Cyberbullying: Not all forms of abuse leave bruises

Hannah Schwartz, Sergio Maciel, Jordan Williams, Joe Hayes

Bullying is a power imbalance between aggressor and victim that is harmful, repeated, and intentional actions that can be physical or verbal. Cyberbullying is a new form of bullying that many school-aged children and adolescents face today. Cyberbullies can follow their victims home via text messages and social media sites, which can mean constant harassment and mental anguish on a day-to-day basis for the victim. Lawmakers, school officials, and parents are unsure of how to address cyberbullying (Paul, Smith, & Blumber, 2012).

Introduction

- Cyberbullying is prevalent in school- aged children and adolescents (10-18 year olds) (Wang, Iannotti, & Nansel, 2009)- Cyberbullying can result in psychological harm (e.g., suicidal ideation) (Hidnjua & Patchin, 2010).- Some people believe that this should be handled legally, where others think that it should be handled by the parents or the school

Statement of Problem

• We came together to create an action plan to prevent and handle cyberbullying for middle and high school students through reviewing interviews and empirical articles on the topic

Aims

Empirical articles: • A study revealed that students felt that victims of cyberbullying experienced more harm because bullies didn’t receive punishment (Pettalia, Levin, & Dickinson, 2013).

• With the increase in electronic communication:Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, text messages, Instant messaging, and email cyberbullying needs to be addressed before it gets worse. (Kowalski & Limber, 2007) (Kwan & Skoric, 2012).

• Several factors can predict cyberbullying:social norms, common beliefs about cyberbullying prevalence among peers prototype similarity, one's self-assessment of similarity to the cyberbully prototype situational self-efficacy, one's beliefs about how much he or she would be tempted to engage in cyberbullying in certain situations (Lazuras, Barkoukis, Ourda, & Tsorbatzoudis, 2013).

Interviews:• Cyberbullying Victim: She felt she was being attacked and was afraid to talk to her friends. She believes that there are gender differences in cyberbullying. Her experience lead her to remove herself from Facebook. •Tina Meier (Megan Meier Foundation; mother of Megan Meier) and other parents: Addressing cyberbullying requires a multipronged approach including: empathy training and character building. Start training early in school and home settings, reinforce these skills by parent modeling. Children and adolescents need to understand the social and legal consequences of cyberbullying. Legal consequences are still unclear and need to be further addressed. •Two Psychologists: Cyberbullying is going to get worse before it gets better. In order to combat cyberbullying we need to: create a safe sense of community, empathy training and character building with older students as leaders, and anti-bullying campaigns with the help of the community. •School Counselor and Officer: When the school finds out about cyberbullying it is addressed with a school official and student. Legal action against cyberbullying is difficult because assessing a direct threat is difficult and technology has exceeded the law.

Background

•Advantages:

-Students will learn the harm and power of their words/actions.-Community will have a greater knowledge about the policies and procedures. -People of authority will learn how to appropriately address cyberbullying.

• Disadvantages:-Time commitment -Issues regarding consistency with empathy training/character building

reinforcement.-Disagreements on who has authority to address these issues surrounding

cyberbullying.

Advantages/Disadvantages

Cyberbullying is a growing problem that needs to be addressed. Our multifaceted action plan should be implemented to prevent and combat cyberbullying. Our action plan will promote positive peer relations and build a strong community.

Conclusions

Action Plan