A two way street: Prevalence of cyberbullying among middle school students

Introduction: Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that occurs online or through cell phone text messages. The purpose of this study is to examine cyberbullying among middle school students. Method: As a supplement to the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 2012, a probability sample (N = 1,186) of Los Angeles Unified School District middle school students was collected. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess predictors of victimization or perpetration. Results: 11% of youth surveyed were cyberbully victims and 10% were perpetrators. Victims had 10 times the odds of also being a perpetrator (95% CI= 6.2, 15.5). Facebook was the most common forum for victimization (47.7%) and perpetration (47.6%) followed by text messaging. 53.8% of perpetrators cyberbullied someone they knew in real life (IRL), and 26.4% of victims were cyberbullied by someone IRL. Multivariate logistic regressions showed that females and white youth were more likely to be victims of cyberbullying (OR: 2.1, p<0.01; OR: 1.9, p<0.05). The most significant predictor of cyberbully outcomes was engaging in bidirectional bullying: victims were much more likely to be perpetrators and perpetrators were much more likely to be victims (OR: 8.9, p<0.001; OR: 8.8, p<0.001). Conclusions: Cyberbullying is a prevalent issue among middle school aged youth; white and female adolescents are more likely to participate in cyberbullying. Results suggest that cyberbullying most commonly occurs as a bidirectional experience. Cyberbullying prevention programs at the middle school level should be gender appropriate and take into consideration that victims of cyberbullying are most likely also perpetrators.