school, or high school experiences. My hope was that they chose their answers based on an overall conclusion of their bullying experiences, from early childhood into their college experiences.

More on my Study: I was very interested to find out the percentages of those who had been bullied compared to those who had been cyber-bullied and the percentages of those people who also said they bullied/cyber-bullied others (I was not sure what I thought the outcome of this would be). I was also very interested in finding out how many hours a day people said they spent online and how many social networking sites they used. I thought that these numbers would be higher than they were based on the amount of people I see online every day. Once I got my questionaris back and was going over them I realized that I was also interested in seeing what type of bullying was taking place and what the gender differences there were, if any. Surprisingly my study did not go the way that I thought it would, other than the fact that everyone said they had experienced bullying. I believe that this was because I tested such a small and limited population.

Results: The following data is the results of means, highest percentages, and correlations for my research: The mean for age is 20.89. The mean for how many social networking sites used was 2.53 which I found very interesting as I actually expected to get a higher number due to there being so many different social networking sites. Next time I would ask them which sites they used, and ask them to pick from a list. Those were the only means that I found significant. With the mean of age being 20.89 the highest percentage of my participants (42.1%) were 21 years old. 47.4% of them were girls, and 52.6% of them were males. 100% of them said that they had been bullied. The highest percent of them (52.6%) said that they were bullied between 1-10 times. 52.6% said that they spent 3-5 hours online a day. 94.7% said that they had been made fun of, called-names and or insulted. This was the highest percentage for any type of bullying. 68.4% said they had rumors spread about them, this was out of 6 females and 7 males. I wouldn’t have expected this outcome because generally you think of girls spreading rumors, and there was not a large difference between the males and females. More people said that they had not been threatened with harm at 52.6% while only 47.4% said they had. The exact opposite results came out for the question on being pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on. 52.6% said that they had been, and 47.4% they had not. 4 females and 6 boys said that they had been. I expected more males to answer yes to this question, but I was surprised by the amount of girl who had been pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on, this statistic actually frightened me. Only one person said that they had been made to do something that they did not want to do. This also surprised me, because I think this question could fall into the category of peer-pressure. I think next time; I would put peer-pressure in quotations. 57.9% of people said they had been excluded from activities on purpose. 52.6% of participants said they used 1 social networking site. 21.1% of participants said that they had been cyber-bullied while 78.9% said that they had not been cyber-bullied which also means that the highest occurrences of cyber-bulling was 78.9% at never. Only one person said they had embarrassing or private photos/info shared without their permission. In TV shows and movies this seems to be a large problem, so I am glad it has not been for my 19 participants. 10.5% said that they had rumors spread about them. 15.8% said that they were threatened with harm. I think it might be interesting to give the study to people I did not know, and ask them to explain what happened, to get a better understanding of what people say to one another online. 10.5% said that they had their password stolen. 10.5% also said that they had unwanted contact. 15.8% said that they had rude, insulting, degrading comments about them on public forum. I expected this to be one of the top examples of cyber-bullying. When I asked how many people had bullied someone else, 52.6% said yes, and 47.4% said no. Then for the occurrences, 52.6% said never, and 42.1% said between 1-10 occurrences. My results were lower than I expected for the question, asking if they had made fun of, name-called, or insulted others because the majority of participants said they had been bullied in that way, so I expected more people to say they had bullied others in this way as well. 42.1% said no, and 57.9% said yes. All of the questions in this category were higher on the no side. 84.2% said that they had not spread rumors. 89.5% said they had not threatened someone else with harm. The biggest percentages for the answer no was 94.7% of people said they had not pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on someone else. The only question about types of cyber-bullying that was valid was the one about leaving rude, insulting, or degrading comments about others in a public forum. This is because out of the one person, who admitted to cyber-bullying, said yes to only this question. Now I am going to move on to discuss correlations that were found as well as correlations that were not found that I thought were interesting. I found the correlations, because they either one or two stars next to them on the SPSS print out. However, I unfortunately do not know what that means. 1^st there was no correlation between how many hours someone spends online day, and how many social networking sites they use (.247), or if they had ever been cyber-bullied (-.228). One might think that the more time someone spends online the more social networking sites they would use and the bigger chance that they would be a victim of cyber-bullying, but between how many social networking sites one uses and if they had ever been cyber-bullied, there was no correlation at -.224. There was however a correlation between people who had rumors spread about them and how many hours they spent online at .547 with one star. I think there could be many logical reasons for this. The more time people spend online, such as on facebook, the more information they share about themselves online, and therefore the more likely, that someone might spread a rumor about them. There was a correlation between age and how many social networking sites someone uses at -.612 with two stars. I found that both participants who said they used 4 or more sites were 18 years old. There was a correlation between gender and those who threatened with harm through cyber-bullying at .456 with one star. This was because all three people who reported being threatened were female. There was also a correlation between those threatened with harm through bullying and those threatened through cyber-bullying at .456 with one star because the same three girls who were threatened with cyber-bullying were also threatened through bullying. This does mean that correlation equals causation because the rest of the people who said that they had been threatened with harm through bullying were not threatened through cyber-bullying besides the three girls. Two of these girls spread rumors about others, making a correlation between being threatened with harm and spreading rumors about someone else at .456 with one star. All three of them made fun of, name-called or insulted others at .472 with one star. I think that this is an example of people being bullied and then being more prone to cyber-bullying and then going out and bullying others because of this. The only question would be, then why did they not cyber-bully others. I found many other correlations related to these three girls. There was a -.578 correlation with two stars between having been pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on, and bullying others. Out of 10 people who where pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on 7 of the people had bullied others between 11-20 times including these girls. One person bullying 21-30 times, had also been pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on. This was interesting, because I think that physical harm might be the most likely to cause people to react and bully back. There were many other correlations, that I found, and I could go on and on for another page, but these are the correlations that I found most interesting and relevant to my study.

