Cyberbullying as a risk factor for suicidal ideation in adolescents

Cyberbullying

New advents in technology and the increased use of social networks such as Facebook have led to the recent phenomenon of cyberbullying. News reports over the past five years have been filled with stories of young people committing suicide as a result of cyberbullying. For many years mental health professionals have warned of the consequences of bullying including suicidal ideation and suicidal behaviors. These recent suicides and suicide attempts have again brought into question the impact of bullying on children and the ways in which social support systems such as school administrators and teachers need to address this issue. The social support theory asserts that appropriate social support provides children with the mechanisms needed to cope with bullying. While some schools have implemented zero tolerance policies as it relates to bullying other schools do not consider this type of victimization to be a serious issue.

Bullying is defined as "an aggressive, intentional act or behavior that is carried out by a group or an individual repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself. Several main types -- physical, verbal, relational (e.g., social exclusion) and indirect (e.g., rumor spreading) -- may be referred to as 'traditional' forms of bullying (Smith et al. 2008, 376)." These traditional forms of bullying have been quite common amongst school aged children for many years. However in more recent times advents in technology have led to the spread of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is defined as "An aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself (Smith et al., 2008, 376)."

Although cyberbullying is a relatively new phenomenon, victims of this specific type of bullying have reacted in ways that are troubling and more extreme than victims of conventional bullying. One reason for such extreme reactions seems to be the frequency with which cyberbullying takes place and the inability of the victim to escape the taunts of the bullying. That is when conventional forms of bullying occur the victim is able to escape taunts and teasing once they leave the environment where the bullying taking place. However cyberbullying continues even in the child's home environment where they are supposed to feel protective. As such the intrusive nature of cyberbullying, traumatize victims in a way that is unprecedented. Such traumatic experiences have lead to suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.

Statement of the Problem

Cyberbullying is a major psychosocial dilemma for many adolescents throughout the country. It is such a new and fast-growing phenomenon that many parents and educators are unprepared to handle the impact that this type of bullying has on students. Increased risk of suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts among adolescents as a result of cyber-bullying victimization is a growing problem, and one which parents and schools are not well equipped to handle.

Purpose and objective

The purpose of the study is to expose the psychological and emotional consequences that bullying has on children. The research will explore the impact of cyberbullying and the ways in this specific type of bullying can result in suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Understanding the impact of bullying is important because this knowledge provides a foundation for the development of social supports that properly address cyberbullying and ultimately lead to the prevention of such acts. The objectives of this study are to

1. Describe cyber-bullying and cyber-bullying victimization

2. Describe suicidal ideation

3. Describe suicide attempt

4. Describe the relationship between cyber-bullying victimization and its psychosocial impact of higher levels of suicidal ideation and attempted suicide among adolescents.

5. Describe the amount of social support available to adolescents as it pertains to cyberbullying

Hypothesis

(H1) Adolescent victims of cyber-bullying are more likely to exhibit higher levels of suicidal ideation compared to non-victimized adolescents.

(H2) Adolescent victims of cyber-bullying are more likely to have attempted suicide compared to non-victimized adolescents.

Underlying Theory

Social support theory is one of the underlying theories that propel the proposed study because it focuses on the social risk factors associated with suicide. The social support theory involves "the effects of an individual's social network and social support on his or her cognition, emotion, behavior, and physical well-being (Park et al., 390)." The social network is defined as the social contacts and personal relationships that are likely to provide an individual with social support. According to the social support theory social support is a vital type of psychosocial protective factor that decreases the amount of negative outcomes that can occur as a result of environmental stresses including bullying. There are two components associated with the social support theory. These components are instrumental support and emotional support. According to Park et al. (2010)

"Emotional support has been measured by responses to questions such as "Can you count on anyone to provide you with emotional support, for instance, talking over problems or helping you make a difficult decision?." Instrumental support has been measured by tangible services that the respondent receives from network members (e.g., help when sick or financial assistance (390)."

