Bullying embraces the virtual world : elucidating the psychosocial determinants and correlates of traditional vs. cyberbullying types

Rapid technological development has drastically changed the social landscape, redefining the ways youth stay connected and communicate with one another. New technologies provide a virtual platform where cyberbullying behaviours are able to thrive. Although international research has made considerable progress in advancing our understanding of traditional forms of bullying, much remains to be done to uncover the complexities of cyberbullying phenomena. This thesis aims to address the research gaps and methodological limitations associated with cyberbullying research by conducting a mixed methods investigation from an ecological framework, to provide a richer and a more complete understanding of bullying phenomena. A total quantitative sample of 625 students was recruited from two NSW secondary schools across grades 7 through 10. A qualitative subsample of 81 participants drawn from the same two schools included the students (n = 57), their parents (n = 10), educational staff and school counsellors (n = 14). Three interrelated studies were conducted to advance cyberbullying research: Study 1 developed a new, psychometrically sound instrument titled the Adolescent Cyber Bullying Instrument (ACBI), which is grounded in a strong theoretical framework and which measures cyberbullying behaviours across all potential perspectives. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and tests of invariance revealed that the new continuous measure was valid and reliable. Study 2 used structural equation modelling (SEM) to uncover the effects of gender, grade, and school context on cyberbullying and traditional bullying behaviour, as well as to investigate the psychosocial correlates of involvement. The results revealed that students involved in any cyberbullying role (victim, bully, or bystander) were significantly more likely to report symptoms of depression, although to varying degrees. Generally speaking, cyber victims reported experiencing significantly lower perceptions of physical appearance and parental relations self-concept, whilst cyberbullies reported significantly poorer parental relations and verbal and mathematical (English and maths) self-concept. Interestingly, bystanders witnessing happy slapping behaviours (e.g., embarrassing situations that were set up, recorded and subsequently posted online) also reported significant experiences of depression. These results provide preliminary evidence suggesting that students involved in happy slapping incidents may also be at a greater risk of adverse mental health consequences. Lastly, Study 3 captured the perspectives of all school stakeholders involved (students, their parents, educators and school counsellors) by uncovering shared bullying experiences. Stakeholder interviews clarified definitions of different cyberbullying forms, why students engage in bullying perpetration, the impact bullying has on peers and families, reasons for the reluctance to disclose, the relation between traditional and cyber forms of bullying, and generated valuable practical suggestions to seed sustainable intervention/prevention programs addressing bullying. One of the most important findings showed that traditional forms of bullying and cyberbullying are positively correlated, suggesting that anti-bullying prevention programs need to target both forms of bullying, to effectively reduce all incidents, both offline and online. Preliminary results indicate that bullying begins in school hours and transfers across to online environments. This reveals that portable technology has provided bullying access to previously established safe havens such as the family home. Further implications of these findings for theory, research, and schools are discussed

An investigation into boys and bullying : is teasing just harmless fun?

The multidimensional nature of bullying can only be entirely understood by investigating bullying from different influential contexts, including individual, social, and environmental, which can be best achieved through the use of qualitative analysis (Misha, Pepler, & Wiener, 2006). The present investigation aims to extend on the lack of qualitative bullying literature by examining how students define bullying, what the most prevalent types of bullying within the school are, how students perceive the impacts of bullying, and where the differences lie between teasing and bullying. One semi-structured focus group session was conducted with eight male secondary private school students. In total, two main themes were highlighted: (1) student perceptions into verbal and physical bullying; and (2) when teasing crosses over to actual bullying. These important research findings provide real and rich anecdotes from Year 9 students, which supplement our understanding of bullying from a peer perspective. Findings can be used by researchers, educators, and practitioners alike

An investigation into boys and bullying : is teasing just harmless fun?