What could have been done differently: I think that my study would have been much more successful in meeting my expectations and the results found in another studies if I had had more time to do my study. I believe that I might have gotten more of my expectations met if I started doing my research not only in the beginning of the semester, but maybe started then and took a whole year to write a more elaborate and extensive survey and have a larger and more diverse population, ending in the spring, my results might have mimicked other similar studies. There were many questions that I was interested in finding the answers to, but not wanting to overwhelm myself or my participants, I made my survey as short and easy as possible. I asked my participants to circle all that applied for the definitions of each type of bullying. When I was doing my SPSS in order to input their answers, I had to change all of the circle options to yes or no questions, and select yes for the participants who had circled them, and no for the participants who has not circled them. I think this made finding my correlations more difficult. Next time, even if I asked the same questions, I would write my survey differently. It might have been helpful and was a suggestion from my professor to use a Likerd Scale. If I was to create my study again, I would spend more time making my survey, and creating questions and answer options that would be easiest for me to correlate and find my statistics for. I would also make sure to figure out what time period I wanted to ask my participants about, and state that clearly in my survey, by either writing it in the directions or in the questions themselves.

Implications/Discussions: I believe that this research is important, because bullying is a serious problem, and society needs to be informed, so that they can do something about it. My research, taught me more about bullying/cyber-bullying, and what programs, and organizations are working to fight and prevent it. I now know about new organizations to support with donations and/or add links and/or information about on my facebook page, or my blog. I only hope that my survey brought these issues to the attention of my participants and classmates. I hope that my survey made participants think about what experiences they had in their lives; whether through their own experiences of being bullied, their experiences of bullying others or even their experiences of seeing/hearing bullying/cyber-bullying taking place. Bullying can be stopped if people pay attention, and say something about it. Nothing will ever be fixed if everyone stays quiet. I plan on putting my paper and my powerpoint up on my blog http://dearpsychologyassociation.blogspot.com/: which is a blog I created with a fellow psychology major (Brittany Domb), as a place where we could post articles on psychology, post articles/videos on events in the news, and even post our papers. I hope that this way, my research is able to affect and inspire more people, to fight against and prevent bullying. Everyone says mean things to their friends sometimes, even in jest, but this is still bullying/cyber-bullying, and I want to make people more aware of how their words can affect other people. I have been very pleased with the amount of PSA’s and ads out against bullying/cyber-bullying. One interesting idea that I think might help is if websites, social-networking sites, email companies, cell-phone companies, and even computer companies like Apple, would show ads and have reminders about cyber-bullying or even if they were to start a campaign geared towards 12-24 year olds to help fight against and prevent bullying/cyber-bullying. I think this would make a huge impact, and be a constant reminder to people, it is so simple to send a quick message, email, or make a comment, and once it is there, it might not be able to be erased. I think it would make a huge impact to give people something to think about before they sent a message, with a little reminder. My idea would have to be thought about and planned more, but I think it could turn into something really wonderful.

