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It is an expectation of Australian schools to address student cyberbullying. However, schools may struggle to be effective if other societal systems are not aligned and supportive. Within this ecological framing, this qualitative study used interview and focus group methods to gather secondary school stakeholder perspectives about the role the legal system plays in helping schools to prevent and intervene in student cyberbullying. School leaders, specialist staff, teachers, students and parents participated. A thematic analysis uncovered three themes with implications for improving school capacity with the help of society’s legal system: What schools can and cannot do to reduce cyberbullying; the role of police in school-based cyberbullying management; and the need for education and legal inter-systemic collaborations to meet school-identified challenges in addressing student cyberbullying.

Background: Cyberbullying is a significant problem for young people and secondary schools are the main institutions expected to address it. School anti-bullying measures have only modestly reduced the problem to date. Purpose: This study aimed to examine the perspectives of members within the school community regarding their actions to reduce cyberbullying. Method: School stakeholders were recruited from two large independent high schools in Australia. Overall, four school leaders, two key personnel with roles in cyberbullying prevention, and two parents participated in semi-structured interviews, while two groups of Year 9 teachers, and four groups of Year 9 students (aged 13–15 years) participated in focus groups. Interview and focus group protocols were developed to gather views about prevention and intervention measures for cyberbullying in the stakeholders’ schools. Copies of anti-cyberbullying policies and documents were also collected for review. Analysis: A thematic content analysis was conducted on 14 stakeholder transcripts from interviews and focus groups, and school policy documents were reviewed for anti-bullying components. The distal systems of a social-ecological framework were used to frame a wider view of school efforts to prevent and intervene in cyberbullying. Findings: The content analysis and review showed that school actions were reflective of evidence-based best practice. However, despite actions towards making students safe from cyberbullying, stakeholders were left questioning why these incidents were still observed. The analysis revealed that the continued presence of cyberbullying was not simply attributable to ineffective school practices, but rather from societal influences. Three macrosystem themes were identified from the data: the culture of technology; the legal framework; and the media portrayal of cyberbullying. These macrosystem influences could be seen impacting four school exosystems (i.e. communities of school practice): th

The teaching of drama in Sri Lanka is presently only conducted by the traditional lecture method, which is not conducive to preparing students for the modern globalised world. To ascertain whether teaching by process drama techniques improved creativity in secondary school students, a non-randomised control group design with an intervention group, a control group and an active control group, was conducted. This article describes the perceptions of teachers in the intervention group who taught process drama. We describe the obstacles which the teachers experienced when teaching process drama and the challenge to bring changes to drama education in Sri Lanka.

This chapter presents what we currently know about prevention and intervention strategies for cyberbullying. It starts with the controversial topic of what behaviours actually constitute cyberbullying. The three positions to date are that cyberbullying is a fourth form of bullying, or that cyberbullying is different from traditional bullying because of the medium, or that cyberbullying cannot be disaggregated from cyber aggression. The history, prevalence, and consequences of cyberbullying are then presented as they relate to the programmes which attempt to reduce its incidence. Five different programme types to address cyberbullying are then presented with the evidence of their effectiveness to date. The common elements of these programmes, the issues with the programmes themselves and their implementation are discussed. Finally, some other strategies to reduce cyberbullying and what needs to be done in the future are presented.

Bullying has serious consequences for students, parents, teachers and the wider community. This study assessed teachers’ and parents’ ability to accurately identify traditional bullying and cyberbullying scenarios. Perceived seriousness of scenarios was explored and gender differences were examined. Analyses revealed teachers were more accurate in identifying traditional bullying scenarios than parents, with no differences found for cyberbullying scenarios or perceptions of severity. Males were more accurate in identifying non-cyberbullying scenarios. Females perceived the majority of traditional and cyberbullying scenarios as more serious. Results suggest understanding teachers’ and parents’ knowledge of traditional and cyberbullying is crucial to bullying research and intervention efforts, as their recognition of bullying and perceived severity impacts the likelihood they would intervene. Implications for the prevention and intervention of bullying are discussed.