The multidimensional nature of bullying can only be entirely understood by investigating bullying from different influential contexts, including individual, social, and environmental, which can be best achieved through the use of qualitative analysis (Misha, Pepler, & Wiener, 2006). The present investigation aims to extend on the lack of qualitative bullying literature by examining how students define bullying, what the most prevalent types of bullying within the school are, how students perceive the impacts of bullying, and where the differences lie between teasing and bullying. One semi-structured focus group session was conducted with eight male secondary private school students. In total, two main themes were highlighted: (1) student perceptions into verbal and physical bullying; and (2) when teasing crosses over to actual bullying. These important research findings provide real and rich anecdotes from Year 9 students, which supplement our understanding of bullying from a peer perspective. Findings can be used by researchers, educators, and practitioners alike

A Critical review of the current cyber bullying research : definitional, theoretical and methodological issues. Where do we go from here?

Past documentation of schoolyard behaviour showed that bullying existed long before it became a focus for empirical researchers, psychologists, and educators (Rigby, 2002). Recent interest has arisen with the increase in the reporting of bullying behaviours occurring within the workplace, classroom, and via new communication technologies (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006; Rigby, 2002). Research has also increased due to the recognition of bullying as an invasive school issue, with harmful long-term outcomes for many students and school communities (Hinduja & Patchin, 2007; Li, 2006; Mason, 2008). With recent widespread use of new technologies, school students today have expanded traditional bullying techniques into the virtual environment. This is known as cyber bullying, and includes the use of online chat, email, websites, and instant messenger (IMs) social networking sites to bully others (Aricak et al., 2008; Smith et al., 2008). The present investigation will be conducted to: investigate the characteristics, motivations, and goals of those who engage in cyber bullying; the impact of cyber bullying on bullies, targets, bystanders, families, and the community; the relations between cyber bullying and traditional bullying types; and the potential characteristics required for successful cyber bullying interventions. The primary proposed outcome for this research investigation is to build the capacity of students, parents, school and community by investigating and understanding the complexity of why adolescents become involved in the vicious bullying cycle and to later utilise these findings to prevent, address and minimise cyber bullying to enhance young Australians cyber safety, health, and wellbeing in a socially innovative and sustainable manner. In summation, this paper will be highlighting the previous theoretical and methodological problematic issues in past bullying research, will be discussing the gaps in the literature and provide a summary and justification for a newly proposed cyber bullying study. Cyber bullying is a relatively new phenomenon, and literature on the area is only starting to uncover and explore the nature, definitions, incident rates, gender differences, and the affects this type of bullying has on adolescent students. Australian research it is yet to elucidate the nature and prevalence rates for different cyber bullying forms, which is crucial to understand in order to create cyber bullying prevention programs (Lodge & Frydenberg, 2007). Considering the trend that traditional bullying behaviour increases as students get older, peaking during the early high school years, it is not clear whether the same trends exist for those using cyber methods. However, a study conducted by Kowalski and Limber (2008) with students from year 7, 8, and 9 found that 11% of students had been cyber bullied, 7% had been involved in both bullying and being bullied using cyber methods, and 4 % had cyber bullied another person in the last two months. These results suggested that this type of bullying may be on the rise as 50% of the teenagers in their sample owned a mobile phone, and 97% of students had access to the internet, with a large proportion of these students using electronic devices daily. Li (2007) also investigated cyber bullying with 177 grade seven students and found 54% were both bullied and targeted with traditional methods, and a quarter of this group had also been subjected to cyber-bullying. Furthermore, one in three students had bullied another by traditional styles; and 15% had bullied others via technological communication sources. However, these cyber-bullying prevalence rates may be overestimated due to the problematic research practices used (i.e., dichotomous variables, single-items indictors).12 page(s

A critical review of the current cyber bullying research : definitional, theoretical and methodological issues. Where do we go from here?