Conclusion: In conclusion, my research did not turn out the way that I thought it would, but I was working with a small and limited population, and I still found some interesting results. Most importantly I not only learned more about the research process, I also learned a lot more about bullying/cyber-bullying, and I hope that my peers did also. I wanted to end with a fact about cyber-bullying because it is the newest form of bullying, and not very much is known about it. Why is so little known about cyber-bullying and why did I not get very many responses from my participants about cyber-bullying? These are two very good questions and that have the same answers, because cyber-bullying is not reported about very often. Cyber-bullying has been found to be more common than statistics are showing for many reasons (1). People are not aware of when cyber-bullying is taking place; because they think whatever is being said to them is just a joke, (2). I think that because technological communication takes place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every second, that people have become desensitized to any cyber-bullying that has taken place, or they have just forgotten about it. (3). I think that often young adolescents do not want to report cyber-bulling in fear of getting there technological privileges taken away. (4). Cyber-bullying can also be difficult to report because it can be deleted or lost in the constant new messages, feeds, and comments, being put up on the internet, or sent to someone’s phone. (5). Last but not least, cyber-bullying is often difficult to punish for because it might not be know who is doing the bullying, because people often use fake names, or steal other people’s passwords, in order to pretend to be someone else. The numbers are going down and more people are standing up against bullying because there is so much about it in the media today, but there is still much that needs to be done, and more that needs to be known about bullying/cyber-bullying today. I hope that I was able to inform my peers about this topic, and teach them definitions, statistics, or any other information they did not know. One more person who is not bullying is a possible life saved. Last but not least I wish that I could spend more time and write and analyze every single one of my correlations, but I also cannot make my paper any longer so I must stop now. Overall I learned a lot from this project, not only about bullying, but how to study my surveys and use SPSS, and then find correlations. It was a fun project, and I look forward to learning more about bullying and cyber-bullying in order to try to help prevent and stop it.

Resources

Juvoen J. Gross EF. Extending the school grounds?-bullying experiences in cyberspace. J Sch Health. 2008; 78: 496-505.

Kaufman, Gil. Cyberbullying, Sexting Widespread, MTV/AP Survey Reveals: Compared to 2009, more young people said they are likely to intervene when they see digital abuse. www.http://mtv.com/news/article/1671547/cyberbullying-sexting-mtv-ap-survey.jhtml. MTV Networks 2011. Website: Online

ISAFE: Dig Deeper. www.isafe.org

Stomp out Bullying www.http://stompoutbullying.com/aboutthebullying_theissue.php 2007-2011

Stop Bullying www.http://stopbulling.gov

Bullying Statistics www.http://bullyingstatistics.org

This is an anonymous survey and all information in this survey will remain anonymous. You have the right to stop taking this survey at any time.

The survey is on the following pages (14 questions), below you can find some general information and examples for your our own use:

Bullying is:

-Making fun of someone, name calling or insulting others

-Spreading rumors

-Threatening someone with harm

-Pushing, shoving, tripping or spitting on someone

-Making someone do something they do not want to

-Excluding others from activities on purpose

Cyberbullying is: Bullying (besides physical aggression) over the internet or through other tec. devices: texting, Aim, Social networking sites, Chat-rooms, Blogs………..

-Sending embarrassing or privates photos or information out about someone else

-Stealing someone’s password

-Unwanted contact

-Leaving rude, insulting, or degrading comments about people in public forums

Demographics:

Age: ________________

Gender: _________________

1. Have you ever been a victim of bullying?
a. Yes
b. No

2. If you have been a victim of bullying, how many occurrences of bullying have you experienced?
a. 0 – 10
b. 11 - 20
c. 21 - 30
d. 31 or more

3. How many hours a day do you spend online?
a. 0 – 2 hours
b. 3 – 5 hours
c. 6 – 8 hours
d. 9 or more hours

4. If you have been a victim of bullying, what time of bullying have u experienced? (circle all the apply)

-Being made fun of, being called names, and being insulted

- Having rumors spread about you

- Being threatened with harm

- Being pushed, shoved, tripped or spit on

- Being made to do something you do not want to do

-Being excluded from activities on purpose

5. How many social networking sites do you use?
a. 0
b. 1
c. 2
d. 3
e. 4 or more

6. Have you ever been a victim of cyberbullying?
a. Yes
b. No

7. If you have been a victim of cyber bullying, how many occurrences of bullying have you experienced?
a. 0 – 10
b. 11 - 20
c. 21 - 30
d. 31 or more

8. If you have been a victim of cyber bullying, what type of you experienced? (circle all that apply)

- Having embarrassing or private photos/information shared about you without your permission

