Cyberbullyin Among Youth: An Analysis by Gener, Race/ethnicity, and Grade
Open Access
- Author:
- Price, Teressa Danielle
- Graduate Program:
- Criminal Justice
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- June 28, 2012
- Committee Members:
- Danielle Boisvert, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
- Keywords:
- Cyberbully
Gender
Race/Ethnicity
Grade - Abstract:
- While there has been a significant amount of research dedicated to traditional forms of bullying and gender, race/ethnicity, and grade in school, the research on cyberbullying, being a relatively new phenomenon, has been lacking. While there are some studies on cyberbullying and grade, race/ethnicity and grade in school, no studies were found that looked at cyberbullying with a combination of these variables. This study looks to expand the body of literature on cyberbullying by examining the differences between White and Non-White males and females in middle and high school grades by examining data collected by the 2009 National Crime Victimization Survey-School Crime Supplement. The current research shows that females are more likely than males to report cyberbullying victimization and Whites were only slightly more likely than Non-Whites to report having been a victim of cyberbullying. Once gender and race/ethnicity were combined the current research shows no significant difference in reports of cyber victimization between White and Non-White males and only marginal differences between White and Non-White females. However, Non-White males were almost twice as likely as White males to report a high frequency of cyberbully victimization. There is no significant difference in cyberbullying victimization between middle and high school males and females, but it is occurring with greater frequency to both genders in middle school. This research shows no significant difference between middle and high school students’ reports of cyberbully victimization, however, high school White students were slightly more likely than middle school White students to report having been a victim of cyberbullying at least once during the school year. Finally, middle school White students reported being frequently cyberbullied significantly more than high school White students and middle school Non-White students reported a high frequency of being cyberbullied slightly more than their high school counterparts.