For a school to write an anti-bullying policy seems a common sense first step to reduce all forms of bullying. While established practice in a school could be transmitted orally, with school communities being increasingly mobile, both with new intakes of students each year as well as staff changes, it would seem sensible to write down guidelines about both prevention and intervention of bullying. We know the negative consequences for everybody involved in bullying, for the student who is victimised, for the student who perpetrates the bullying, for students who are both victims and perpetrators, for the bystanders and for parents and staff at the school...

Students with ASC are at heightened risk for bullying and their understanding of bullying is known to protect them from involvement in it (Humphrey and Hebron 2015). However, only a handful of studies have examined how students with ASC understand traditional bullying and none of them focused on cyberbullying. To fill this gap, we investigated how traditional bullying and cyberbullying are understood from the perspectives of 89 students with ASC attending inclusive schools and 490 students without ASC. Twenty vignettes were used from (Campbell et al. 2017a), based on the Olweus (1999) definition of bullying and verified by a Delphi technique. In the majority of traditional bullying and cyberbullying vignettes, students with ASC made more accurate responses than inaccurate ones and demonstrated higher accuracy rates than students without ASC. Findings of linear multiple regression analyses pointed out ASC status as a predictive variable for understanding both types of bullying, along with students' age for understanding cyberbullying. The findings highlight the ability rather than inability to understand bullying in students with ASC. It is therefore critical to include the voices and experiences of students with ASC in our research endeavour.

The prevalence, impact on mental health and coping of bullying victimisation in university students identifying as non-heterosexual, was compared with their heterosexual peers. University students were surveyed on bullying experiences within the past 12-months, their mental health, and use of coping strategies. Demographic information identified gender, age and sexual orientation. Results indicated that 14.3% of students reported victimisation, and that students aged 24 -35, and those that identified as non-heterosexual reported higher rates of victimisation. No gender differences were found. Bullied students scored significantly higher on depression, anxiety and stress scores than non-bullied students. Comparisons of mental health scores and coping strategies of non-heterosexual and heterosexual bullied students found no significant differences, indicating both groups are equally impacted, and equally utilise adaptive and maladaptive strategies to manage the victimisation. Implications for tertiary institutions include identification of effective coping resources for diverse university student populations. Limitations and recommendations for future research are considered.

Accumulating evidence suggests that the prevalence of bullying is significantly higher for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) than for typically developing students. Additionally, the prominence and growth of social networking and resultant focus on cyberbullying in the last 10 years has added a new dimension to the traditional definitions, environments and experiences of bullying. This paper describes current anti-bullying strategies and the legal climate in regard to bullying in Australia. It then reports on interviews with 10 students with ASD and their parents, and discusses recommendations based on their perceptions for dealing with bullying in schools. Data analysis indicated that both students and parents made a range of recommendations to increase awareness of bullying; improve policies and procedures that can be more clearly communicated to students, teachers and parents; and support programs that develop communication and relationship building within families and in schools to both prevent bullying and provide coping strategies to deal with bullying if it occurs. Parents also called for schools to give harsher penalties for offenders, particularly repeat offenders. These student and parent recommendations may contribute to the development of school and government policy and practice to help reduce the incidence of all forms of bullying in schools.

Although many cross-sectional studies have examined bullying experiences and correlated factors among adolescents in schools, relatively little is known about the extent to which bullying roles are stable or fluid over time. This short-term quantitative longitudinal study in Vietnam examined temporal patterns and predictors of bullying roles over an academic year. A total of 1424 middle and high school students aged 12–17 years completed two anonymous, self-administered questionnaires six months apart in 2014 and 2015. Young people were classified into different bullying roles as follow: not-involved (38.9%), victims only (24%), bullies only (6.6%), and bully-victims (40.4%) across the two times. About 60% of all surveyed students experienced bullying either as victim, bully, or bully-victim during the year. Of these students, nearly three in four indicated unstable bullying roles over time. Multivariate multinomial logistic regressions indicated factors ranging from individual (age, gender, and mental health) to family (social support, parental supervision and monitoring, witnessing parental violence, and conflict with siblings), school (perceived social support, teachers’ attempt to stop bullying at school), and peers (social support, students’ attempt to stop bullying at school) have significant associations with levels of bullying involvement. Implications for bullying prevention programs nationally and internationally are discussed.

