ELC 560: English for Executive Summary Writing Article Sample

This is a report on electronic bullying among middle school (age 11-14) students. Write an
executive summary based on the given report.

A Report on Electronic Bullying among Middle School (age 11-14) Students

Robin M. Kowalski, Ph.D. and Susan P. Limber, Ph.D.
Bullying is commonly defined as repeated aggressive behaviour in which there is an imbalance
of power between the parties. More recently, the proliferation of electronic communications
technologies has afforded children and youths a new means of bullying. Electronic bullying or
cyber bullying includes bullying through e-mail, through instant text messaging, in a chat room,
on a website, or through digital messages or images sent to a cell phone. Although electronic
bullying or cyber bullying has received extensive attention in the popular press, few studies
has assessed the nature and extent of electronic bullying among students. What little research
there is has focused primarily on the frequency of children’s use of the Internet (e.g., instant
text messaging, e-mail, social network sites) and their experiences with Internet harassment
(e.g., repetitive messages sent to a target that cause emotional distress to that target). One
study found that 97% of adolescents, 12-18 years of age use the Internet. More than half of
those teens surveyed for the Pew Internet & American Life Project (2005) indicated that they
spent some time each day online. Almost half (45%) had their own cell phones and on third
communicated via text messaging.

Only a handful of studies have focused on electronic bullying. A survey conducted by the
National Children’s Home in Great Britain involved 856 children and youths 11-19 years of
age and found that 16% had been bullied via mobile phone text messaging., 7% via Internet
chat rooms, and 4% through e-mail. In another study carried out by Ybarra and Mitchell (2004)
who interviews 1,501 regular Internet users, 10-17 years of age, it was found that 19% of the
sample was involved in online aggression, 4% as online victims only, 12% as online
aggressors only, and 3% as aggressors or targets only. Unlike traditional bullying, electronic
bullying can occur at any time, which may heighten children’s perceptions of vulnerability.
Electronic bullying messages and images also can be distributed quickly to a wide audience.
The interactions that occur in virtual reality can affect the everyday reality that students
experience.

Although the result was inconclusive in a research on gender-related issues of electronic

bullying, girls were over-represented among both perpetrators and victims of electronic
bullying. Research has consistently shown boys and men to be more likely to engage in direct
forms of aggressions (e.g., face-to-face physical and verbal confrontations), whereas women
and girls tend to engage in more indirect types of aggressions (e.g., ostracism, gossip).

Purpose
The general purpose of this research is to examine the prevalence of electronic bullying
among young children and youths in the United States and the specific purpose is to study

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age and gender differences in the nature and prevalence of electronic bullying among middle
school-aged-children and youths across the United States.

Methods
Participants
The sample included 1,915 girls and 1,852 boys in grades 6,7, and 8 who attended one of the
selected sim elementary and middle schools in the south-eastern and north-western regions
of the United States. The schools were selected because they were planning to begin a
bullying prevention programme after the collection of baseline data on bullying at their schools.
All students in class on the day of the survey were invited to participate. The respondents
consisted of Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians.

Survey Instrument
A questionnaire packet consisting of two sets of questionnaires were completed by the
participants. First, the 39-item Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire which included demographic
items assessing grade and gender was completed and this was followed by the 23-item
Electronic Bullying Questionnaire.

The 23-item Electronic Bullying Questionnaire, which is a self-report measure, was patterned
in part after the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire, and examined participants’ experiences
with electronic bullying. The Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire defined buying for students
and then assessed the participants’ experiences with bullying; at school, as victims and as
perpetrators. Like the Olweus measure, the Electronic Bullying Questionnaire included
questions about participants’ experiences with bullying- both of being bullied and bullying
others. Electronic bullying was defined a “bullying through e-mail, through instant text
messaging, in a chat room, on a website, or through a text message sent to a cell phone.”
Also included were items examining how the electronic bullying occurred, the electronic venue
through which the electronic bullying occurred, and by whom they were electronically bullied.
With the exception of the yes/no questions asking about the source of the electronic bullying,
prevalence questions were answered using the five-points response format used in the
Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire (that is, it hasn’t happened in the past couple of months;
only once or twice; two or three times a month, about once a week, several times a week).

Results
Prevalence of electronic bullying
The students were divided into four groups: those who had been electronically bullied at least
once in the last two months (victims only), those who had electronically bullied others (bullies
only), those who has been both electronically bullied and also had electronically bullied others
(bully/victims) and those who had no experience with electronic bullying as either victims or
perpetrators. All analyses were conducted using the more conservative criterion method. Of
the total number of participants, 11% qualitied as victims only; 7% were bully/victims; 4% fell
into the ‘bullies only’ category; and 78% had no experience with electronic bullying. Chi-square

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analyses revealed some important gender differences by group involved in electronic bullying
at least once in the previous couple of months, with girls being over-represented among
victims and bully/victims. In all, 15% of girls and 7% of boys were victims only; 10% of girls
and 4% of boys were bully/victims, and 4% of girls and 5% of boys reported electronically
bullying others (bullies only).

Significant differences by grade were also observed. Sixth-graders were less likely than other
students to be involved in electronic bullying. Specifically, there were half as likely as seventh-
or eighth graders to be bullies or bully/victims, and were somewhat less likely to be victims
only.

