Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Using data from the 2007-2017 cycles of the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), this researcher aimed to understand how weapons carrying mediates the association between bullying and mental health outcomes. I dichotomized four bullying outcomes to create one new carried a weapon after bullied (CWB) (no/yes; e.g. did not carry a weapon post-bullying vs. did carry a weapon post-bullying) for each bullying type. Mental health outcomes included (all dichotomized, past 2 weeks, no/yes): felt sad or hopeless, seriously considered suicide, had a plan for suicide and attempted suicide. I used descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression adjusted for YRBS sampling methods and weighting (Stata 15.0). Initial results showed that weapons carrying has a complex relationship with mental health after bullying. One notable finding is that individuals who had been in a physical fight were the most likely to carry a weapon (N = 268), followed by those who had been threatened at school (N = 233). Additionally, more students who had been bullied at school (N = 185) carried a weapon than those who were victims of cyberbullying (N = 166). Another interesting result found that across all bullying types, males were 2 to 3 times more likely to carrying a weapon as a result of being bullied. In terms of mental health, being threatened at school was the most significant bullying type in relation to suicidal ideation.

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Bullying victimization in school settings is a serious problem in many countries including the United States. Bullying victimization has been associated with serious incidents of school violence as well as detrimental physical, psychological, emotional, and social consequences for its victims. Given its consequences, it is crucial to understand who is more likely to be targeted for bullying victimization. This study examines whether a number of important factors such as gender, physical and interactionist school security measures, and involvement in extracurricular activities influence individuals’ risk of bullying victimization from social bond and routine activity perspectives. The study employs the 2011 School Crime Supplement (SCS) of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to investigate the causes of bullying victimization. The results of this study show that gender, interactionist school security measures, and extracurricular activities impact individuals’ likelihood of bullying victimization.

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Cyberbullying, the use of personal and information and communication technologies to harass or intimidate others, is an increasingly pervasive problem in schools. This mixed- methods study explored the effectiveness of a multimedia WebQuest in teaching 156 middle-school students about the dangers of cyberbullying and examined the role of gender in learning about cyber-harassment. Set within a constructivist framework, the study provides an innovative, technological intervention for cyberbullying education for use with adolescents and is instrumental in reshaping public policy surrounding cyberbullying education and prevention. The dissertation study occurred in two phases. Phase I, WebQuest Construction, was qualitative in nature and employed stakeholder focus groups to assess middle-school students’ knowledge and awareness surrounding cyberbullying. Data from the focus groups informed the construction of the WebQuest. The second phase, Data Collection from Students, was quantitative in nature and was composed of a pre-test, WebQuest treatment, and post-test. Data analyses for Phase II included paired-sample t tests, repeated-measures analyses of variance, and descriptive statistics that focused on three dependent variables, namely awareness, safety, and knowledge. Findings indicated statistically significant increases in awareness and knowledge from the pre-test to post-test among the middle-school aged participants, while the slight increase in safety from pre to post-test was not significant. The findings support the need for school communities to begin engaging in conversation surrounding the best ways to teach students about cyberbullying’s dangers through the use of technology and issue a call for a re-examination of constructivist learning theory.

The rate of fear of victimization has declined in recent years but remains a prevalent problem among adolescents. Fear has been explained in past literature by three main theories: victimization theory, social integration theory, and social disorganization theory. However, the prediction of fear of victimization can be done more concisely by the contribution of collective efficacy, a concept that combines a community's feelings of social cohesion with a willingness to intervene for the common good. Using data collected from Philadelphia middle schools in 1993-1994, this study tested the direct and interacting effects of bullying and collective efficacy on fear of victimization with hierarchical linear modeling. The results indicated that bullying is positively related to fear of victimization, and collective efficacy is negatively related to fear of victimization. Contrary to the hypothesis, the moderating effect of collective efficacy on bullying and fear was not statistically significant. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.

The purpose of the study was twofold: to explore how school counselors and athletic educators experienced implementing the 2010 Massachusetts Anti-bullying law and to explore how participants experienced using the Sharevision structured group reflection process as the format for group discussions. The Sharevision structured group reflection process provided the safety and support school counselors and athletic educators said they needed. Participants eagerly shared their experiences with one another. They used the Sharevision process to discuss the list of participant generated questions they posed during the individual interviews. They exchanged ideas and were able to generate new ways to respond to anti-LGBTQ bullying and gender-based harassment as a result of their reflective group discussions. The participants said that the Sharevision meetings relieved stress, were productive and inspired them to continue working together to take action on their ideas. After the study was over, members of the group met over the summer with the GSA Advisor to continue to work together. They designed and then co-facilitated their fall orientations for incoming students, athletes and parents proactively promoting diversity, their GSA and a positive LGBTQ school climate.

In today's technologically sophisticated world, people have many electronic methods of exchanging information and communicating. Unfortunately, these methods are not always used in positive ways; they can also be used to convey aggression and bullying. Recently, such acts of aggression have been labeled many things from cyberbullying to online social cruelty, and have received much media attention due to their tragic consequences including victim suicide. This study explores the impact of victim and bully gender in relation to perception of bully likability, punishment, impact on victim, and victim responses. Participants reviewed a Cyberbullying scenario in which the gender of the victim and perpetrator were manipulated. All scenarios were identical except for the gender pairs of the victim and perpetrator: Male (bully)-Male (victim), Male (bully)-Female (victim), Female (bully)-Female (victim), and Female (bully)-Male (victim). Participants then completed the Likability of Bully, Punishment for Bully, Impact on Victim, and Victim Response scales. A main effect of gender on the Punishment Scale for the gender of bully indicated that participants desired lighter punishment for females independent of the gender of the victim. The results of this study suggest that increasing awareness of the seriousness of all cyberbullying regardless of gender of bully is important.