I thought this was an interesting graph created back in 2010. Interesting how the female numbers outweigh the males. The article and study I found to reflect upon was written in 2012. The article was written by Bret Holdfeld and Mark Grabes titled, "Middle School Student's Perception Of And Responses To Cyber Bullying." The statistics noted in the abstract are similar to the graph depicted above. Even in 2012, females are more likely to be the bully, witness, and victim. What was the most interesting is that the bullying didn't cease regardless if parents, administrators, teachers, or other students were aware of the incident. With the increase in technology, there appears to be an increase in the ways students can be bullied. I believe that the frequency and amount of bullying is the same as it has always been, I just think the number of methods used to bully have increased. It seems that this particular study's findings justify my belief. Access to the internet is the foundation for frequency of cyber bullying. Most kids have access to technology and the internet. According to student responses, instant messaging (IM) appears to be the greatest resource used to cyber bully.
The study introduced in the articles focused on four main questions:
"Do youth report their experience? Who do they report to when they have been bullied? What happens when they report their experience? Is there a relationship between who they report their experience to and future experiences (Grabes & Holdfeld, 2012)?"
It is interesting to me that many of the youth stated that they have been both victims and offenders. You would think that being a victim of such harassment would encourage them to not engage in such behaviors. But, as the article explains, many of the offenders do it for revenge. Therefore, in my opinion, the cycle continues. Also, the home computer seems to be the most prevalent tool used to cyber bully leaving parents in an extremely important position to monitor and control the behavior of their children when using the internet. Also, youth being bullied by traditional means have an increased chance of being a victim of cyber bullying. What a horrible thing to endure if you think about it. Not only are students being physically and emotionally victimized face to face, but they are being victimized in cyber space as well. The study also found that the bullying wasn't terminated more or less based on who the victim told. Both parents/adults and peers seemed to have the same effect in terms of the cyber bullying terminating. The conclusion of the article calls for more exploration into finding ways to combat cyber bullying and encourages parents, teachers, and peers to work together as technology and the temptation for cyber bullying increase.
Grabes B., & Holdfeld M. (2012). Middle school student's perception of and responses to cyber bullying. J. Educational Computing Research, 46(4), 395-413.
Very interesting graph. It is sad that there is so much bullying that takes place. From my experience and from what I see on the graph, girls seem to suffer more than boys. Girls can be so cruel!
ReplyDeleteI liked the graph because it gives a great visual of the problem at hand. I found it interesting that females are more likely to be the bully, witness, and victim. And like Tina said, girls can be cruel. I think boys are more upfront about bullying than girls. Girls do a lot behind closed doors and online. Spreading rumors through friends instead of facing the person they want to bully. Both victims and offenders? That is interesting. Like you said if they have been a victim of such harassment you would think that would encourage them to not engage in such behaviors but maybe it is a cycle. Their way to make someone else feel the pain and they do not think about the hurt they are really inflicting. Great reflection!
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