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The prevalence of cyber bullying in higher education in the UK

Abstract

Empirical findings have demonstrated that cyber bullying in schools is a growing problem, but it is not clear whether the phenomenon exists in the higher education context in UK. An explorative study of two hundred and nineteen undergraduate and postgraduate students was conducted to examine cyber bullying in UK universities. It was found that close to 25% of students were cyber victims, while about 15% were cyber perpetrators during their studies. When sex was taken into account, no differences in victimization and/or perpetration were identified. Furthermore,possible associations between past experiences of school bullying and current higher education cyber bullying were investigated. The relationship between traditional school bullying and cyber bullying at university was found with cyber bullying or cyber victimization behaviour continuing in the higher education context. This concurs with current perpetrator/victim research findings within the school context (Smith et al., 2003). Data of students’ internet usage and online behaviour are also presented and implications for interventions in higher education are discussed

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