Bullying and Cyberbullying

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Bullying and Cyberbullying

• Presented by Bobbie Fiori

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What is Bullying?

• Bullying is when one or more persons repeatedly
  say or do hurtful things to another person who
  has problems defending himself or herself.
• Repeatedly teasing someone who clearly shows
  signs of distress is also recognized as bullying.

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What is Bullying?

• Indirect bullying the experience of being
  excluded from a group of friends, being spoken
  ill of and being prevented from making friends.
• Direct bullying usually involves hitting,
  kicking, or making insults, offensive and
  sneering comments, or threats.

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Prevalence of Bullying

• In 1998, a study in the US sampled more than
  15,000 students in grades 6 through 10 and found
  about 30 percent of the sample reported moderate
  or frequent involvement in bullying-as a bully,
  victim, or both.

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Where Does Bullying Take Place?

• Research indicates that two to three times as
  many students are bullied at school compared to
  on their way to school.
• Approximately 40 to 75 percent of bullying takes
  place during breaks schoolyard, in the
  corridors, at recess, or in more secluded places,
  like bathrooms.

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Who Gets Bullied?

• Research indicates potential victims of bullying
  tend to have at least one of the characteristics
  listed below
• Passive or submissive victim anxious, unsure of
  themselves, quiet, careful, sensitive, and may
  cry easily, poor self confidence, physical
  weakness, few friends

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Who Gets Bullied?

• Research indicates potential victims of bullying
  tend to have at least one of characteristics
  listed below
• Proactive victim quick tempered and may
  retaliate if attacked, restless, clumsy,
  immature, unable to concentrate, hyperactive,
  reading/writing problems, disliked by adults (due
  to irritating behavior)

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Who Bullies?

• Children and young people who bully have a number
  of common features
• Low or average levels of anxiety, self image is
  also about average or even relatively positive,
  view violence more favorably than most students,
  aggressive toward adults, both parents and
  teachers, marked need to dominate and suppress
  other students, to assert themselves,
  hot-tempered, impulsive, not tolerant of
  obstacles/frustrations, show little sympathy
  toward students, and good at talking their way
  out of situations

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What Are The Warning Signs?

• Goes home with torn, dirty, or wet clothes,
  damaged books, or loses things without being able
  to give a proper explanation of what happened
• Does not spend time with classmates after school
  or on weekends
• Seems afraid or unwilling to go to school in the
  morning

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What Are The Warning Signs?

• Chooses an illogical route to and from school
• Loses interest in school and gets poor grades
• Seems unhappy, depressed, or has mood swings with
  sudden outbursts of irritation or anger

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What Are The Warning Signs?

• Often has little appetite, headaches, or stomach
  aches
• Sleeps restlessly with nightmares and possibly
  cries in sleep
• Steals or asks for money from family members

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Is My Child a Bully?

• Does your child/student have a marked need to
  dominate or manipulate others?
• Does your child/student act aggressively, nasty,
  spiteful, and generally oppositional?
• Does your child/student seem to like to insult,
  push around, or tease other students/children?

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What Can Schools Do?

• Schools should maintain constant readiness to
  counteract any tendencies toward bullying in the
  school environment.
• Most noted anti-bullying program The Olweus
  Bullying Prevention Program.

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Core Elements of Model Bullying Prevention Program

• Create both a school and home environment
  characterized by warmth, positive interest, and
  involvement with adults
• Firm limits against unacceptable behavior need to
  be established

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Core Elements of Model Bullying Prevention Program

• Non-physical, non-hostile negative consequences
  (sanctions) must be applied if a youth breaks the
  rules that have been agreed upon.
• It is expected that adults in the school and at
  home act as authorities. Teachers are expected
  to be authorities with responsibility for the
  students total situation, not just their
  learning.

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• How much bullying takes place in our schools and
  other youth environments depends on the role that
  committed adults will play in their schools,
  their families, and their communities.

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What is Cyberbullying?

• The use of electronic information and
  communication devices to bully an individual or
  group through personal attacks or other means.

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What is Cyberbullying?

• The willful and repeated harm inflicted through
  the medium of electronic text and media.
• Harass
• Degrade
• Inflict harm
• Inflict fear

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Ways Kids Cyberbully

• Email
• Discussion groups or boards
• Chat Room
• Text/digital image messaging
• Blogs (weblogs)
• Instant messaging (IM)

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Ways Kids Cyberbully

• Personal Web Sites
• Xanga.com, friendster.com, Blurty.com,
  Newsisfree.com, ecrush.com
• Voting/Polling Booths
• http//invisionfree.com, www.hotornot.com
• Social Networking Communities
• http//www.myspace.com
• http//www.bolt.com
• http//studentcenter.org
• http//www.livejournal.com

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Prevalence of Cyberbullying

• Youth Internet Safety Survey, Ybarra Mitchell
  (2004) surveyed 1501 youths 9-17 and found
• 26 visit chat rooms daily 25 use IM everyday
• 30 use the Internet for 3 hours or more per day
• 24 e-mailed material that said hateful things
  about another person

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Prevalence of Cyberbullying

• Youth Internet Safety Survey, Ybarra Mitchell
  (2004) surveyed 1501 youths 9-17 and found
• 19 of regular Internet users involved in online
  bullying 15 were bullies, and 7 were victims
  3 were both
• Over 56 online bullies/victims were targets of
  offline bullying
• 49 of bully-only 44 of victim-only youth

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Prevalence of Cyberbullying

• Kowalski, et al. (2005) studied 658 6th-8th
  graders and found
• Girls twice as likely as boys
• Of those students who had been cyberbullied
• 62 said that they had been cyberbullied by
  another student at school
• 46 had been cyberbullied by a friend
• 55 didnt know who had cyberbullied them
• Of those students who admitted cyberbullying
  others
• 60 had cyberbullied another student at school
• 56 had cyberbullied a friend

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Why This Form of Bullying?

• Disinhibition
• You dont know me
• Dissociative anonymity
• Experimentation with multiple identities
• You cant see me
• Illusion of invisibility
• Moral values and social expectations
• Reduction of social and contextual cues and
  tangible feedback
• Different social expectations for different
  online environments

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Why This Form of Bullying?

• Its just a game
• Underdeveloped empathy skills
• Lack of impulse control
• Underdeveloped internal behavior control
  mechanism
• Ineffective problem solving skills

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Why this Form? (Motivational)

• Four Types of Cyberbullies
• Vengeful Angel
• Power-Hungry/Revenge of the Nerds
• Mean Girls
• Inadvertent Cyberbullies

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The Psychological Impact

• Ybarra Mitchell (2004) found
• 44 problem behaviors
• Stealing, property damage, police contact
• 26 drinking alcohol
• 23 smoking
• 16 depressive symptomatology
• Low self-esteem, anxiety, anger
• 28 low school commitment
• School failure, school avoidance, school violence

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What Can Schools Do?

• Provide illumination awareness of
  cyberbullying concerns
• Empower educators, parents, students, and
  community members with knowledge of how to
  prevent and respond to cyberbullying
• Provide warning to cyberbullies and their parents
  of possible negative consequences

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What Can Schools Do?

• Proactively address concerns of cyberbullying on
  campus with policies and effective
  supervision/monitoring
• Develop a plan of action to engage in effective
  threat analysis for any reports of cyberbullying
  that raises concerns of violence or suicide
• Develop an effective community-based approach to
  address concerns of cyberbullying that occurs off
  campus

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• It is everyones business and the best response
  to combat cyberbullying. Administrators,
  teachers, counselors, students, parents, and the
  community need to work together to combat
  cyberbullying.