A Study On The Prevalence And Influencing Factors Of Cyberbullying Among Middle School Students

Background:Cyberbullying is a major global public health problem.With the popularity of the Internet and electronic mobile devices,cyberbullying has become more and more common among young people.A study conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund in China found that about a quarter of young people have suffered from cyberbullying.China’s 2019 National Research Report on Internet Usage by Minors shows that 42.3% of minors have been ridiculed or verbally abused online,22.1% have been maliciously harassed online,and 13.8% of their personal information has been disclosed online without permission.Cyberbullying will have a serious negative impact on the health of teenagers,including mental health problems such as anxiety,depression and low self-esteem,and physical health problems such as overweight,obesity and substance abuse.Persistent cyber victimization can even lead to self-harm and suicide.The research on cyberbullying in China started later than in other countries such as the United States and Europe,most of the studies focused on cyber victims,while there were few studies on other roles involved in cyberbullying.The research on the influencing factors of cyberbullying was mainly focused on individual factors.The relevant anti-bullying policies,projects and treatment programs were not mature enough in China.Objectives:1.To understand the composition and epidemiological characteristics of different participants in Chinese middle school students’ cyberbullying,including cyberbullies,cyber victims,and cyberbully victims.2.From the perspectives of individual,family,school and social environment,this research explores the influencing factors of middle school students’ cyberbullying perpetration,cyber victimization,cyberbullying victimization,so as to provide a theoretical basis for the effective prevention and intervention of middle school students’ cyberbullying.Methods:1.Cross-sectional study: Taking a city in Jiangsu Province as the research site,stratified cluster random sampling method was adopted to carry out an epidemiological survey among all the students in 7 local middle schools to describe and analyze the differences in the rates of cyberbullies,cyber victims,cyberbully victims among different social and demographic characteristics.The contents of this questionnaire mainly include the general demographic characteristics of the respondents(gender,ethnicity,etc.),the individual information of the respondents(smoking,drinking,daily time on the Internet,frequency of using social software,etc.),the family information of the respondents(family relations,family education methods,family income,etc.),the campus environment and social environment of the respondents(the relationship with classmates,the degree of safety of living environment,etc.),and the participation of the respondents in cyberbullying(verbal attack,harassment,privacy disclosure,etc.).2.Case control studies: According to different participating roles of cyberbullying,middle school students who are cyberbullies,cyber victims,and cyberbully victims were selected as the case group,matched according to gender and grade,and middle school students who did not participate in cyberbullying were randomly selected as the control group.The conditional logistic regression model was used for analysis.To explore the influencing factors of different participating roles in middle school students’ cyberbullying behavior.Results:1.A total of 13258 middle school students were surveyed.13002 questionnaires were actually completed effectively.The effective response rate was 98.07%.A total of 6678 male students and 6324 female students completed the valid questionnaire.The incidence of cyberbullying victimization among middle school students was 4.8%,the rate of cyberbullying perpetration was 0.4%,and the reporting rate of victimization and perpetration was 1.0%.The incidence of cyberbullying perpetration,cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying-victimization of male students were higher than that of female students.These rates were higher in high school students than in middle school students.2.Drinking and smoking,dating experience,surfing the Internet for more than an hour a day,both parents are working out of town,punitive parenting,father drinks alcohol,mother drinks alcohol,mother engaged in business,services,industry and agriculture,family relations not harmonious,a lack of trust,the academic performance are the factors for middle school students to suffer from cyberbullying.3.Drinking alcohol,both parents are working out of town,serving as class leaders,free-style parenting,and unharmonious family relationship are the risk factors for middle school students to cyberbullying.4.Drinking alcohol,dating experience,more use of social software,father drinks alcohol,distrust of people around,freestyle parenting,parental neglect of their children are the risk factors for middle school students to be cyberbully victims.Conclusions:1.The incidence of cyberbullying among middle school students is not high,but the harmfulness of cyberbullying should not be underestimated.Further longitudinal studies are needed to track changes in the incidence of cyberbullying.2.The influencing factors of different roles in middle school students’ cyberbullying are different.Whether one drank alcohol or not,and family parenting style were the common influencing factors for cyberbullies,cyber victims,and cyberbully victims.Dating experience,whether or not the father drank alcohol,and different levels of trust in those around him or her were the common factors that influenced cyber victims and cyberbully victims.Whether both parents are working away from home and family relationship are common influencing factors for cyber victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying.3.When developing prevention and intervention strategies for cyber-bullying,different plans and programmes should be developed for different cyber-bullying roles.Policymakers need to consider both the common factors among the roles and the unique influences of each role.Improve the policies and regulations on cyberbullying,strengthen the cooperation between families,schools and society,establish a comprehensive cyberbullying protection system for middle school students,reduce the occurrence of cyberbullying,so as to promote the healthy growth of young people.