Past documentation of schoolyard behaviour showed that bullying existed long before it became a focus for empirical researchers, psychologists, and educators (Rigby, 2002). Recent interest has arisen with the increase in the reporting of bullying behaviours occurring within the workplace, classroom, and via new communication technologies (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006; Rigby, 2002). Research has also increased due to the recognition of bullying as an invasive school issue, with harmful long-term outcomes for many students and school communities (Hinduja & Patchin, 2007; Li, 2006; Mason, 2008). With recent widespread use of new technologies, school students today have expanded traditional bullying techniques into the virtual environment. This is known as cyber bullying, and includes the use of online chat, email, websites, and instant messenger (IMs) social networking sites to bully others (Aricak et al., 2008; Smith et al., 2008).The present investigation will be conducted to: investigate the characteristics, motivations, and goals of those who engage in cyber bullying; the impact of cyber bullying on bullies, targets, bystanders, families, and the community; the relations between cyber bullying and traditional bullying types; and the potential characteristics required for successful cyber bullying interventions. The primary proposed outcome for this research investigation is to build the capacity of students, parents, school and community by investigating and understanding the complexity of why adolescents become involved in the vicious bullying cycle and to later utilise these findings to prevent, address and minimise cyber bullying to enhance young Australians cyber safety, health, and wellbeing in a socially innovative and sustainable manner. In summation, this paper will be highlighting the previous theoretical and methodological problematic issues in past bullying research, will be discussing the gaps in the literature and provide a summary and justification for a newly proposed cyber bullying study. Cyber bullying is a relatively new phenomenon, and literature on the area is only starting to uncover and explore the nature, definitions, incident rates, gender differences, and the affects this type of bullying has on adolescent students. Australian research it is yet to elucidate the nature and prevalence rates for different cyber bullying forms, which is crucial to understand in order to create cyber bullying prevention programs (Lodge & Frydenberg, 2007). Considering the trend that traditional bullying behaviour increases as students get older, peaking during the early high school years, it is not clear whether the same trends exist for those using cyber methods. However, a study conducted by Kowalski and Limber (2008) with students from year 7, 8, and 9 found that 11% of students had been cyber bullied, 7% had been involved in both bullying and being bullied using cyber methods, and 4 % had cyber bullied another person in the last two months. These results suggested that this type of bullying may be on the rise as 50% of the teenagers in their sample owned a mobile phone, and 97% of students had access to the internet, with a large proportion of these students using electronic devices daily. Li (2007) also investigated cyber bullying with 177 grade seven students and found 54% were both bullied and targeted with traditional methods, and a quarter of this group had also been subjected to cyber-bullying. Furthermore, one in three students had bullied another by traditional styles; and 15% had bullied others via technological communication sources. However, these cyber-bullying prevalence rates may be overestimated due to the problematic research practices used (i.e., dichotomous variables, single-items indictors)

The relation between emotional self-concept domains and involvement in bullying : a preliminary investigation

In Australia, it has been estimated that half of all high-school students have encountered some type of bullying at school (Rigby, 1997). Only recently has research started to investigate and target specific psychological mediators which play a role in bullying (Marsh, Parada, Craven, & Finger, 2004; Smith & Myron-Wilson, 1998). The present study examines the relation of multidimensional self-concept and bullying. Participants included Year 7 to 9 students from a co-educational secondary school (N= 106). Using the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument-Bully/Target (APRI-BT; Parada, 2000) and the Self-Description Questionnaire II-Short (SDQII-S; Marsh, Ellis, Parada, Richards, & Heubeck, 2005), this study specifically associates bullying with those self-concept factors relating to varying dimensions of affective confidence, namely: emotional stability, honesty/trustworthiness and general self-esteem. A confirmatory factor analyse (CFA) was conducted on the data using structural equation modelling techniques. Although preliminary results show significant and negative correlations between involvement in bullying and emotionally oriented based self-concept factors, future research with a larger sample size is warranted

Do parental relations impact on involvement in bullying? A preliminary investigation into the relations between bullying and parental relations self-concept