- Having rumors spread about you

- Being threatened with harm

- Having your password stolen

- Having unwanted contact

- Having rude, insulting, or degrading comments left about and or for you Leaving in public forums

9. Have you ever bullied someone else?
a. Yes
b. No

10. If you have bullied someone else, how many occurrences of bullying have you participated in?
a. 0 – 10
b. 11 - 20
c. 21 - 30
d. 31 or more

11. If you have bullied someone else, what tactics did you use? (circle all that apply)

-Making fun of someone, name calling or insulting others

-Spreading rumors

-Threatening someone with harm

-Pushing, shoving, tripping or spitting on someone

-Making someone do something they do not want to

-Excluding others from activities on purpose

12. Have you ever cyberbullied someone else?
a. Yes
b. No

13. If you have cyberbullied someone else, how many occurrences of bullying have you participated in?
a. 0 – 10
b. 11 - 20
c. 21 - 30
d. 31 or more

14. If you have cyberbullied someone else, what tactics did you use? (circle all that apply)

Sending embarrassing or privates photos or information out about someone else

-Spreading rumors

-Threatening someone with harm

-Stealing someone’s password

- Unwanted contact

-Leaving rude, insulting, or degrading comments about people in public forums

Thank you for participating in my survey J

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1671547/cyberbullying-sexting-mtv-ap-survey.jhtml

Sep 27 2011 9:18 AM EDT 3,740

Cyberbullying, Sexting Widespread, MTV/AP Survey Reveals

Compared to 2009, more young people said they are likely to intervene when they see digital abuse.

By Gil Kaufman

More than half of the respondents to an MTV/Associated Press study revealed they have been the targets of mean behavior or fake gossip on social-networking sites or text messages. The pervasiveness of digital abuse and cyberbullying in the study confirms a disturbing trend in which young people are using the Internet and wireless devices to harass each other, but also reveals that more are stepping up and saying something when they see abuse online.

According to the study, 76 percent of 14-24 year olds say digital abuse is a serious problem for people their age, with 56 percent reporting that they have experienced abuse through social and digital media. That figure is up from the 50 percent who reported suffering digital abuse in a 2009 MTV/AP survey.

One in four said they'd experienced digital abuse in the past six months, which typically included people writing things online that aren't true (26 percent), people writing things online that are mean (24 percent) and forwarding an IM or message that was intended to stay private (20 percent).

The good news is that, compared to 2009, more young people in the 2011 study said they are likely to intervene when they see such behavior and step in if they see someone "being mean online."

Among the other findings: One-third have sent or received "sext" messages on their phones or online, with 71 percent describing sexting as a serious problem. Only 15 percent of the 14-24 year olds polled said they have shared naked photos or videos of themselves, with 10 percent saying they did it with someone they only know online (a steep decline from the 29 percent who said that in 2009). Among the respondents who said they'd sent a nude photo, nearly half said they felt pressure to do so.

Of those in relationships, 41percent said they'd experienced some form of digital dating abuse, with nearly three in 10 saying their partner has checked up on them multiple times a day online or via mobile; 27 percent say a partner has read their text messages without permission.

In addition to sexting and harassment, 50 percent said they often or sometimes see discriminatory language being used against others on social-networking sites, with terms such as "slut," "That's so gay," "fag" and "retard" ranking among the most commonly used discriminatory words or phrase. People who are overweight and LGBT are the most frequent subjects of discrimination, and among the young people surveyed, 51 percent believe using discriminatory language online is never OK, and 46 percent think it's OK to use such language as long as it's clear that it's in jest.

There are some good strategies for combating digital abuse, with 47 percent reporting that simply asking the person to stop was effective, though 14 percent say doing so made things worse. Among the most effective techniques: changing passwords (80 percent); changing email address, screen name or cell phone number (67 percent); and deleting their social-network profile (59 percent).

The MTV/AP study was released Tuesday (September 27) as part of MTV's ongoing A Thin Line campaign, which has already empowered more than 1 million young people to take action to stop the spread of digital abuse. To access the full MTV/AP research findings from 2011 and 2009, visit A Thin Line.

The data gleaned from the research informs the story lines in MTV's upcoming original movie "(DIS)CONNECTED," which explores the collision of life, love and digital drama. "(DIS)CONNECTED" will premiere Monday, October 10, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.

http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-statistics-2010.html

Bullying Statistics 2010

The bullying statistics 2010 reveal that bullying is a crime that is not going away anytime soon. There are about 160,000 children that miss school every day out of fear of being bullied. Bullying statistics 2010 also report an increase in cyberbullying activities.