Methods of electronic bullying

The specific means by which students reported being electronically bullied and/or bullying
others electronically were evaluated. Because of the small cell sizes across methods of
electronic bullying, participants were classified as either victims or bullies. Victims reported
being electronically bullied most frequently through instant messaging, followed by chat
rooms, through e-mail messages, and on a website. Bullies similarly reported using instant
messaging most frequently, followed by chat rooms and e-mail messaging, to bully others
electronically. A separate multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted on the
means by which the bullying occurred. A multivariate main effect of grade was found for two
of the variables: bullied through instant messaging and bullied through text messaging. The
report also showed that sixth-graders were bullied via instant messaging significantly less
frequently than either seventh or eighth-graders, with the latter two conditions not differing
significantly. Sixth-graders were also bullied through text messaging significantly less than
eight-graders.

Relationship between victim and perpetrator

The findings revealed that both victims and bully/victims were electronically bullied most
frequently by a students at school, followed by a stranger. More than half of bully/victims
indicated they had been electronically bullied by a friend, whereas a little more than a quarter
of the victims said they had been electronically bullied by a friend. More than 12% of victims
and 16% of bully/victims reported that they had been electronically bullied by a sibling.
Importantly, almost half (48%) did not know who had electronically bullied them. Perpetrators
indicated that they electronically bullied another student at school most frequently, followed
by a friend and stranger.

Discussion
The data suggested that electronic bullying is a problem among middle school students. Of
the students, 11% had been electronically bullied at least once in the last couple of months.
7% were bully/victims; and 4% had electronically bullied someone else at least once in the
previous two months. If anything, the statistics underestimated the true frequency of electronic
bullying. The survey only assessed children’s experiences with electronic bullying over the

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previous two months. It was quite possible that children might have had experience with
electronic bullying, albeit mot within the previous two months. In addition, because there was
so little research on electronic bullying, targets might not have recognised that what they had
experienced was actually a form of bullying. It is alarming that a quarter of the female
respondents have reported being electronically bullied within the last two months. On the other
hand, the increased frequency of use of electronic technologies by adolescents provides a
context within which the statistics are not all that surprising. In the survey, almost 50% of the
teenage population used cell phones; 97% used the Internet, and a large proportion of them
used it every day. In other words, as children’s use of electronic communication technologies
is unlikely to wane in future, continued attention to electronic bullying is critical.

Finally, the venue of cyber space, where victim and perpetrator cannot see each other, may
lead some perpetrators to remain unconvinced that they are actually harming their target. On
the other hand, the ability to hide behind fake screen names or steal someone else’s screen
names and communicate as that person provides teenagers with an opportunity to
communicate things they would otherwise be reluctant to say to another person.

More importantly, the data highlighted gender differences in the frequency of electronic
bullying, with girls outnumbering boys. This is consistent with girls tending to rely more on
directed form of aggression. In addition, researchers have suggested that the Internet affords
girls an opportunity to establish and maintain relationships independently of concerns with
how others may be perceiving and evaluating their physical characteristics.

Fewer gender differences were observed across the methods used to electronically bully. The
most frequently reported methods were instant text messaging, chat rooms, websites, and e-
mail. These findings were consistent with those in the Pew report, showing that the Internet
technologies most likely to be used by adolescents included instant messaging and e-mail.
Grade differences were observed in young people’s use of instant messages and text
messages as means to be bullied, with sixth-graders reporting the least victimization. The Pew
report (2005) also found that girls, particularly in the 15-17 year-old range, used e-mail at a
much higher percentage than boys, a finding that may be reflected in the data showing that
sixth-grade boys seemed to differ most markedly from other participants.

These findings have implications for children, parents, and educators. Given the frequency of
electronic bullying, parents and teachers need to become more aware of what electronic
bullying is, how to help prevent it, and how to address electronic bullying that has occurred.
School administrators should work to educate students, teachers, and staff about electronic
bullying and its dangers, and the steps to be taken if it is suspected. They should also ensure
that school rules and policies related to bullying include electronic bullying. Suspected
instances of electronic bullying should be investigated immediately. Those that involve threats
of physical harm or other illegal behaviours should be reported immediately to the police.

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Data from the focus group interviewed showed that adolescents were reluctant to report
instances of electronic bullying that did not involve death threats for fear of their parents would
restrict their time on the Internet or cell phones, or discover information that the adolescents
themselves have posted on the Internet. Given this, parents need to set developmentally
appropriate guidelines for children’s use of the Internet and other cyber technologies and
maintain open communication with their children regarding their use. They should regularly
discuss appropriate steps to take if children or youth experience or witness electronic bullying
or threats. Furthermore, although the sample in this study was drawn from several areas
around the country, random sampling was not used. The relative homogeneity of the sample
(particularly in terms of race and ethnicity) leaves open the possibility that other children may
experience electronic bullying differently from those in the study.

Adapted from Kowalski, R. & Limber, S. (2007). Electronic bullying among middle school
students. Journal of Adolescent Health.

Cited Research
Lenhart, A. Madden, M., & Hitlin, P. (2005). Pew Internet & American Life Project. Teens and
Technology: Youth are leading the transition to a fully mobile nation. Retrieved from
http://www.pewinternet.org

National Children’s Home. 1 in 4 Children Are Victims of Online Bullying. Retrieved from
http://www,nch.org.uk/information/index.php?i_77&r_125.

Olweus, D. The Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire. (1996). Beren, Norway:

Research Centre for Health Promotion (HIMIL), University of Bergen, N-5015 Bergen,
Norway.

Ybarra, M.L. & Mitchell, K.J. (2004). Youth engaging in online harassment: Associations with
caregiver-child relationships, Internet use, and personal characteristics. Journal of
Adolescence. 27(3): 319-36.

Additional Source
Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do. Cabridge, MA:
Blackwell.