April 9, 2015

In the article, Cyberbullying, Depression, and Problem Alcohol Use in Female College Students: A Multisite Study it discusses the effects of cyberbullying, depression, and alcohol use in college students. Cyberbullying can be described often as a way of bullying via the internet, cell phone, or any other electronic device. The effects of cyberbullying are increased levels of depression and emotional distress. Research has discovered that in addition to increased levels of depression, that cyberbullying has contributed to increased substance usage such as alcohol with both the victim and the bully. With that said, both the cyberbully and the cybervictim are at risk for mental and physical health consequences. Since the majority of technology users are college students, recent research has been dedicated to focusing on them. The researchers hypothesized that 10-15% of college students are estimated to be involved with cyberbullying. Further research of college students in comparison to younger adolescents showed that there is a commonality between their motivations such as entertainment, retaliation, and imbalance of power. Also, both college students and young adolescents appeared to have increased depressive symptoms and fewer social skills. Since depression and alcohol use are among the most common health concerns of college students a study showed that approximately 30% of college students reported having depression and 9% contemplated suicide in the last year. In addition 65% of college students use alcohol and just under half of them binge drink. The purpose of the study was to determine if a relationship exists among cyberbullying experience sand depression or alcohol use in college females. The female population was manipulated because they are more likely to be involved in cyberbullying cases. The cross-sectional study collected data between October and November 2012. Participants were recruited from four universities. They were asked questions about their personal lives that involved depression, cyberbullying and alcohol use. Among the participants, 27.2% reported being involved in cyberbullying as either the victim or bully. In addition, 17.4% met the criteria for depression and 36.6% met the criteria for problem with alcohol use. When comparing both variables, it was concluded that people with experience in cyberbullying were almost three times as likely to being clinically depressed compared to those without cyberbullying experience. Among participants who were bullies, 3%, they were four times as likely. Participants who were bullies had an increased chance of meeting the criteria for a problem with alcohol use. Another longitudinal study shows that children who experienced bullying are prone to depression and alcohol use in young adulthood. Although the study did support the original hypothesis, causation of depression and problem alcohol use by cyberbullying cannot be inferred. A longitudinal study would be needed to validate the hypothesis. In addition, other coexisting problems were not explored that could have also contributed to the amount of depression and alcohol use. Despite all limitations, attention is need to cyberbullying in the college population and more awareness for students could impact lives positively.

In the article, Cyberbullying: The hidden side of college students the authors investigate how college students rate their amount of involvement in cyberbullying. In the last decade, violence in educational settings has increased significantly which interrupts learning processes. School is the place where adolescents spend a majority of their time and it is important to bring bullying and other school violence to attention. In the study they used item Response Theory (IRT), to calibrate their participants and items on a common scale. Authors have defined bullying with several characteristics including psychologically, physically, or socially harming. Research has shown that the most common cause for cyberbullying is relationship problems. With that being said, there is a cycle that occurs due to the fact that relationships cannot occur without using social technology. Research has found that there are two forms of cyberbullying such as direct and indirect aggression. Majority of direct aggression is known to be caused by males and can be describe as physical and verbal. On the other hand, females display indirect types of aggression such as social isolation and they are found to be more frequent in cyberbullying. Also, victims’ rates are higher for girls. In addition, research has found that there is a positive correlation between both bullying and cyberbullying with a form of victimization. This suggests that students could be victims of bullying and aggressors in cyberbullying at the same time. An important medium for cyberbullying is through social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Google Plus, and Linkedln. With that said, cyberbullying is much broader than traditional bullying and is more capable of spreading faster. In addition, cyberbullying is bound by technology, so someone with the capability of mastering technology could be physically harmless or inferior to the actual victim. In previous research it was hypothesized that aggression peaks in adolescence, but studies are now revealing that aggression continues into university years with young adults. The purpose again for this study was to understand how college students report their involvement as victims, aggressors, and observers of the victims and/or aggressors. The researchers hypothesize that college students underrate their level of involvement in situations of cyberbullying, regardless of what role they play in the process. There were initially 12 students participating in the inventory construction, but later on they gathered a sample of 519 undergraduate students. The final version of the inventory about the type and degree of involvement in cyberbullying included 42 close-ended questions. It was compromised of 4 scales; scale for victims, for aggressors, for observers of the victim, and observers of the aggressor. They asked when they experienced cyberbullying, who did they go to for help, what was their role, what media was used, and their coping strategies. Altogether the results from all four scales alluded to the fact that college students underrate their involvement with cyberbullying. In addition, in their sample they found that majority of victims and aggressors were women which is consistent with other research.