New bullying statistics released in 2010 are showing that bullying is still a problem among children and teens, but is taking on a different approach with cyberbullying becoming more and more rampant in school and after school among teens and children. Social networking has provided an entirely new environment for bullying to take place. According to bullying statistics 2010, there are about 2.7 million students being bullied each year by about 2.1 students taking on the roll of the bully.

Bullying statistics 2010:

New bullying statistics for 2010 revealed about one in seven students in grades kindergarten through 12th grade is either a bully or has been a victim of bullying. Sometimes a teen or child who has been bullied eventually becomes the bully as a way to retaliate. In fact, revenge for bullying is one of the strongest motivations for school shootings, according to recent bullying statistics. A reported 61 percent of students said they believe students shoot others at school because they have been victims of physical violence at home or at school. This is a true indicator that bullying can occur in all forms by other students, children, teens as well as adults. According to various bullying studies, many teens and children act out violently on their peers through acts of bullying because they are abused at home.

Other bullying statistics:

• Over half, about 56 percent, of all students have witnesses a bullying crime take place while at school.
• A reported 15 percent of all students who don't show up for school report it to being out of fear of being bullied while at school.
• There are about 71 percent of students that report bullying as an on-going problem.
• Along that same vein, about one out of every 10 students drops out or changes schools because of repeated bullying.
• One out of every 20 students has seen a student with a gun at school.
• Some of the top years for bullying include 4th through 8th graders in which 90 percent were reported as victims of some kind of bullying.
• Other recent bullying statistics reveal that 54 percent of students reported that witnessing physical abuse at home can lead to violence in school.
• Among students of all ages, homicide perpetrators were found to be twice as likely as homicide victims to have been bullied previously by their peers.
• There are about 282,000 students that are reportedly attacked in high schools throughout the nation each month.

Bullycide statistics:

Suicide continues to be one of the leading causes of death among children under the age of 14. Bullycide is a term used to describe suicide as the result of bullying. New bullying statistics 2010 are reporting that there is a strong connection between bullying, being bullied and suicide, according to a new study from the Yale School of Medicine. Suicide rates are continuing to grow among adolescents, and have grown more than 50 percent in the past 30 years.

Bullying can include various types of behavior from physical attacks, to destroying one's personal property or clothing, verbal abuse, starting rumors, name calling, verbal attacks online as well as other forms of cyberbullying. For teens and children who feel they are being bullied, it is important to address the matter with a parent or teacher right away. It may feel like you are telling on someone for doing something wrong, and that admission might get you in trouble with the bully later. However, this is not the case. In the majority of cases when a bully is reported, the bullying stops because the bully is faced with dire repercussions or they are sent away to a juvenile detention center. If you see bullying occur, it is just as important to tell a trusted adult about the situation. There are many ways to try and prevent bullying from getting worse and by reporting incidents, you can help cut down on future cases of bullying involving other victims. Maintaining a strong sense of self and good overall self-esteem is another way to ensure you won't be a victim of bullying attacks since bullies generally only prey on those they feel are weaker than them. This is also why it is important to have a solid group of friends that will have your back if a bully does try to attack in some way. Parents, be sure to talk to your children and teens about bullying and how to prevent it from happening to them or their peers. Make sure they know the importance of reporting such incidents and ways to handle a bully.

Chttp://www.stopbullying.gov/topics/cyberbullying/berbullying

Cyberbullying, instead of happening face-to-face, happens through the use of technology such as computers, cell phones and other electronic devices. Cyberbullying peaks around the end of middle school and the beginning of high school.

Examples of cyberbullying include:

• Sending hurtful, rude, or mean text messages to others
• Spreading rumors or lies about others by e-mail or on social networks
• Creating websites, videos or social media profiles that embarrass, humiliate, or make fun of others

Bullying online is very different from face-to-face bullying because messages and images can be:

• Sent 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
• Shared be shared to a very wide audience
• Sent anonymously

Effects of Cyberbullying

Research on cyberbullying has found that students involved are more likely to:

• Be unwilling to attend school
• Receive poor grades
• Have lower self-esteem
• Have more health problems

Cyberbullying can have particular affects on those who are targeted. Research has found that young people who have been cyberbullied are significantly more likely to:

• Use alcohol and drugs
• Skip school
• Experience in-person bullying or victimization