keeping students safe from cyber bullying - positive … cross...key messages 1. cyber bullying is...

Keeping students safe

from cyber bullying

… is a process not an

event

Child Health Promotion Research

Centre

Donna Cross

Professor Child and Adolescent Health

Edith Cowan University

Cyber Friendly Research Team

• Kate Hadwen

• Melanie Epstein

• Ashley Adair

• Sarah Falconer

• Trish Cardoso

• Mitch Read

• Stacey Waters

• Helen Monks

• Erin Erceg

• Therese Shaw

• Leanne Lester

• Laura Thomas

• Tommy Cordin

• Dr Marg Hall

• Dr Debora Brown

• Prof Phillip Slee

• Prof Marilyn Campbell

• Dr Barb Spears

• Dr Julian Dooley


Centre

Key messages

1. Cyber bullying is fairly common, likely to increase and possibly

associated with greater harm than face to face bullying

2. Young people are less likely to report cyber bullying than face to

face bullying

3. 50% of young people who were bullied report the situation got

worse or stayed the same once they told an adult

4. Existing policies are often inadequate to deal with cyber bullying

5. Face to face bullying prevention/management strategies appear to

help reduce cyber bullying

6. School staff and parents often lack skills to help

7. Engaging young people, especially as positive bystanders is key to

discouraging this behaviour


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Prevalence

Telling

% report being bullied* by others

Years 4-9


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% report bullying others*

Years 4-9


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% report being covertly bullied by

others* – Years 4-9


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Prevalence X age

Cyber bullying

Face to face

bullying

%

Does bullying increase with age?

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Cyber

bullying

Cyber bullied Face to face

bullying

Bullied face

to face

Year 5

Year 6

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9

Year 10

%

Prevalence X age & type of bullying

Coexistence of bullying behaviours

• 83% of students who bully

others online, also bully

others offline.

• 84% of students who were

bullied online were also

bullied offline. (Cross, 2009)

Differences between cyber and

traditional bullying

• 24/7 access

• Broadcast, even repeatedly

• Anonymous

• No authority

• Not telling – punitive fears

• Nastiness /disinhibition


Centre

11 Major studies

Successful bullying practice research

Friendly Schools

study

Friendly Schools Friendly Families

Supportive Schools

Study

Children‟s Aggression Prevention

study

Solid Kids Solid

Schools study

KIT+ Approachabl

e Teacher study

Covert Bullying

Prevalence Study

Cyber Friendly Schools

Study

Solid Kids Solid Schools

Dissemination

Strong Schools

Safe Kids

1999

2000-2002

2006-2008

2007-2008

20

10

-20

12

2008-2010

20

06

-20

09

2011-2013

2010-2014

2002-2

004

2005-2007

CHPRC Bullying related research

New K-10 Friendly Schools

Resources

Get Informed

E2P Book Training Map the

Gap

Screening Tool

Plan to Act

Diagnostic Tool Walk the

Talk

Classroom Resources

OnlineTool kits

Mentoring and

training

Review the News

Evaluation

Student Surveys

Cyber Friendly Schools

Research Project

2010-2012

% report being cyber bullied*

Years 4-9


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% report cyber bullying others*

Years 4-9


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Cyber bullied – behaviours (every few weeks or more often)


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Transition and cyber bullied

specific behaviours (every few weeks or more often)

Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Year 7

Primary

Year 7

Secondary Year 8 Year 9 Total

Sent nasty messages on the

internet 6.6% 8.3% 8.3% 6.0% 17.6% 15.7% 28.6% 13.5%

Deliberately ignored or left out

of things over the net 6.0% 3.5% 8.4% 10.8% 15.5% 18.5% 15.4% 11.2%

Sent nasty text messages or

prank calls to your mobile

phone

1.9% 6.2% 4.8% 2.7% 7.3% 13.7% 19.6% 8.8%

Sent threatening emails 4.3% 10.0% 4.8% 4.1% 6.1% 6.3% 21.7% 8.5%

Used your screen name or

passwords 2.5% 11.0% 10.6% 1.3% 6.6% .9% 10.4% 6.4%

Posted mean or nasty

comments or pictures on

websites

1.9% 2.2% 5.0% 3.4% 21.2% 4.2% 10.6% 6.4%

Sent your private emails,

messages, pictures or videos to

others

2.2% 4.6% 1.9% 1.0% 2.8% 2.3% 8.8% 3.5%

Sent mean or nasty messages

or pictures about you to others

mobile phones

.9% 2.1% 1.4% .1% 3.7% .6% 10.6% 2.8%


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Reactions when cyber bullied (2009)


