Short research report : cyberbullying levels of impact in a special school setting

Abstract

Cyberbullying is defined as “an aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself” (Smith et al., 2008, p. 376). There are many quantitative studies on cyberbullying, but now researchers argue that we need to develop understanding of the contextual determinants of cyberbullying and the actors involved (Bastiaensens et al, 2014; Shultz, Heilman & Hart, 2014). More research is needed to better understand the complexities of bystander behaviours (Jones, Mitchell & Turner, 2015) and about cyberbullying reported by individuals with autism (Zeedyk et al, 2014) and students in special educational provision (Heiman, Olenik-Shemesh & Eden, 2015; Kowalski, 2016). In response, this study offers an analysis of „real world‟ cyberbullying between members of a special school community.