Christine-Mizell (2003) proposes that one of the factors which attribute to low self-concept in children is the damaging interactions and poor relationships children have with their parents. Only recently has literature suggested that bullying may be linked to a child's perceived self-concept specifically in the domain of parental relations (Eden, 1999). The present study aims to enhance bullying research by: (a) providing an overall critical literature review of the area; (b) investigating the multidimensional nature of the bully/victim process and its core determinants (parental relations self-concept); and (c) providing further understanding of the mediating factors which influence the bully/target cycle. This study explores the relation of one multidimensional domain of self-concept (parental relations) and bullying using the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument - Bully/Target (Parada, 2000) and the Self-Description Questionnaire II-Short (SDQII-S)(Marsh, Ellis, Parada, Richards, & Heubeck, 2005). Participants include student's from a co-educational secondary school (N = 106) from Years 7 (n = 35), 8 (n = 24), and 9 (n = 47). A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on the data. Although the CFA resulted in a poorly fitting model due to the small sample size, correlations were noted among factors which revealed significant negative relations between involvement in bullying (in terms of bullying others and being bullied) and the parental self-concept factor. Future research would benefit with larger sample size to clarify the validity of these results.9 page(s

Do parental relations impact on involvement in bullying? : a preliminary investigation into the relations between bullying and parental relations self-concept

Christine-Mizell (2003) proposes that one of the factors which attribute to low self-concept in children is the damaging interactions and poor relationships children have with their parents. Only recently has literature suggested that bullying may be linked to a child's perceived self-concept specifically in the domain of parental relations (Eden, 1999). The present study aims to enhance bullying research by: (a) providing an overall critical literature review of the area; (b) investigating the multidimensional nature of the bully/victim process and its core determinants (parental relations self-concept); and (c) providing further understanding of the mediating factors which influence the bully/target cycle. This study explores the relation of one multidimensional domain of self-concept (parental relations) and bullying using the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument - Bully/Target (Parada, 2000) and the Self-Description Questionnaire II-Short (SDQII-S)(Marsh, Ellis, Parada, Richards, & Heubeck, 2005). Participants include student's from a co-educational secondary school (N = 106) from Years 7 (n = 35), 8 (n = 24), and 9 (n = 47). A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on the data. Although the CFA resulted in a poorly fitting model due to the small sample size, correlations were noted among factors which revealed significant negative relations between involvement in bullying (in terms of bullying others and being bullied) and the parental self-concept factor. Future research would benefit with larger sample size to clarify the validity of these results

Adolescent peer relations instrument : assessment of its reliability and construct validity when used with upper primary students

An increasing awareness of the detrimental effects of single-item scales to measure bullying has recently become apparent. A new multiple-item multiple-scale behavioural measure of bullying was developed for secondary schools by Parada (2000) and found to be a reliable and valid scale for adolescent students. However, it is not known whether a similar instrument would yield sound psychometric properties for younger students and therefore provide a salient measure for those students. The aim of the present investigation is to examine the multi-dimensional and hierarchical structure of the Adolescent Peer Relations Questionnaire (APRI)(Parada, 2000) for upper primary aged students. A total of 894 students from Years 5 and 6 from eight Western Sydney primary schools completed the questionnaire. The APRI contains 36 items, 6 scales, and measures 3 types of bullying (Physical, Verbal, Social) in 2 categories (bullying, being targeted). Each scale (e.g., Bullying Physical) is comprised of 6 items. In addition, this investigation analyses the ability of these 3 types of bullying and being targeted to define 2 global second order factors – Global Bullying, and Global Target. Results from the first- and second order Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) showed excellent results for the APRI. The APRI was as such deemed appropriate for use within the upper primary school years

The failure of general self-esteem : self-esteem's aggrevating affect on racial discrimination's relation to achievement

Psychological research and popular culture have repeatedly noted that general self-esteem is a positive contributor to well-being and performance indicators across a large variety of domains including education. However, whilst increased self-esteem may have a positive influence on educational outcomes, increasing evidence suggests that perceptions of racial discrimination may also have a negative impact on these outcomes. The current investigation used a variety of structural equation modelling techniques to examine the potential impact of Indigenous Australian students’ general self-esteem and perceptions of racial discrimination upon performance on standardised spelling and math achievement measures. The results indicated that general selfesteem did not impact on Indigenous students’ performance, however, perceived racial discrimination impacted significantly and negatively on performance. In addition, a moderating analysis demonstrated that Indigenous students with a higher general self-esteem were more susceptible to the negative impact of racial discrimination than those with low self-esteem