The goal of this study is to identify emerging themes of communication aspects of bullying. The following research questions emerged from previous literature on bullying, and are designed to guide an inductive research approach to offering a clearer understanding of face-to-face vs. cyber-bullying and relational outcomes that result from being a victim:
- RQ1: How does the communication of bullying among teenagers differ between face-to-face settings and cyber settings?
- RQ2: Why does the communication of bullying acts among teenagers differ between face-to-face and cyber settings?
- RQ3: What relational outcomes does bullying have on teenage victims?
- RQ4: What are the motivators causing bullies to bully peers?
Proposed Site
The proposed site for this study is West Fargo High School, specifically including all classes with 10th grade students enrolled. Contact Lindsey Braaton, counselor, will be monitoring the study per confidentiality guidelines of West Fargo High School. West Fargo High has about 1200 students attending, ranging between grades 9-12. For the purpose of this study, students only in grade 10 will be recruited. The interviews will then take place in the West Fargo counseling office meeting room.
Method
Participants
Participants will be recruited from West Fargo High School. Participants may be male or female, and must be enrolled in 10th grade at West Fargo High. Five classes will be selected based on recommendations of West Fargo Counselors, to present recruitment information to. To obtain satisfactory data saturation, fifteen interviews are needed. If, after recruitment in five classes, fifteen participants are not recruited, the recruitment will be extended to additional classes recommended by Counselors, consisting of only 10th grade students enrolled at West Fargo
Procedures
Recruitment will be conducted during an informal presentation, consisting of study goals, relevance, what participants will be asked to do, risks, and benefits. A permission slip will be given to all students, who will then have the option to present the permission slip to their parent(s) or guardian. If students wish to participate in the study they must have their parent/guardian consent to their participation by signing the permission slip. Students will then be able to initiate contact of their interest to participate in the study. Interview arrangements will be made at the convenience of the participants, and will be held in the West Fargo, counseling office. The interviews will last between twenty to thirty minutes. Participants must also sign a consent form prior to the interview. A voice recorder will be used to record the interview; all participants will be informed of this prior to the interview, and will be able to see the tape recorder throughout the interview. The respondent interview guide consisted of nine open-ended questions with sub-questions, asking students to describe, explain, and reflect on different aspects of bullying. These nine questions included:
- To start, describe what you think of when you hear the word bullying.
- Please reflect on a time when you, or a close friend, were bullied?
- What it in person or through something electronic like text message or Facebook?
- How much did it occur?
- Why do you think they were doing that to (you/your friend)?
- How did it make (you/your friend) feel?
- Do you see your peers bullying or being bullied through messages more face-to-face or more through electronic means?
- Reflect on a time when you or a friend was bullied face-to-face.
- Reflect on a time when you or a friend was bullied through electronic means.
- Do you think the same things would be said over face-to-face bullying as they would through a text message or email? Explain.
- If you were mad and wanted to get even with someone, what would you do?
- Would you say things differently if you decided to use (either a face-to-face, or a cyber) instead? [Ask the question using the opposite method they just described in question 4.]
- Do you think it hurts worse to have rumors told about you or secrets shared in person, or over instant message or Facebook? Explain.
- Describe how you feel about your friends?
- Describe why types of bullying happen in your peer group
- How common is it?
- Is it done by rumors, or by sharing secrets, or excluding? Describe.
- What do you think the reasons behind it might be?
- How does it make you feel?
- How do you think it makes others feel?
- How do you think the person telling the rumors, or secrets, etc, feels?
- Would you like to add anything to what you’d said earlier about any of the questions?
These questions are subject to small wording changes and are offered as a standard template for each of the interviews that will be held for data collection. Participant’s confidentiality will be maintained throughout data collection and analysis. During the interview, participants will be instructed to refer to people by using either psuedonames or just saying he/she. If a name is said during the interview, that information will remain confidential. Participants will have the right to discontinue the interview at any time.
