The Nature and Prevalence of Cybervictimization Among Elementary School Children

PURPOSE:  Emerging evidence suggests that cyberbullying is a pervasive problem impacting youth today and leads to detrimental consequences on the social and emotional functioning of those involved. To date, the majority of cyberbullying studies have focused on adolescent youth (Werner et al., 2010) limiting our understanding of cyberbullying and cybervictimization among children in elementary school, particularly those 10 and under. Moreover, little is known about the ways in which elementary school children are exposed to cyberbullying, or in other words, the electronic medium through which victimization is most common. Identifying electronic mediums salient for elementary school children is key for prevention and intervention efforts. Accordingly, the purpose of the present study was to examine the prevalence and nature of cybervictimization among a sample of students in elementary school and determine whether significant differences existed between students who reported cybervictimization and those who did not. Although some research exists in the traditional bullying literature on differences between those involved and not involved (i.e., Veenstra et al., 2005), it has seldom been the focus in the emerging cyberbullying literature. Of note, understanding differences between those cybervictimized and those who are not is needed to identify effective prevention and intervention strategies and to tailor these efforts to the needs of elementary school-age students who experience this form of peer victimization.

METHODS: A total of 660 3^rd – 5^th grade students in six schools (48.3% male; mean age = 9.4 years, SD=1.3) completed measures of traditional and cyber bullying and victimization involvement and on attitudes and perceptions of these behaviors. Descriptive statistics were used to determine prevalence, mechanism of cybervictimization (e.g., social media sites, text message, and online games), identity of the perpetrator, and whether the cybervictimization was reported to someone.  For group comparisons, fixed effects regression models were run that included a dummy coded variable for each school to correct the standard errors for clustering, thereby accounting for the nesting of students in schools.

RESULTS: Descriptive findings revealed that a substantial number of youth (17.7%; n = 114) reported being cybervictimized, with the majority reporting the victimization occurred through online games.  Only 38% (n = 43) of cybervictimized children knew the identity of the perpetrator with slightly less than half reporting they did not tell anyone about the incident.  Additionally, results of group comparisons revealed a number of significant differences between cybervictimized and non-cybervictimized children. Cybervictimized children reported significantly higher rates of traditional victimization and bullying involvement along with higher pro-bullying attitudes and lower pro-defending attitudes and self-efficacy for defending other victimized peers.  

IMPLICATIONS: Importantly, these findings extend the research on cyberbullying and suggest that specific strategies targeting cyber forms of bullying are needed to address this growing problem among youth. Recommendations for developing and testing such strategies will be discussed along with further implications for social work practice on implementing comprehensive prevention and intervention approaches in school and community settings.