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. 2017 Aug;26(8):899-908.
doi: 10.1007/s00787-017-0954-6. Epub 2017 Feb 10.

Cyberbullying: a storm in a teacup?

Dieter Wolke  1   2 , Kirsty Lee  3 , Alexa Guy  3
Affiliations

Cyberbullying: a storm in a teacup?

Dieter Wolke et al. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2017 Aug.

Abstract

Cyberbullying has been portrayed as a rising 'epidemic' amongst children and adolescents. But does it create many new victims beyond those already bullied with traditional means (physical, relational)? Our aim was to determine whether cyberbullying creates uniquely new victims, and whether it has similar impact upon psychological and behavioral outcomes for adolescents, beyond those experienced by traditional victims. This study assessed 2745 pupils, aged 11-16, from UK secondary schools. Pupils completed an electronic survey that measured bullying involvement, self-esteem and behavioral problems. Twenty-nine percent reported being bullied but only 1% of adolescents were pure cyber-victims (i.e., not also bullied traditionally). Compared to direct or relational victims, cyber-victimization had similar negative effects on behavior (z = -0.41) and self-esteem (z = -0.22) compared to those not involved in bullying. However, those bullied by multiple means (poly-victims) had the most difficulties with behavior (z = -0.94) and lowest self-esteem (z = -0.78). Cyberbullying creates few new victims, but is mainly a new tool to harm victims already bullied by traditional means. Cyberbullying extends the reach of bullying beyond the school gate. Intervention strategies against cyberbullying may need to include approaches against traditional bullying and its root causes to be successful.

Keywords: Aggressive behavior; Bullying; Cyberbullying; Interpersonal relationships; Self-esteem; Victimization.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Warwick and is in accordance with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki. All participants gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
STROBE flow diagram of recruitment and selection of schools and participants
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Pie chart of the frequencies (in percentages) of each victim type (includes victims only; n = 807)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Transformed (z-scores of total population) crude SDQ total behavior difficulties and reversed self-esteem scores by victim type, with 95% confidence intervals
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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