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Experiencing two types of bullying more emotionally harmful than in-person, online only

Children who experienced two types of harassment, in-person and online, reported greater emotional harm compared with children who experienced in-person or online harassment only, suggesting these children should be the focus of bullying interventions.

“Although research is consistent that traditional bullying and harassment is more prevalent, experts note that technology-based bullying and harassment may be more distressing to victims because online harassers have the ability to post pictures or videos, anonymously to widespread audiences; the aggression can reach targets at any time of the day and night, including in their homes; more people may see and join in the harassment; and youth may have difficulty removing negative content or stopping the harassment once it is online,” study researcher Kimberly J. Mitchell, PhD, of the University of New Hampshire, and colleagues wrote. “Although these are testable hypotheses, so far, they have not been the focus of much empirical study.”

Kimberly J. Mitchell

To examine the emotional impact of peer harassment and involvement of technology, researchers conducted telephone interviews with a national sample of 791 youths aged 10 to 20 years.

Overall, 34% of youths reported 311 unique harassment incidents within the past year.

Seventeen percent reported at least one technology-associated harassment incident, and of these, 32% occurred only through technology, 33% started in-person and 21% started through technology and continued in-person.

Study participants who experienced bullying reported a variety of emotions as a result, including:

• feeling very/extremely angry (46%);
• feeling very or extremely upset (34%);
• feeling very/extremely sad (28%);
• feeling that they could not trust people (25%);
• feeling very/extremely worried (24%);
• feeling very/extremely afraid (22%); and
• feeling very/extremely unsafe (9%).

Youths who experienced technology-associated harassment only were less likely to report feeling upset, afraid or unsafe than those who experienced in-person harassment only.

Study participants who experienced both in-person and technology-associated harassment were more likely to feel angry or distrustful compared with those who experienced in-person only harassment.

Further, youths who experienced both in-person and technology-associated harassment were more likely to feel upset, afraid, worried, sad and unsafe than those who experienced only technology-associated harassment.

Youths who experienced technology-associated harassment only had the lowest emotional impact scores, while those who experienced mixed harassment had the highest.

“Our research suggests that those seeking to prevent the most detrimental forms of peer harassment might focus less on cyberbullying per se and instead tackle the prevention of complex and intense incidents that are so harmful to youth,” Mitchell and colleagues wrote. – by Amanda Oldt

Disclosure: Please see the full study for a list of authors’ relevant financial disclosures.