Does it really Matter When Youth Share their Experiences of Cyber Victimization with Peers or Adults?

• In Event: Social media and adolescent relationships: The good, the bad, and the complicated

Abstract

Cyber victimization or being bullied through technology is a concern for adolescents as approximately 10% to 40% report having experienced it (Kowalski et al., 2014). Investigations into how adolescents respond to cyber victimization are mostly descriptive in nature (Mishna et al., 2010) and fail to consider whether response(s) are helpful. Further, regardless of whether adolescents report their victimization to peers or adults, the likelihood of the cyber bullying stopping is only about 53% (Holfeld & Grabe 2012). In the current study, we assessed how adolescents first responded to their experience and whether the response(s) was effective at reducing the cyber bullying and associated distress.

Participants included 1,105 students (51.4% males; 62.2% Caucasian) aged 10 to 16 (Mage = 12.7, SD = .93) from nine middle schools in two Midwestern cities. Global items assessed participants’ self-reported experiences of cyber victimization across their lifetime. Across the sample, 37% (n = 407) of participants reported at least one experience of cyber victimization. Participants were also asked how they responded to cyber victimization including the perceived effectiveness of their first response(s) in reducing the cyber bullying and their distress. Of these participants, 72% (295/407) shared details of their experience.

The most common first response to cyber victimization was doing nothing/ignoring it (19%), telling a friend/adult (18%), blocking the bully (17%), turning off devices (10%), confronting the bully (9%), getting revenge (7%) and making a joke (7%). A one-way ANOVA examining the effectiveness of the first response in reducing the cyber bullying was not significant F(10,280) = 1.63, p = .098. However, a separate one-way ANOVA examining the effectiveness of the first response in reducing the distress was significant, F(10,277) = 2.41, p = .009. Follow-up LSD post hoc comparisons revealed that ‘turning off my computer/cell phone’ (M = 3.21, 95% CI [2.35, 4.07]), and ‘doing nothing/trying to ignore it’ (M = 3.28, 95% CI [2.74, 3.81]) were significantly less helpful at reducing the distress compared to ‘making a joke about it’ (M = 4.85, 95% CI [3.74, 5.96], p < .05), ‘leaving the website’ (M = 4.77, 95% CI [4.08, 5.46], p < .05), ‘telling an adult at home’ (M = 4.68, 95% CI [3.68, 5.69], p < .05), or ‘telling a friend’ (M = 4.65, 95% CI [3.82, 5.49], p < .05). Adolescents were more likely to report to peers (62%) versus adults (46%). A paired samples t-test showed no difference in effectiveness of information provided by peers and adults in reducing the cyber bullying (Ms = 3.66 vs. 3.69), t(94) = -0.16, p = .87, or victim’s distress (Ms = 4.03 vs. 3.88), t(95) = 0.84, p = .40.

Findings highlight that adults are not more effective than peers in providing victims with helpful information to resolve the cyber bullying or reduce their distress. Further, conventional advice given to adolescents, such as ignoring bullies, may be unhelpful. Efforts are needed to develop effective ways of helping adolescents to cope with their experiences of cyber victimization.

Authors

• Rachel Baitz, University of British Columbia (UBC)
  Presenting Author

• Brett Holfeld, Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland
  Non-Presenting Author