Traditional Bullying and Cyberbullying among Swedish Adolescents Gender differences and associations with mental health

Background: Adolescents’ social relations are associated with the state of their mental health, and while positive relations can protect against development of mental health problems, negative social relations, such as bullying, is considered a risk factor. In addition, the preconditions for establishing and maintaining social relations have changed along with the development of information and communication technology (ICT). In this new arena negative social interactions, such as bullying, can also gain a footing. Given previous research showing some distinguishing features between cyberbullying vis-a-vis traditional bullying, there may be other differences as well, some of which will be studied in the current thesis. In order to plan new and develop already-existing intervention strategies for bullying in school, it is important to clarify whether we can use previous knowledge from the field of traditional bullying or if we need to rethink our strategies. Given the harmful consequences that it entails, bullying must be considered a public health issue. Aim: The overall aim of this thesis is to study the differences and similarities between traditional bullying and cyberbullying among adolescents, with a particular focus on gender, psychosomatic problems, and disabilities. The aim is also to gain insight into school-health staff’s experience with bullying among school students. Method: This thesis is based on four studies. Study I, II and IV take a quantitative approach based on a web-based questionnaire. The data were collected on three occasions between 2009 and 2010 in the county of Värmland. Altogether more than 3,800 adolescents in Grade 7-9 participated all aged between 13 to 15 years. Logistic regressions and linear regression analyses were applied in order to analyse associations, with both bullying and mental health constituting outcome measures in different studies. In Study III, data were collected via focus groups. There were four focus groups comprising 16 school social workers and school nurses. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Study I: The results showed discrepant gender patterns for traditional bullying and cyberbullying behaviour or victimization. Firstly, while there were almost no gender differences among traditional victims were found, girls were more likely than boys to be cybervictims when occasional cyberbullying was included. Secondly, whereas boys were more likely to be traditional bullies, girls were equally as likely as boys to be cyberbullies. Also, boys were more likely to be traditional bully-victims, that is being bully and victim, while girls were more likely to be cyberbully-victims. Study II: The results indicated an association with psychosomatic problems for victims, bullies and bully-victims. The strongest associations were seen for bully-victims and psychosomatic problems. The results do not indicate that the association between bullying and psychosomatic problems is stronger for cyberbullying than for traditional bullying. Study III: Three main categories emerged from the analysis of school social workers’ and school nurses’ experience of and work with bullying: 1) “Anti-bullying team”, 2) “Working style” and 3) “Perspectives on bullying”. The first described the organizational bullying prevention work in schools; the second indicated different roles the participants played in their schools’ prevention and anti-bullying work. The third included different views on bullying and how to handle bullying. Working Styles and Perspectives on Bullying each comprising two sub-categories: “Team member”, and “Single worker”; and “Contextual perspective” and “Individual-oriented perspective”. Study IV showed that, regardless of gender and grade, students with a disability were more likely to be bully-victims and, more particularly, bully-victims involved in both traditional bullying and cyberbullying. No differences between disabled adolescents and others were found with respect to the association between bullying and psychosomatic health. Conclusions: Bullying is a complex phenomenon and it takes on different forms along with the changes in society. In the wake of Internet’s rapid development, we are all challenged – parents, schools and researchers alike – to keep up with a younger, digitally savvy generation. Cyberbullying and traditional bullying may not be two separate phenomena, but rather two sides of the same coin. The results show that some adolescents are more likely to experience higher levels of psychosomatic health problems. They also show that some that some adolescents are more likely to be involved in bullying than others, either as victims, bullies or bully-victims. One particular group that was recognized in the current thesis is the bullyvictims. Cyberbullying challenges schools in new ways, and hopefully the current thesis may encourage schools to discuss this issue and how school health staff can optimize their resources in alliance. In order to combat bullying, both contextual and individual approaches are necessary, meaning that we need to take into account the structure surrounding the students as well as the single individual in this matter. Providing school children and adolescents with a safe and caring school experience can strengthen the mental health capital and lay the foundation for students’ development and perspective of the world. Hence, reducing bullying is an important issue to deal with, wheatear it happens online or offline.