Major dependent and independent variables

The Independent variable is Cyber-bullying victimization. Victimization will be measured through questions that inquire as to whether or not the participant has experienced cyberbullying. The parameters for cyberbullying will include the use of cell phones or the use of the internet to harass the victim in any way.

The Dependent variables are Suicidal ideation and Suicide attempts. Suicide ideation and suicide attempts will be measured through questions involving victimization, depression, suicidal thoughts, hopelessness, self-harm and perceived social support.

Review of Literature

Cyberbullying and suicidal ideation

Cyberbullying has been at the core of several recent suicides involving adolescents. Wagner explains that cyberbullying is a substantial concern because when bullying occurs in school it is confined to the school campus; however the internet provides access to an infinite number of people. Cyberbullying is becoming more prevalent because "Many teenagers are adept at text messaging on cell phones, creating Web sites and blogs, instant messaging, and creating videos that can be transmitted instantly. Poignant stories have been written about teenagers who were victims of cyber-bullying and felt that aspects of their lives were ruined by this experience (Wagner, 2007)." For instance, Cloud (2010) explains that the suicide of Tyler Clementi was driven by cyberbullying. Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University, jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge after a video of him having sex with another man was placed on the internet by fellow students. Narratives like Clementi's are playing out throughout the country and the ability to control the actions of perpetrators has proven difficult.

Price & Dalgeish (2010) also report that Cyberbullying has adverse effects on well-being, family schooling, and peer relationships of adolescents. Their study of 548 adolescents in Australia found that cyberbullying often occurs in groups and usually takes place during middle school. The study also found that cyberbullying comes in different forms and sometimes the bully and the victim switch roles. Even though there is serious emotional harm associated with cyberbullying, more than 25% of the victims did not seek any help for the negation emotional harm done to them through cyberbullying. According to Price & Dalgeish (2010) this unwillingness to seek support emphasizes the necessity for more assistance to be provide to adolescents so that they do not feel afraid to discuss the issue of cyberbullying.

According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, middle-school students who experience cyberbullying have significant levels of suicidal ideation, as depicted in the chart on the left.

Frequency of Cyberbullying

Several studies have addressed the frequency with which cyberbullying occurs. For instance, Ybarra and Mitchell (2004) "surveyed internet use in 1,501 youths aged 10 -- 17 years. Over the last year, 12% reported being aggressive to someone online, 4% were targets of aggression, and 3% were both aggressors and targets (1169)." According to the findings respondents who used the internet more at home were more likely to be aggressors or victims. Aggressor/victims used the internet more often than those that were not engage involves in any way is cyberbullying. Ybarra and Mitchell (2004) hypothesized that in some instances victims of conventional bullying are likely to use the internet to bully others as a form of revenge that is less intimidating than face-to-face bullying. Additionally Ybarra et al. (2006) discovered that 9% of youths had been targets of internet harassment, and 38% of them reported distress as a result.

Fung (2010) examined the occurrences of cyberbullying in Hong Kong. There were a total of 7,654 students. The purpose of the study was to get a greater understanding of the frequency with which cyberbullying occurred and the relationship between cyberbullying and proactive and reactive aggression. The results of the study found that

"more cyberbullying behaviours were exhibited among secondary school students than among primary school students, with common practices including name calling, teasing, and gossiping. Emotional ventilation was regarded as the major reason for cyberbullying; for example, revenge was a form of reactive aggression and showing off a form of proactive aggression (Fung 2010, 31)."

In their web-based survey study of 12- to 17-year-old adolescents, Juvonen & Gross, E. (2008) found that in a year's time nearly three quarters had experienced at least one incident involving cyberbullying. In addition nearly 90% of the participants experienced bullying at school. In addition

"The most frequent forms of online and in-school bullying involved name-calling or insults, and the online incidents most typically took place through instant messaging. When controlling for Internet use, repeated school-based bullying experiences increased the likelihood of repeated cyberbullying more than the use of any particular electronic communication tool (Juvonen & Gross 2008, 496." "

Most of the individuals surveyed admitted that they knew the people bullying them. In addition half of the victims attended the same school as the bully. The researchers also found that both types of bullying were linked to an increase in social anxiety. In addition 90% of those surveyed admitted that they keep the abuse to themselves and do not disclose it to adults.