While bullying is often researched in children and adolescents and in the workplace, there is limited research in the emerging adult population, especially in students at university. This is perhaps due to the fact that bullying generally declines as children and young people become older (e.g., Nansel et al., 2001; Wang, Iannotti, & Nansel, 2009). Although this may indeed be the case, it is apparent that bullying does not completely abate when students graduate from high school. The plethora of literature evidencing workplace bullying, clearly shows that bullying continues beyond the school years (e.g., Hoel, Cooper, & Faragher, 2001; Privitera & Campbell, 2009). With the advent of cyberbullying in the last decade it has been shown that this particular form of bullying may not decrease with age as does traditional bullying (Kowalski & Limber, 2007; Raskauskas & Stoltz, 2007). In addition, we know there is a spike in prevalence rates during the transition from primary to high school Pellegrini et al., 2010), so it is possible that new university students are at an increased risk of victimisation due to this being a transition period. This has led to some interest in examining the prevalence of bullying in the emerging adult population at universities (Chapell, Casey, & de la Cruz, 2004; Pontzer, 2010; Wensley & Campbell, 2009).

This study examined perceived social support available to victims of traditional and cyber forms of bullying in a heterosexual and sexual minority emerging adult university student population. Questionnaires were completed by 521 students aged 18- to 25-years-old, relating to their sexuality, experience of bullying, and perception of social support. Perceived social support was lower for sexual minority individuals than for heterosexual individuals only when no bullying behaviour was present. No significant differences in perceived social support between sexual minority and heterosexual individuals were found when they were traditionally bullied, cyberbullied, or experienced both forms of bullying victimization. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Students in secondary schools experience problems that can impact on their well-being and educational outcomes. Although face-to-face counselling is available in most Australian secondary schools, many students, particularly boys, do not seek appropriate help. Research suggests that online counselling can be effective and increase engagement. This study of 215 secondary school students sought to assess students' intention to use online counselling if it was made available in schools. The results found no gender difference in the likely intentions to seek online help though year level was significant and students experiencing psychological distress had a preference for online counselling. If students did use online counselling it was more likely they would discuss sensitive topics rather than for career issues. Implications for school counselling are discussed.

This article investigates the perceptions of 156 students who were victims of both traditional and cyberbullying (117 female, 45 male), ages 10 to 17 years, as to which form of bullying was more hurtful. Overall, students perceived traditional victimization to be more hurtful than cyber victimization. Reasons identified in the data to explain the different perceptions of victims were categorized and found to relate to: the bully, the bystanders, the bullying incidents, the emotional impact on the victim, and the victim’s ability to respond. The perceptions of these students challenge a number of suppositions presented in the literature that attempt to explain why cyberbullying is associated with more negative outcomes than traditional bullying. The implications for antibullying programs to address these issues are discussed.

This chapter examines the ways young people cope with loneliness and the influences on these coping strategies. Loneliness is a distressing, complex and universal phenomena. It is an absence of fulfilling social relationships. Children, adolescents and young adults experience loneliness with an estimated 10-20% of young people experiencing continuous or recurrent feelings of loneliness (Perlman & Landolt, 1999). While there is a body of research examining how adults cope with loneliness there is scant research on how children and adolescents try to alleviate this unpleasant feeling. In this chapter definitions of coping are examined and different theoretical bases of coping are explored. Measurement issues with this population are discussed and implications for future research and for professionals helping young people are provided.