Measures
A qualitative methodology has been chosen for this project given the limited amount of past research focusing on the communication aspects of bullying. Interviews will be guided by respondent interview questions. Data will be collected using a voice recorder during interviews, and transcribed into word documents for qualitative analysis. An open and axial coding of transcriptions will be made from recordings of the interviews. Data will be inductively color coded for themes. The researcher first will read and open-code data to allow themes to emerge. Codes will then be read again, and collapsed into categories. A colored category system will be used to track themes in participant comments. Following this initial open coding, data will be examined for causal relationships and linkages. Themes will be analyzed using an inductive narrative approach, using the study’s research questions to guide analysis. This approach will be used to elicit meanings embedded in participant’s narratives (Keyton, 2001), allowing identification of etic themes. Themes from initial coding will then be examined for linkages and inductively analyzed to allow emic themes to emerge.
Group and Interpersonal Communication Significance
A newer branch of conflict theory, conflict-power-status perspective (Lovaglia et al., 2005), may have an integral role in communication motives of bullying. Conflict, power, and status, from a group communication perspective, offer theoretical implications as to why adolescent peers bully in the first place. The perspective is particularly used to illustrate how power and status are used to maintain or resolve conflict, in a variety of disciplines including political science, psychology, and sociology (Lovaglia et al., 2005). A communication perspective suggests that maintenance of conflict would maintain power and status; hence the aggressive or bullying forms of communication would maintain social dominance among peers. Schelling’s (1960) ‘mixed-motive games’ define a form of intra-group conflict where each member of a group is confronted with a choice between the motive to compete and the motive to cooperate with other group members. One key to unlocking this complex relationship lies in the differentiation of the conflict as either relationship or task related. Do peers bully to accomplish a task or a relational goal? The inductive approach may offer implications for further developing these, and other theories.
Conclusion
This study seeks to understand how destructive aggressive communication is used in a variety of contexts, to bully individuals. This study also investigates what type of relational outcomes are a result of different contexts of bullying messages. Possible insight into different motivators of bullying may be developed as well. Face-to-face aggressive communication has received most of the research attention, whereas cyber-aggressive communication is a newer area lacking research depth at this point. Also, forms of aggressive communication have been measured more commonly in terms of overt victimization, whereas research on relational victimization has been neglected. Because of these limitations, we currently know relatively little about bullying in respects to relational victimization, and even less about the role of bullying context in relation to relational victimization. Thus, it is necessary to explore bullying in terms of previous research, in order to further academic understanding of this pertinent issue involving communication contexts of interpersonal and peer group communication.
Beran, T., & Li, Qing. (2005). Cyber-harassment: A study of a new method for an old behavior.
Journal of Educational Computing Research, 32:3, 265-277.
- This study used 7-9 graders to create two categories, and seven subcategories, of channels used for cyber-bullying. It also identified different emotional outcomes of cyber-bullying. This source is helpful in my study because it offers a quantitative base, which assisted in developing my research questions.
Boje, D.M. (2001).
Narrative methods for organizational and communication research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
- This study focuses on narrative method analysis, specifically in an organization. This source is helpful in my study for a guide to analyzing and interpreting narratives, which will be part of my data analysis.
Campbell, M.A. (2005). Cyber-bullying: An old problem in a new guise?
Australian Journal of Guidance and Counseling, 15, 68-76.
- This article explores definitional issues, the incidence and potential consequences of cyber-bullying. Interestingly it offers prevention measures to cyber-bullying as being similar to face-to-face bullying, while stopping it has started may need different methods. This source will be helpful in my study because it discusses the debate of what can be done about monitoring cyber-bullying.
Crick, N., & Bigbee, M. (1998). Relational and overt forms of peer victimization: A multiinformant approach.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66:2, 337-347.
- This article’s results showed that that girls of their sample tend to be more relationally victimized, whereas boys were more overtly victimized. Both forms of victimization were shown to predict socio-psychological adjustment problems. This study will be helpful in my project by showing the difference between girls and boys of their sample, according to types of victimization.
