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Cyberbullying among Finnish adolescents – a population-based study

BACKGROUND: Cyberbullying, threatening or harassing another via the internet or mobile phones, does not cause physically harm and thus the consequences are less visible. Little research has been performed on the occurrence of cyberbullying among adolescents or the perception of its seriousness. Only...

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Autores principales: Lindfors, Pirjo L, Kaltiala-Heino, Riittakerttu, Rimpelä, Arja H
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3585473/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23176715
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-1027
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author Lindfors, Pirjo L
Kaltiala-Heino, Riittakerttu
Rimpelä, Arja H
author_facet Lindfors, Pirjo L
Kaltiala-Heino, Riittakerttu
Rimpelä, Arja H
author_sort Lindfors, Pirjo L
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Cyberbullying, threatening or harassing another via the internet or mobile phones, does not cause physically harm and thus the consequences are less visible. Little research has been performed on the occurrence of cyberbullying among adolescents or the perception of its seriousness. Only a few population-based studies have been published, none of which included research on the witnessing of cyberbullying. Here, we examined exposure to cyberbullying during the last year, and its frequency and perceived seriousness among 12 to 18-year-old adolescents in Finland. We studied four dimensions of cyberbullying: being a victim, bully, or both victim and bully of cyberbullying, and witnessing the cyberbullying of friends. METHODS: Self-administered questionnaires, including four questions on cyberbullying, were mailed to a representative sample of 12-, 14-, 16-, and 18-year-old Finns in 2009 (the Adolescent Health and Lifestyle Survey). The respondents could answer via the internet or paper questionnaire. RESULTS: The number of respondents was 5516 and the response rate was 56%. Girls more often than boys reported experiencing at least one dimension of cyberbullying during the last year. The proportion was highest among 14-year-olds and lowest among 18-year-olds of both sexes. Among girls, the most commonly encountered dimension was witnessing the cyberbullying of friends (16%); and being a victim was slightly more common than being a bully (11% vs. 9%). Among boys, an equal proportion, approximately 10%, had been a victim, a bully, or had witnessed cyberbullying. The proportion of bully-victims was 4%. Serious and disruptive cyberbullying was experienced by 2% of respondents and weekly cyberbullying by 1%; only 0.5% of respondents had been bullied weekly and considered bullying serious and disruptive. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents are commonly exposed to cyberbullying, but it is rarely frequent or considered serious or disruptive. Cyberbullying exposure differed between sexes, such that girls more often than boys witness cyberbullying of friends and boys more often act as the bully than girls. In future studies, the witnessing of cyberbullying and its consequences should be taken into account.
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spelling pubmed-35854732013-03-02 Cyberbullying among Finnish adolescents – a population-based study Lindfors, Pirjo L Kaltiala-Heino, Riittakerttu Rimpelä, Arja H BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Cyberbullying, threatening or harassing another via the internet or mobile phones, does not cause physically harm and thus the consequences are less visible. Little research has been performed on the occurrence of cyberbullying among adolescents or the perception of its seriousness. Only a few population-based studies have been published, none of which included research on the witnessing of cyberbullying. Here, we examined exposure to cyberbullying during the last year, and its frequency and perceived seriousness among 12 to 18-year-old adolescents in Finland. We studied four dimensions of cyberbullying: being a victim, bully, or both victim and bully of cyberbullying, and witnessing the cyberbullying of friends. METHODS: Self-administered questionnaires, including four questions on cyberbullying, were mailed to a representative sample of 12-, 14-, 16-, and 18-year-old Finns in 2009 (the Adolescent Health and Lifestyle Survey). The respondents could answer via the internet or paper questionnaire. RESULTS: The number of respondents was 5516 and the response rate was 56%. Girls more often than boys reported experiencing at least one dimension of cyberbullying during the last year. The proportion was highest among 14-year-olds and lowest among 18-year-olds of both sexes. Among girls, the most commonly encountered dimension was witnessing the cyberbullying of friends (16%); and being a victim was slightly more common than being a bully (11% vs. 9%). Among boys, an equal proportion, approximately 10%, had been a victim, a bully, or had witnessed cyberbullying. The proportion of bully-victims was 4%. Serious and disruptive cyberbullying was experienced by 2% of respondents and weekly cyberbullying by 1%; only 0.5% of respondents had been bullied weekly and considered bullying serious and disruptive. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents are commonly exposed to cyberbullying, but it is rarely frequent or considered serious or disruptive. Cyberbullying exposure differed between sexes, such that girls more often than boys witness cyberbullying of friends and boys more often act as the bully than girls. In future studies, the witnessing of cyberbullying and its consequences should be taken into account. BioMed Central 2012-11-23 /pmc/articles/PMC3585473/ /pubmed/23176715 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-1027 Text en Copyright ©2012 Lindfors et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lindfors, Pirjo L
Kaltiala-Heino, Riittakerttu
Rimpelä, Arja H
Cyberbullying among Finnish adolescents – a population-based study
title Cyberbullying among Finnish adolescents – a population-based study
title_full Cyberbullying among Finnish adolescents – a population-based study
title_fullStr Cyberbullying among Finnish adolescents – a population-based study
title_full_unstemmed Cyberbullying among Finnish adolescents – a population-based study
title_short Cyberbullying among Finnish adolescents – a population-based study
title_sort cyberbullying among finnish adolescents – a population-based study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3585473/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23176715
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-1027
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