Prevalence and Predictors of Cyberbullying and Cybervictimization Among Ethnically Diverse Children in Elementary Schools

Introduction: While many studies have examined cyberbullying experiences among middle and high school students, research has seldom focused on these phenomena among elementary students or among ethnic minority youth in urban areas due to the previously prominent digital. The No Child Left Behind Act has facilitated a significant increase in technology access for students, and handheld devices (e.g., cell phones) are more affordable This increase in accessibility may yield increased opportunities for negative cyber experiences. The aim of the current paper is to explore the cyberbullying and cybervictimization experiences of ethnic minority youth living in urban environments.

Method: Participants were 452 4^th and 5^th graders from 4 elementary schools in a large city in the northeastern United States, 52% female, and was ethnically diverse, 64.5% Black, 17.2% Asian, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 3.0% White, and 11.2% other ethnicity ((including multiracial students). Participants reported their frequency of engaging in or being the victim of four cyberbullying behaviors over the past month (e.g., spreading rumors electronically).

Results: Prevalence of cyberbullying was high, with 44.6% of the youth reporting at least 1 cyberbullying experience in the past month, and 46.4% reporting at least 1 cybervictimization experience. Twenty-one percent of youth endorsed one cyberbullying behavior, and 14.6% reported 2 cyberbullying behaviors. Similarly, 18.3% of youth endorsed 1 and 14.6% endorsed 2 cybervictimization experiences. According to youth report, ignoring, de-friending or blocking someone to be mean was the most frequent cyberbullying behavior (35.7%) followed by spreading rumors (18.8%). The most common cybervictimization experience was having rumors spread about them (29.8%) followed by being ignored/defriended or blocked (24.6%) and being physically threatened (23.7%). There were no significant differences on the cyberbullying scale by gender or grade level and on the cybervictimization scale by gender, grade or race/ethnicity. There were significant differences by race for cyberbullying F(4, 436) = 4.18, p < .01, with Black youth reporting more cyberbullying behaviors than did Asian youth (p < .05). Classroom-level predictors will be explored in order to better understand contextual effects on the incidence of cyberbullying.

Conclusions: Results suggest that cyberbullying and cybervictimization are prevalent within an ethnically diverse sample of elementary school students in urban schools. Additional analyses will examine predictors at the individual- and classroom-levels. With so few studies examining cyberbullying experiences among elementary school students, especially among ethnic minority youth, this study highlights the need for prevention and intervention related to cyberbullying for this population.