In this article, “Maybe you don’t want to face it”—College students’ perspectives on cyberbullying the authors investigate the growing phenomenon in today’s society with the technological advances that are occurring. The article firstly points out that in comparison to traditional bullying which takes place in the “schoolyard”, cyberbullying happens at all hours via technology. Cyberbullying victims have reported effects such as emotional distress, anxiety, and isolation. In several studies, the percentage of college-level cyberbullying ranges from 8%-21%. In a recent study, the psychological stage of college cybervictims described people as sensitive, depressed, hostile, and psychotic. These characteristics influence the victim’s behavior to become less trusting of others and they avoid confrontation at all costs. The bullies displayed similar characteristics with victims and they also reported increased aggression levels, violence, and drug crimes compare to others. In such a setting where independence is encouraged, finding resources to make people aware of cyberbullying is difficult. The purpose of this research revolve around is to discover how college students view cyberbullying as either an issue or not. Additionally, the authors figure out a way to determine sufficient interventions to reduce cyberbullying by using the SEM (Socio-Ecological Model). They recruited both freshmen and sophomore students at a southern university to participate in the study. The more important of the two groups were the freshmen seeing how they live on campus and are more likely to be influenced by cyberbullying. There were 54 students total that participated in the particular study with an average age of nineteen years old with 85 percent of them being females. There were six focus groups ranging between 6-10 people per group to learn more about college students’ experiences with cyberbullying to collect qualitative data. There were a series of open-ended questions such as “What does cyberbullying mean to you? How useful is the term ‘cyberbullying?’ Is cyberbullying a significant issue in the college setting? Should more attention be given to cyberbullying in the college arena? If so, who should be involved?” Over 50% of participants reported that cyberbullying is often used to mock others in this manner. Another 17% of participants believed that cyberbullying is childish and not something you report to others, like parents or friends. According to the study, 30% of participants believed that cyberbullying occurred often to inflict harm on relationships and 20.7% said it’s a way to retaliate. Another 40% believe the term “cyberbullying” was outdated and misleading because it can be via text message. The majority believed that cyberbullying doesn’t occur in college because they believe they don’t have enough time for it. On the other hand, 13.2% of students believed that it occurs in college but it goes ignored. Another portion, 26.4%, felt that it depended on the school environment meaning was it a “party” school or a “hard core academic” school. To solve the cyberbullying issue the majority, over 20%, felt like you should just be strong enough to ignore it while 16.9% believed it should be taken care of with campus services. The minorities thought that it should be taken up with parent or police enforcement. With all that said, the majority of college students thought it deserved more attention and stronger enforcement should take place.

In each of the articles they begin by defining what cyberbullying is and how it got its meaning. Cyberbullying can be described often as a way of bullying via the internet, cell phone, or any other electronic device. In all cyberbullying cases, there is the cybervictim and the cyberbully. Both roles are found to undergo similar negative effects from cyberbullying such as increased levels of depression, anxiety, aggression, and substance abuse. Research has found that there are two forms of cyberbullying such as direct and indirect aggression. Majority of direct aggression is known to be caused by males and can be describe as physical and verbal. On the other hand, females display indirect types of aggression such as social isolation and they are found to be more frequent in cyberbullying. In cyberbullying, most cases involve females and the number one reason for cyberbullying is used to inflict harm on relationships. With many social networking sites and technology advancements around cyberbullying has become much more prevalent. Since the majority of technology users are college students, recent research has been dedicated to focusing on them. First, they discovered that many female college students suffer from depression due to cyberbullying and the bullies often have problems with alcohol abuse. As said before, cyberbullying is becoming much more prevalent and it is a much easier alternative to traditional face-to-face bullying. Cyberbullying only takes a person with enough technological expertise to use their cell phone or computer. In all of the studies, they used a lot of questionnaires with their participants to discover more qualitative data on cyberbullying such as “What role do you play? What are some coping strategies? Who can you talk to? What is cyberbullying?” All of the questions were fairly general and researchers predicted that they would be less involved. In fact most college students were unaware of cyberbullying’s true definition was. A large number of participants found that there are coping strategies such as counseling, but many believed that the individual should rely on themselves and be a stronger person to handle the situation independently. With that being said, all studies were investigated with one goal in mind and that is to raise awareness of cyberbullying in college setting. Since this is a more recent study that has been undergoing in psychology many discoveries have yet to take place and more involvement still needs to take place. Further research is still necessary and more outlets for overcoming cyberbullying should be in the process. Therefore, more serious consequences should be established to raise a significant attention at the college level. In the third study, a discussion group pointed out that it might be a good idea to utlilize “RAs to conduct ongoing workshops for their floor or to pass out flier with information.” It was also suggested to include information on cyberbullying as part of the “First Year Course.” The next step, would be to find a way to get students to be more involved with programs and interventions that prevent cyberbullying to minimize the problems. As programs are introduced, solutions will appear and cyberbullying will become a broader topic in the college environment.

References
Crosslin, K., & Golman, M. (2014). “Maybe you don’t want to face it” – College students’ perspectives on cyberbullying. Computers In Human Behavior, 4114-20. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.09.007
Francisco, S. M., Simão, A. V., Ferreira, P. C., & das Dores Martins, M. J. (2015). Cyberbullying: The hidden side of college students. Computers In Human Behavior, 43167-182. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.10.045
Selkie, E. M., Kota, R., Chan, Y., & Moreno, M. (2015). Cyberbullying, depression, and problem alcohol use in female college students: A multisite study. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, And Social Networking, 18(2), 79-86. doi:10.1089/cyber.2014.0371