The prevalence and correlates of cyberbullying in adolescence: Results of a five-year cohort study

Abstract

POSTER 1: The Prevalence and Correlates of Cyberbullying in Adolescence: Results of a Five-Year Cohort Study. Recent media coverage has highlighted th growing prevalence of cyberbullying, however to date this new form of aggressive hebaviour has received relatively little research attention compared to other aspects of bullying behaviour. In this study, 14,281 pupils were surveyed annually over a five year period (approx. 3,000 per year) using an adapted version of the Olweus Bullying Questionaire. The results shoed that over the five-year period, the prevalence of cyberbullying increased from 14.5% to 20.6% particularly among girls. Analysis also found cyberbullying to be the secon most frequently reported type of bullying, following direct-verbal forms of bullying, such as name-calling. Suggestions as to how cyberbullying can be tackled in line with current anti-bullying strategies as well as future directions for research are discussed --- POSTER 2: Text-Messaging as a Form of Bullying: an Analysis of Content: Cybebullying has ben defined as bullying which occirs through communication and media devices such as the mobile (cell) phone. To date, the majority of research on cyberbullying has focused on identifying the prevalence of this behaviour and any age and gender differences that may exist. As part of a larger survey, the aims of this study was to exmaine the nature of text messages reportedely received by 465 victims of cyberbullying --- Note: Both posters are included in the one PDF file. For clarity, the authors recommend printing onto larger paper (recommended A3 size)