Schools and Cyberbullying: Problem Perception, Current Actions and Future Needs

Abstract

Cyberbullying is a common phenomenon amongst young people. It exhibits many similarities to traditional school bullying, with a potentially serious impact on the mental health and school functioning of victims. For this reason, action by schools is often recommended. The aim of this article is to provide a better picture of what schools are currently doing to address cyberbullying and of what schools will need to continue doing so in the future. An online survey was conducted among staff members of 309 primary and secondary schools in Flanders, which is the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. The questionnaire measured the schools' experiences with cyberbullying and their perceived International Journal of Cyber Society and Education 30 responsibility and efficacy in dealing with this issue as well as their concrete preventive, detective, and reactive actions. The results indicate that, although most schools are aware of relatively few cases of cyberbullying, they do consider cyberbullying to be a problem. Many schools consider it their duty to inform students about cyberbullying and to help find solutions to cyberbullying incidents involving students, even if they take place away from the school grounds or outside school hours. Although most schools organize concrete actions with regard to cyberbullying, they often seem uncertain about the appropriateness and effectiveness of their actions. They would welcome evidence-based intervention programmes that would appeal to their students.

Perceptions and responses towards cyberbullying: A systematic review of teachers in the education system

“…The studies identified in Table 1 were conducted in the UK (n = 3) (Betts & Spenser, 2015;Boulton et al, 2014;Monks, Mahdavi, & Rix 2016), USA (n = 3) (Pelfrey & Weber, 2015;Stauffer et al, 2012;Styron et al, 2016) and Canada (n = 3) (Cassidy, Brown, & Jackson, 2012;Li, 2008;Ryan, Kariuki, & Yilmaz, 2011). The other studies identified represented Australia (n = 2) ( Barnes et al, 2012;Compton, Campbell, & Mergler, 2014), Turkey (n = 2) (Sezer, Yilmaz, & Yilmaz, 2015;Yilmaz, 2010) and Belgium (n = 2) (DeSmet et al, 2015;Vandebosch, Poels, & Deboutte, 2014), with one study each representing Lithuania (Baraldsnes, 2015), Israel (Eden, Heiman, & Olenik-Shemesh, 2013), New Zealand (Green et al, 2016), Taiwan (Republic of China) (Huang & Chou, 2013), and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (Purdy & Mc Guckin, 2015). Thirteen of the twenty studies utilised a survey methodology, with four taking a qualitative approach through focus groups (Betts & Spenser, 2015;Compton, Campbell, & Mergler, 2014;Monks, Mahdavi, & Rix, 2016) or interviews (Pelfrey & Weber, 2015).…”

The Effectiveness of Policy Interventions for School Bullying: A Systematic Review

“…Educators have reported difficulty in responding to bullying incidents that they did not witness (Mishna, Pepler, & Wiener, 2006). Similarly, although many educators are aware of cyberbullying, few take steps to address it and many are uncertain about how to confront cyberbullying, which often occurs outside of school (Cassidy, Brown, & Jackson, 2012; Stauffer, Heath, Coyne, & Ferrin, 2012; Vandebosch, Poels, & Deboutte, 2014). Nonetheless, educators can address cyberbullying occurring on or off school grounds if the aggression creates a hostile school environment and substantially disrupts a student’s learning environment (Stuart-Cassel et al, 2011).…”

Secondary school educators' perceptions and practices in handling cyberbullying among adolescents: A cluster analysis

“…The scarce studies available on school educator practices against cyberbullying found that despite high problem awareness, few school educators took action and most were unsure what to do (Akbulut & Çuhadar, 2011;Cassidy, Brown, & Jackson, 2012;Eden, Heiman, & Olenik-Shemesh, 2013;Huang & Chou, 2013;Li, 2008;Stauffer, Heath, Coyne, & Ferrin, 2012;Vandebosch, Poels, & Deboutte, 2014). Female educators recognized more harm related to cyberbullying than male educators (Eden et al, 2013).…”