Talking smack and the telephone game: conceptualizing cyberbullying with middle and high school youth

Abstract

Cyberbullying has become a mainstream topic in the media as an alarming number of teenagers have taken their lives due to bullying that has occurred in combined unsupervised spaces both in school and online. While suicide is a problem associated with intense cyberbullying and bullying behavior, there are, many more teenagers affected by ‘everyday’ cyberbullying and bullying behavior. Research is emerging about this phenomenon but there are deficits in understanding cyberbullying, identifying victims, and describing the impact of cyberbullying on both victims and perpetrators. Data from four focus groups (n = 24), with students in the sixth to twelfth grades show that they see cyberbullying differently than researchers' current definitions. Findings also indicate that cyberbullying is often connected to gossip and rumors and the outcomes of cyberbullying participation vary widely.

Keywords:

• cyberbullying
• qualitative
• gossip and rumors
• school policy