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Reactions when cyber bullied (2009)


Centre

Males

Most salient factors for

cyber bullying…

• Bystanders / peer support

• Help seeking

• Social norms and normative expectations

• Outcome expectancies

• Assessing needs and capacity (building)

• Cyber relationships (frienimies)

• Online presence and privacy practices

Bystanders

Peers are present as onlookers in

87% of bullying interactions, and

play a central role in the

bullying process

Bystanders “can be part of the problem or

part of the solution”

When peers intervene

When peers intervene positively students:

– Stop the bullying within 10 seconds (Hawkins et al., 2001)

– Are less likely to assign blame to victimised students (Davis, 2010)

– Have a more positive perception of school climate (Davis, 2010)

– Have a greater sense of safety at school (Davis, 2010)

– Reconciliation occurred more quickly when

bystanders (Fujisawa et al, 2005)

– Have less social and mental health problems (Sainio,

Veenstra, Huitsing, & Salmivalli, 2009)

Bystander norms

• You shouldn‟t pick on someone weaker

81.5% - Year 4

83% - Year 6

• I feel uncomfortable watching bullying

72% - Year 4

63% - Year 6

• I like it when someone stands up for bullied

students

81% - Year 4

88% - Year 6

Current bystander action

• 20-30% actively assist or reinforce bullying

• 20-30% not involved

• <20% help

• Younger students are more likely to intervene

• Girls are more likely to intervene than boys

What does this mean for practice?

• Clear ethos of behavioural expectations for

bystanders – social norms (include in policy)

• Practise, practise… social inoculation theory

… with socially credible peers

• Pro-social modelling

• Diffusion of responsibility? Peer supporter

threshold

• Practical, well publicised, enforceable and

enforced policies (involve students)

Asking an adult for help (2009)


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• Variety reporting methods incl. online

• Pastoral care team location

• Teacher responses (to covert bullying)

• Perception of control

• Change normative expectations, peers telling

• Clear reporting procedures which are

followed through and students trust

• Help seeking skills online

% of students below the mean


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Feel safe at school


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Adult involvement?

Overt aggressive

behaviour increases

when an adult present

doesn‟t intervene…

compared to no adult

or one who intervenes

(Gribbin 1979)

Teacher responses

• “Don’t be sad, stay here with me” – adult attention can‟t

compensate for peer rejection

• “I wonder why she did such a thing, maybe she is feeling grumpy

today” - excuses the behaviour, and reinforces that limited

support is available from the teacher

• “Don’t worry there will be plenty of people to be friends with” -

shows a lack of understanding of the feelings of the

person being bullied and how socially isolated they may

feel. (Bauman & Del Rio, 2006)


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• Survey to understand behaviours - WWW

• Audit school grounds for „hot spots‟

• Consistent adult action eg: relief teachers

• Approachable teacher skills

• Parent involvement eg: cyber bullying

• Clear response plan (identify, report, case

management team assessment, inform,

record, resolve, monitor)

Outcome expectancies

• Powerful predictor of bullying behaviour

especially in secondary school

• Peer/social outcomes most powerful

• Consistent responses - including relief teachers

• Clear messages of „outcomes‟ (KiVa - Salmivalli)

• Social consequences messages eg: classroom

curriculum

Capacity building

• Approachable teachers?

• Strengthen transitions

• Strengthen key intervention markers

• Strengthen responses to children who bully

eg: well targeted program using MSC; MI

• Engage parents especially for cyber bullying

So can bullying be stopped?

Yes, bullying doesn‟t occur equally in

similar demographic schools

What are some schools/teachers

doing better to reduce bullying? (within class and within school differences)

41

What should a program include?

• Something for all students →

universal interventions

• Something for students who bully

and students who are bullied →

indicated interventions

AND

• Something for bystanders → reduces

rewards gained by students who bully

and consequently, their motivation to

bully

A Starting Point: Map the Gap Tool

School Action to Address Student Bullying Behaviours

Six core strategy components:

1. Building capacity for action – committed leadership and

organisational support

2. Proactive policies, plans and practices

3. Supportive school climate

4. Key understandings and competencies

5. Protective physical environment

6. School-family-community partnerships

Summary: next steps…

• Strong

leadership/ethos

• Survey

• Review policy

• Explicit teaching

• Monitoring and

supervision

• Parent education

• Student voice

• Focus on transitions

• Easy reporting

mechanisms

• Bystanders mobilised

• Behavioural support

for students who bully

others

But bystanders are key…

“In the end we will remember not the

words of our enemies, but the silence of

our friends.”

Martin Luther King Jr

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