Introduction
As a social and contemporary factor that affects most youths today, this paper seeks a review article on Cyberbullying in College: Frequency, Characteristics, and Practical Implications. Cyberbullying has a significant negative impact on the lives of many teens, including depression.
Study Description
Cyberbullying in College: Frequency, Characteristics, and Practical Implications is a study that examines the prevalence, characteristics, and practical implications of cyberbullying in C. P. Zalaquett and S. Chatters are the writers. Journal published in 2014 Volume 4 of Cyberbullying in College (1).
Research Goal
This study aimed to determine how common cyberbullying is among college and high school students from various backgrounds. The research also seeks to illustrate strategies for combating cyberbullying, which is prevalent in multiple colleges and affects many students.
Victims of Cyberbullying
Victims of cyberbullying have presently become a major concern due to the increased reports on cases of suicides related to social media bullying (Zalaquett & Chatters, 2014). College and high school students have greatly, for some time, continued to dominate the internet where most of them spend a lot of their time on social Medias, chatrooms, emails, mobile phones and even messaging. The researchers found out that roughly 83% of adults between 18 and 29 explore the world of the internet while in colleges with 90% of them being members of certain groups on the social websites. Due to this high use of social media by these young adults, a huge platform is therefore in place for the bullies online. Despite cyberbullying being a matter of national concern, minimal research has been conducted to find out what is exactly happening (Zalaquett & Chatters, 2014). The research also found out that completely nothing takes place in colleges to act as a countermeasure to reduce cyberbullying. The emergence of cyberbullying in colleges has brought about different opinions on the effect of cyberbullying. The authors, therefore, sought to make the meaning clear by defining it as an act done through the media by a certain category of individuals or groups with comments trying to make others uncomfortable or inflict some harm to them. Most teens have been reported to be affected by cyber bullying on social media.
Research Questions
The study is trying to explore majorly on the following hypothesis:
- What percentage of college students falling victims of cyberbullying suffered the same in their high school.
- Does the frequency of bullying relate to gender age or race?
- Does bullying relate to the time spent on social media?
- What are the effects of cyberbullying on the psychology of the victim and what actions are taken to help them come out of it?
Data
A report on cyberbullying amongst K-12 population ranges between 9% and 42%. Several researchers revolved around the K-12 students with the main targets being adolescents and pre-adolescents (Zalaquett & Chatters, 2014). Most of the researchers found out that bullying decrease from elementary schools up to colleges. This research also found a correlation between bullies and victims of bullying right from elementary schools and the findings indicated that 40% of the two respectively maintained their roles up to colleges. Another research also found out that approximately 20% of college students are either bullies or victims of bullying. A researcher Finn also found that out of the 339 students surveyed in 2004, only around 13% of them claimed to have received threatening messages on their cell phones. Another study conducted in Turkey among 666 college students, only 22% percent of them admitted that they have experienced cyberbullying.
Methodology
The study employed survey design. The samples used were university students coming from urban southeastern university (Zalaquett & Chatters, 2014). The study employed the use of questionnaires because it was suitable and could save time in getting the results.
Results
The study established that there is a positive correlation between cyberbullying in colleges and high school. About 35% of victims of cyberbullying in colleges were victims as well in high school. The study also found out that gender, race, and age is a determinant when it comes to cyberbullying with 15% being females and only 3% males (Zalaquett & Chatters, 2014). The research also found out that most of the victims of cyberbullying were at one-point victims of the same before. The study as well found out that text messaging is the major medium used by cyberbullies followed by emails and the social media (Zalaquett & Chatters, 2014). The study also found out that victims of bullying suffered a psychological effect of high tempered due to anger.
Conclusion and Discussion
The study proved that cyberbullying is most common in K-12 population even though there was a reported decrease in the number of cases significantly from elementary schools to colleges with the level of decrease considered maturity centered. The study also reaffirmed cyberbullying being part some psychological problems. In conclusion, Cyberbullying is an activity targeting certain category of individuals with the aim of making them uncomfortable in one way or the other and most of the culprits being victims of the same before.
Reference
Zalaquett, C. P., & Chatters, S. J. (2014). Cyberbullying in college: frequency, characteristics, and practical implications. Sage Open, 4(1), 2158244014526721.