Overall this brief literature review reveals that cyberbullying is a significant problem that has a real impact on both victims and perpetrators. Both groups are more likely to experience depression and suicidal ideation than are adolescents who do not participate in such activities. He literature review also reveals that social support affects the manner in which young people handle the experience of cyberbullying. More specifically students who had access to the proper social supports were less likely to experience suicidal ideation than were students that did not have access to such support.

Research Methodology

Research types and rationales

A qualitative research method will be utilized to carry out the study. This research method was chosen because it will provide insight into human behavior (cyberbullying) while also determining how this behavior impacts others. The strengths of a qualitative research method includes examining a given research problem from the perspectives of the local population effected ("Qualitative Research Methods Overview," n.d.). Qualitative research "is especially effective in obtaining culturally specific information about the values, opinions, behaviors, and social contexts of particular populations ("Qualitative Research Methods Overview," n.d.)." Although there are many strengths associated with qualitative research, there are also some weaknesses. For instance the findings of the study may be unique to the participants and any quantitative predictions may not be as reliable. Researcher bias is also another weakness of a qualitative research method.

Rationale

Students participating in the study will be given 10 days to complete a self-report. The report will measure victimization, depression, suicidal ideation, hopelessness, self-harm and perceived social support. These measures will be used because they are associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The goal of the research is to discover whether or not suicidal ideation or suicide attempts are more likely to occur in adolescents that have experience cyberbullying than those who have not experienced cyberbullying. As such these are the measures that must be examined.

Population and sampling method

The population will consist of 60 high school students. The population will be composed of Adolescents between the ages of 14-18 years old. This age range was chosen because of the prevalence with which bullying in general and cyberbullying in particular occurs amongst students in this age range. Twelve students from each grade 9-12 will participate in the study. In addition the study will have the same number of males and females. The students will be from a high school in a middle class environment. This will be done because the study seeks to find out what the average adolescents in this age range would experience. If the research were conducted with students from extremely rich or extremely poor backgrounds, the results would not reflect the average experiences of high school students in America as it pertains to both conventional bullying and cyberbullying.

The self report will be delivered to each student through a secure website. The students will be asked their gender, grade level and age. They will also be given directions on how to complete the report. The report cannot be successfully submitted unless the subject has responded to all of the questions in the report. Once the report is submitted by the student, the researcher will receive an email through an email account setup specifically for the purpose of carrying out this study. The email will show the result of the report and the researcher will be able to print out each of the 50 reports. Once the reports have been printed, the researcher will examine the reports and gather the statistical findings using the appropriate measures. The researcher will then provide a report based on these findings.

Describe the protection of rights of the participants

Each subject must sign a consent form that outlines their participation in the study. Minors will have to have a parental signature. In addition the subjects will receive a privacy form that will ensure that names and responses to questions are anonymous and will not be revealed. Each participant will have to sign these forms prior to participation in the study. In addition measures such as blind questioning will ensure that the subjects will remain anonymous while carrying out the research. In addition no names will be revealed once the results of the research are revealed. Also the websites used for submitting the survey are completely secure and the researcher will have no way to trace the ISP of the sender.

Conclusion

All forms of bullying can be detrimental to children; the proposed research will focus specifically on the issue of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts as it pertains to cyberbullying. A qualitative approach will be utilized to determine to what extent suicidal ideation and suicide attempts occur amongst those who have experienced cyberbullying and those who have not experienced cyberbullying. The findings will be utilized to assist in developing new methods of coping with cyberbullying so that victims have the proper social support.