Search

School bullying is a global phenomenon with teachers often at the forefront of responding to this behavior. It is, therefore, important that teachers are able both to understand and articulate what bullying is and to recognize bullying behavior. Ninety-five Australian early childhood teachers participated in an online survey to define bullying, fighting and identify the differences between the two behaviors. They were also asked to identify from 20 scenarios whether the behaviors depicted traditional bullying behaviors, cyberbullying behaviors, non-bullying face-to-face behaviors or non-cyberbullying behaviors. Results found that teachers described some of the three characteristics of bullying, that is, the intention to harm, power difference, and repetition; however, many teachers had difficulty clearly explaining the distinguishing differences between bullying and fighting. The majority of teachers identified the bullying behaviors in the scenarios; however, some teachers misinterpreted some non-bullying behaviors as bullying. The need to increase teacher's knowledge of bullying to support the prevention and intervention of bullying are discussed.

Public opinions are divided on the relative benefits versus harms of allowing mobile phones in schools. When debating the consequences of mobile phones in schools, politicians often argue that students' use of mobile phones distract from their learning, increase cyberbullying and lead to poor mental health outcomes. We conducted a scoping review of the global literature, followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) and pre-registered our protocol with the Open Science Framework (OSF). Our search and screening process identified 22 studies that met our inclusion criteria and shed light on our research questions: whether mobile phone use in schools impacts academic outcomes, mental health and wellbeing and cyberbullying. We found an absence of randomized controlled trials with evidence resting on a small number of studies with different designs, samples, operational definitions of mobile phone bans (i.e. partial, or complete bans) and outcome measures, making reconciliation of findings challenging. Nonetheless, we provide a synthesis of the latest evidence for decision-makers tasked with deciding for or against mobile phone bans in schools. Directions for future research are provided and practical implications for schools are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate university students' reactions to a hypothetical cyberbullying incident. Also, using the social cognitive theory, the contributing role of academic connectedness (context-related factor), as well as empathy and locus of control (individual factors), was examined through an explanatory mediation model. Method: Overall, 315 university students (71.1% women) from different university departments in a southern European country completed a self-report questionnaire, which included scales on cyberbystanders' reaction through a hypothetical scenario, on academic connectedness, empathy, and locus of control. Results: The results showed that participants, especially female students, expressed a likelihood of reacting supportively and responsibly toward the cyberbullying incident. Furthermore, the study showed that students' perceived academic connectedness is associated with their intended reaction positively and indirectly, through the full mediation of their cognitive and affective empathy. Locus of control was not a significant mediator between students' academic connectedness and their intended reaction. Conclusions: The findings of the present study inform about specific interacting academic context-related and individual psychological mechanisms associated with students' reaction, as bystanders, to hypothetical cyberbullying incidents. Universities could use this evidence to strengthen these mechanisms and subsequently enhance the support of students who have been cyberbullied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyberbullying is a harmful practice to which schools must respond. Australia does not have a cyberbullying-specific law, so schools navigate their responses within a range of laws not created for the online world, nor for youth. In this study, the murky legal environment of youth cyberbullying was problematised from perspectives found within two Australian secondary school communities. School leaders, key staff, teachers, students, and parents participated in interviews or focus groups held to gather their views about whether a new cyberbullying-specific law was needed to help reduce youth cyberbullying. A thematic analysis found three themes: that an educational approach was favoured over a legal one; that current laws mediated a constrained discussion about the benefit a new cyberbullying-specific law would have for schools and that there were school-identified unmet spaces where the law should be contributing better solutions to youth cyberbullying. Legal responses with implications for reducing youth cyberbullying are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. This study aimed to examine the perspectives of members within the school community regarding their actions to reduce cyberbullying. 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. 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. 