This study surveyed a random sample of 1,963 middle school students (mostly aged 11-14) from a large school district in the southern United States. Data were collected in in the spring of 2007 from 30 different schools. Click on thumbnail images to enlarge.
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- Online activities – 2007
Teen Technology Use. Online games are the most popular activity reported with nearly 83% of students reporting that they had played online games in the previous week. 75% of students now have their own cell phone. Chat rooms are starting to fall out of favor among this population.
Cyberbullying Offending and Victimization. We define cyberbullying as: “Cyberbullying is when someone repeatedly harasses, mistreats, or makes fun of another person online or while using cell phones or other electronic devices.” Approximately 17% of the students in our sample report experiencing cyberbullying in their lifetimes (9.4% in the previous 30 days). Similarly, about 17% of the students in our sample admitted to cyberbullying others in their lifetimes (8.2% in the previous 30 days). About 12% had been targeted and had targeted others online in their lifetime.
Cyberbullying by Gender: Victimization. Adolescent girls are significantly more likely to have experienced cyberbullying in their lifetimes (20.4% vs. 14.0%). This difference disappears when reviewing experiences over the previous 30 days. Girls are also more likely to believe that online threats are carried out at school.
Cyberbullying by Gender: Offending. Girls are also more likely to report cyberbullying others during their lifetime (19% vs. 16.1%). The type of cyberbullying tends to differ by gender; girls are more likely to post a picture online without permission while boys are more likely to send a hurtful email message.
Select publications from this data set:
Patchin, J. W. & Hinduja, S. (2011). Traditional and nontraditional bullying among youth: A test of general strain theory. Youth and Society, 43(2), 727-751. (here)
Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. W. (2010). Bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide. Archives of Suicide Research, 14(3), 206-221. (here)
Patchin, J. W. & Hinduja, S. (2010). Cyberbullying and self-esteem. Journal of School Health, 80(12), 614-621. (here)
