A Two Way Street: Prevalence of Cyberbullying Among Middle School Students

Background:Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that occurs online or via cell phone text messages.  As a new phenomenon, research on the topic is still emerging.  The effects of cyberbullying, such as depression or low self-esteem, are similar to traditional bullying. Cyberbullying is also very different as it can be harsher, far-reaching (e.g., emails sent to an entire school), from an anonymous source, inescapable, and youth can be victimized in their own homes.  To the best of our knowledge, no study has looked at cyberbullying among middle school students.  

Method:As a supplement to the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 2012, a probability sample (N = 1,186) of Los Angeles Unified School District middle school students was collected.  Logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess associations between being a cyberbully victim or perpetrator with demographic characteristics and technology use. 

Results: One-in-ten (11%) youth surveyed were victims of cyberbullying and 10% were cyberbullies. Victims of cyberbullying had 10 times the odds of also being a perpetrator.  Facebook was the most common forum for cyberbully victimization (47.7%) and perpetration (47.6%), followed by text messaging (23.1% for vic.; 19.1% for perp.).  Most (53.8%) perpetrators cyberbullied someone they knew in real life (IRL), and 26.4% of victims were cyberbullied by someone IRL. One-third of perpetrators cyberbullied people they did not know; victims experienced more cyberbullying from someone they knew online, not IRL.  Bivariate correlations showed significant relationships for gender, sexual orientation, sending 300 or more texts per day and using the internet for at least five hours per day with both victimization and perpetration.  Multivariate logistic regressions showed that females and white youth were more likely to be victims of cyberbullying (OR: 2.1, p<0.01; OR: 1.9, p<0.05).  The most significant predictor of cyberbully outcomes was engaging in bidirectional bullying: victims were much more likely to be perpetrators and perpetrators were much more likely to be victims (OR: 8.9, p<0.001; OR: 8.8, p<0.001).  

Conclusions: Cyberbullying is a prevalent issue among middle school aged youth; white and female adolescents are more likely to participate in cyberbullying. These results suggest that cyberbullying most commonly occurs as a bidirectional experience. Cyberbullying prevention and intervention programs at the middle school level should be gender appropriate and consider that victims of cyberbullying are most likely also perpetrators.  Prevention programs should focus on building healthy female peer relationships and explore the possibility of using social networking or smartphones as a mode of intervention.