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): the parent community, the organisational community, the support and advice community, and commercial communities of schools. The macrosystems and exosystems of schools are influencing school actions, with implications for the reduction of student cyberbullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 noncyberbullying 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 programmes 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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the published research on cyberbullying has been conducted with children and adolescents, so little is known about cyberbullying in other populations. This study examined cyberbullying within an emerging adult population in a university setting (N = 282), and explored what coping strategies these individuals intended to use in response to future cyberbullying incidents. Blocking of the sender of the bullying message was found to be the most frequent intention to cope with cyberbullying among these emerging adults. It was also found that both gender and victimisation status (i.e., whether the emerging adult had, in the preceding twelve months, been a victim of cyberbullying) influenced coping strategy intentions. The implications for practice and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 ages 18 to 25 years old. The questions related 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 behavior 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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background:Despite decades of research, bullying in all its forms is still a significant problem within schools in Australia, as it is internationally. Anti-bullying policies and guidelines are thought to be one strategy as part of a whole school approach to reduce bullying. However, although Australian schools are required to have these policies, their effectiveness is not clear. As policies and guidelines about bullying and cyberbullying are developed within education departments, this paper explores the perspectives of those who are involved in their construction.Purpose:This study examined the perspectives of professionals involved in policy construction, across three different Australian states. The aim was to determine how their relative jurisdictions define bullying and cyberbullying, the processes for developing policy, the bullying prevention and intervention recommendations given to schools and the content considered essential in current policies.Sample:Eleven key stakeholders from three Australian states with similar education systems were invited to participate. The sample selection criteria included professionals with experience and training in education, cyber-safety and the responsibility to contribute to or make decisions which inform policy in this area for schools in their state.Design and methods:Participants were interviewed about the definitions of bullying they used in their state policy frameworks; the extent to which cyberbullying was included; and the content they considered essential for schools to include in anti-bullying policies. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically.Findings:Seven themes were identified in the data: (1) Definition of bullying and cyberbullying; (2) Existence of a policy template; (3) Policy location; (4) Adding cyberbullying; (5) Distinguishing between bullying and cyberbullying; (6) Effective policy; and (7) Policy as a prevention or intervention tool. The results were similar both across state boundaries and also across different disciplines.Conclusion:Analysis of the data suggested that, across the themes, there was some lack of information about bullying and cyberbullying. This limitation could affect the subsequent development, dissemination and sustainability of school anti-bullying policies, which have implications for the translation of research to inform better student outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigated the associations of gender, age, trait anger, moral disengagement, witnessing of interparental conflict, school connectedness and the religious makeup of the school setting in the involvement in traditional bullying and cyberbullying perpetration. Five hundred Australian students completed an anonymous self-report, paper-based questionnaire. According to the results, 25.2% of the participants reported having engaged in traditional or cyberbullying perpetration. While trait anger and moral disengagement were associated with being a traditional bully, trait anger, interparental conflicts, moral disengagement and school connectedness were associated with being a traditional bully-victim. Additionally, trait anger and moral disengagement were associated with being a traditional-and-cyberbully. Our findings indicated that besides individual variables, the family and school environment have an impact on traditional and cyberbullying perpetration behavior. Results imply that any prevention attempts to reduce traditional and cyberbullying should consider students' experiences both at home and at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 tocyberbullying, 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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• There are very few studies which examine how children and adolescents define traditional bullying and cyberbullying. • We know that parents and teachers do not define bullying in the same way as researchers. • Participants had a limited ability to apply the given bullying and cyberbullying definitions to real life scenarios. • The older children became the more able they were to apply the definition. There was no gender difference. • However, girls and older children perceived all bullying scenarios as more serious than boys and younger students. Bullying among children and adolescents is a significant and serious social phenomenon that has continued to be a problem despite the implementation of current intervention programs. The words bullying and cyberbullying have been controversial terms with researchers and the general public holding different views of what they mean. The problem is that these differences could potentially lead to inconsistent responding approaches and impact the effectiveness of prevention and intervention measures. Previous research has found that parents and teachers may have a different understanding of the key concepts of bullying and cyberbullying than researchers and have difficulty in applying these definitions to complex real-life scenarios. However, there are an extremely limited number of studies that have investigated students' understanding of bullying applied to real-life scenarios and even scarcer studies examining young people's understanding of cyberbullying applied to