Given their ubiquitous presence as witnesses to school-yard bullying, the role of the ‘bystander’ has been studied extensively. The prevalence and behaviour of bystanders to cyberbullying, however, is less understood. In an anonymous, school-based questionnaire, 716 secondary school students from South-East Queensland reported whether they had witnessed traditional and/or cyberbullying, and how they responded to each type. Overlap in bystander roles between online and offline environments was examined, as was their relationship to age and gender. Students who witnessed traditional bullying were more likely to have witnessed cyberbullying. Bystanders’ behaviour was sometimes similar in both contexts of traditional and cyberbullying, mainly if they were outsiders but half of the 256 students who reported witnessing both traditional and cyberbullying, acted in different roles across the two environments. The implications of the findings are discussed in the context of previous research on cyberbullying and traditional-bystanders. Future research should further explore the role of bystanders online, including examining whether known predictors of traditional-bystander behaviour similarly predict cyber-bystander behaviour.

Recent empirical research has found that the psychological consequences for young people involved in cyberbullying are more severe than in the case of traditional bullying (Campbell, Spears, Slee, Butler, & Kift, 2012; Perren, Dooley, Shaw, & Cross, 2010). Cybervictimisation has been found to be a significant predictor of depressive symptoms over and above that of being victimised by traditional bullying (Perren et al., 2010). Cybervictims also have reported higher anxiety scores and social difficulties than traditional victims, with those students who had been bullied by both forms showing similar anxiety and depression scores to cyberbullying victims (Campbell et al., 2012). This is supported by the subjective views of many young people, not involved in bullying, who believed that cyberbullying is far more harmful than traditional bullying (Cross et al., 2009). However, students who were traditionally bullied thought the consequences of traditional bullying were harsher than did those students who were cyberbullied (Campbell, et al., 2012). In Slonje and Smith’s study (2008), students reported that text messaging and email bullying had less of an impact than traditional bullying, but that bullying by pictures or video clips had more negative impact than traditional bullying.

Most young people are students attending school where their peer relationships impact on their educational outcomes. At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, young people also depend on the communication technologies to assist them with their developing relationships. Increasingly this connectedness to the peer group is being carried out both in the physical and virtual worlds as evidenced by the rapid increase in the membership of social network internet sites. However, schools seem reluctant to implement educational processes that utilize the social networking sites that young people inhabit. In fact, schools seem to be only emphasizing the dangers of enhancing peer relationships do not seem to be acknowledged. Online school counselling could be one way for schools to promote the positive uses of technology to contribute to young people's education and to enhance their social relationships and connectedness.

Increasing numbers of Asian international students are choosing to undertake their tertiary studies in English speaking countries. For universities, international students are an important source of revenue. However, Asian international students face multiple challenges in adapting to a foreign culture, understanding the expectations of their role, and adjusting to language, communication and cultural differences. These challenges are manifested, in particular, during practicum or field experience. This paper investigated the concerns of twenty Asian pre-service teachers before and after their practicum in Australian schools by drawing upon data from focus group interviews. While language barriers and cultural differences were identified concerns before the practicum, concerns about their relationship with their supervising teachers and the limited time in which they had to learn also emerged after the practicum. Whilst the findings are limited to the present study, implications for supporting Asian international pre-service teachers during practicum are discussed.

The similarities and differences between life coaching and counselling are vigorously debated in the literature and amongst practitioners. However, to date there has been insufficient empirical evidence with extensive focus on the distinctions and significantly less acknowledgement of the similarities. This paper presents findings from in depth interviews in Australia of five internationally trained life coaches and nine of their clients in various countries. It reviews the distinctions between coaching and counselling presented in the literature and provides qualitative evidence to support, clarify and challenge current claims that the distinction is principally definitional. In so doing, it demonstrates substantive similarities between coaching and counselling and recommends collaboration rather than competition between the two disciplines.

Chalmers, C., Campbell, M. A., Spears, B. A., Butler, D., Cross, D., Slee, P., & Kift, S. (2016). School policies on bullying and cyberbullying: perspectives across three Australian states. Educational Research, 58(1), 91-109. Available here.