In Their Own Words: How Do Students, Parents, and Teachers Decribe Cyberbullies?

• Author / Creator

  Welker, Kristen J

• The lack of a well-accepted definition of cyberbullying has become a serious issue for the field of research. I surveyed 545 students, parents, and teachers to determine how they described bullies and cyberbullies and whether they applied academic definitional criteria to their concepts of traditional bullying and cyberbullying. Data were analysed using analysis of variance, principal components analysis, and thematic analysis. Taken together, the findings indicated that participants (a) generally describe bullies and cyberbullies similarly, and (b) endorse academic definitional criteria to their personal notion of a bully and a cyberbully. These findings support using Olweus' definition criteria to create a unified definition of cyberbullying that reflects the views of those who most often experience cyberbullying.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Cyberbullying

• Graduation date

  Spring 2014

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R30P0X02W

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.