complex scenarios. The current study thus used a scenario-based questionnaire which was constructed using the Delphi method (that is, a consensus of experts) to examine children and adolescents' ability to accurately identify bullying and cyberbullying situations from non-bullying situations and their perceived seriousness of these situations. The impact of age and gender on identification and the level of serious of bullying scenarios was also examined. Results indicated that children and adolescents have a limited ability to apply a given standard researchers' bullying and cyberbullying definition to real life scenarios. Findings also demonstrated that young people's abilities differed significantly depending on their age, but not on their gender. Girls perceived both traditional and cyberbullying scenarios as more serious than boys, and the perceived level of seriousness also differed significantly based on their age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the prevalence of cyberbullying among university students and less about whether they utilise anti-bullying policies. However, failure to report cyberbullying incidents to authorities would lessen the efficacy of these policies. This study investigated the prevalence of cyberbullying among university students and their reporting intentions for cyberbullying incidents. Two hundred and eighty-two students completed a survey on their intentions to report cyberbullying. Results found cyberbullying exists among university students and they would report to authorities if the policy outlined specific information. Students who had been cyber victimised were more likely to report than those students who had not been cyberbullied. Implications for universities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has consistently found that school students who do not identify as self-declared completely heterosexual are at increased risk of victimization by bullying from peers. This study examined heterosexual and nonheterosexual university students' involvement in both traditional and cyber forms of bullying, as either bullies or victims. Five hundred twenty-eight first-year university students ( M=19.52 years old) were surveyed about their sexual orientation and their bullying experiences over the previous 12 months. The results showed that nonheterosexual young people reported higher levels of involvement in traditional bullying, both as victims and perpetrators, in comparison to heterosexual students. In contrast, cyberbullying trends were generally found to be similar for heterosexual and nonheterosexual young people. Gender differences were also found. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of intervention and prevention of the victimization of nonheterosexual university students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well recognised that there are serious correlates for victims of traditional bullying. These have been shown to include increased levels of depression, anxiety and psychosomatic symptoms, in addition to often severe physical harm and even suicide. Bullied students also feel more socially ineffective and have greater interpersonal difficulties, together with higher absenteeism from school and lower academic competence. In the emerging field of cyberbullying many researchers have hypothesised a greater impact and more severe consequences for victims because of the 24/7 nature and the possibility of the wider audience with this form of bullying. However, to date there is scarce empirical evidence to support this. This study sought to compare victims' perceptions of the harshness and impact of bullying by traditional and cyber means. The major findings showed that although students who had been victimised by traditional bullying reported that they felt their bullying was harsher and crueller and had more impact on their lives than those students who had been cyberbullied, the correlates of their mental health revealed that cybervictims reported significantly more social difficulties, and higher levels of anxiety and depression than traditional victims. The implications for school counsellors and mental health workers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the reasons underlying adolescents' perceptions of why their peers engage in bullying in the real and the cyber world. While there has been much research on why bullies engage in such behaviour, ranging from personality characteristics to social or familial reasons, the perceptions of young people on the motives of cyberbullies has not been researched. A new instrument, based on interviews and a literature review was piloted to measure young people's perceptions of why their peers engage in both traditional and cyberbullying behaviour, according to their role in bullying. Four hundred students were surveyed in three co-educational independent secondary schools. A comparison between perceptions of bullies' motives in traditional and cyberbullying was made. Implications for interventions with bullies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the subject of cyberbullying of children and adolescents has begun to be addressed, less attention and research have focused on cyberbullying in the workplace. Male-dominated workplaces such as manufacturing settings are found to have an increased risk of workplace bullying, but the prevalence of cyberbullying in this sector is not known. This exploratory study investigated the prevalence and methods of face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying of males at work. One hundred three surveys (a modified version of the revised Negative Acts Questionnaire [NAQ-R]) were returned from randomly selected members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU). The results showed that 34% of respondents were bullied face-to-face, and 10.7% were cyberbullied. All victims of cyberbullying also experienced face-to-face bullying. The implications for organizations' “duty of care” in regard to this new form of bullying are indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]