Cyber bullying amongst adolescent girls : a retrospective qualitative study

Abstract

Every year in America, nearly twelve million children are bullied. This means children have a high probability of experiencing bullying in their life, either as a perpetrator or a victim (Mansbacher, 2012). In America nearly 43% of children and teens have been bullied online at least once in their life, with 1 in 4 being cyber bullied more than once (Moessner, 2007). Chisholm (2006) defined cyber bullying as; “harassing, insulting, physically threatening, socially excluding, and/or humiliating other using electronic media such as email, internet sites, instant internet messaging and cell phone text messages” (as cited in Cappadocia et al., 2013. p.172). This study explores the perceived impact cyber bullying has on adolescent girls who have been cyber bullied in the past for one month or more. The data indicates that cyber bullying has a negative impact in terms of self-esteem, self-belief, self-blame, support, depression, suicidal thought and emotional reactions towards the experience of cyber bullying. Further studies especially on a national level, would be beneficial to raise more awareness on the impact of cyber bullying on the victim, however, due to the increase in technological advancement, it is challenging to keep up to date with cyber bullying, since nowadays it is easier to engage in such behaviour.