Crick, N., Casas, J., & Nelson, D. (2002). Toward a more comprehensive understanding of peer maltreatment: Studies of relational victimization.
Current Directions in Psycological Science, 11:3, 98-101.
- This study argues touches on the argument of gender differences in likelihood of being victimized, claiming that girls are more commonly relationally victimized while boys are more commonly overtly victimized. This study also identifies that relational victimization is harmful. I am including this source in my study because it offers supporting research about the outcomes of relational victimization as negative.
Crick, N.R. & Grotpeter, J.K. (1996). Children’s treatment by peers: Victims of relational and overt aggression.
Development and Psychopathology, 8, 367-380.
- This study developed the Children’s Social-Experiences Questionnaire-Self Report, which contains three scales of overt victimization, relational victimization, and pro-social behavior. These scales are used commonly in other studies to look at victimization levels. I am including this source because it offers a good reference to questionnaires created for younger ages, which may help guide questions directed towards an adolescent group.
Crick, N., Ostrov, J., & Werner, N. (2006). A longitudinal study of relational aggression, physical aggression, and children’s social-psychological adjustment.
Journal of abnormal Child Psychology, 23:2, 131-142.
- This study identified future predictors of social-psychological adjustment problem and increases in these problems between third and fourth grade, as relational and physical aggression. Relational aggression contributed unique information in the prediction of future maladjustment. I am including this study in my project because it offers supporting implications for relationally aggressive behavior in terms of withdrawal, depression, and anxiety.
Crick, N., & Werner, N. (1998). Response decision processes in relational and overt aggression.
Child Development, 69:6,1630-1639.
- This study assessed both males and females who responded to an instrumental conflict in relationally aggressive and overtly aggressive ways. The study found that boys evaluated overt aggression more positively, where girls evaluated relational aggression more positively. This study will be useful in my project because it discusses the relationship between gender role and relational aggression.
Dempsey, A., & Storch, E. (2008). Relational victimization: The association between recalled adolescent social experiences and emotional adjustment in early adulthood.
Psychology in the Schools, 45:4, 310-322.
- This study looked at adults recalled adolescent relational victimization in relation to symptoms of depression and social anxiety. Findings indicated that the relational victimization questionnaire in the study had adequate internal consistency. This study highlights in it’s implications the importance of working with adolescents and focusing more on this demographic. It argues that too many studies focus on early childhood development, and then again focus on socio-emotional problems in adulthood, but that a great amount of events happen in adolescent years that are under-researched. This argument is useful in my project, validating its relevance.
Galen, B., & Underwood, M. (1997). A development investigation of social aggression among children.
Developmental Psychology, 33:4, 589-600.
- This study focuses on social aggression, defining it as directed at damaging another’s self-esteem, social status, or both. It offers specific aggressive communication acts which cause damage in these areas. Findings showed that girls rated the aggressor as more angry than boys, and middle school and high school participants viewed the aggressor as indicating more dislike than elementary school children. This study will be beneficial to my project by offering research dealing with perception differences between elementary and adolescent individuals.
Genta, M.L., Menesini, E., Fonzi, A., Costabile, A., & Smith P.K. (1996). Bullies and victims in schools in central and southern Italy.
European Journal of Psychology of Education, 11, 97-110.
- This study focuses on bullying in Italian schools. Findings discuss the frequency of face-to-face bullying being high. This study will be helpful in my project by looking at frequency comparisons in different areas of the world.
Gini, G. (2007). Associations among overt and relational victimization and adolescents’ satisfaction with friends: The moderating role of the need for affecting relationships with friends.
Journal of Youth Adolescence, 37, 812-820.
- This study focused on both relational and overtly victimized adolescents, in relationship to friendship satisfaction as well as a need for affective relationships. Findings showed that adolescents who reported more need for affective relationship reported the lowest levels of satisfaction when relationally victimized. This study will be helpful in my project because it offers previous research focusing on what relationally victimized individuals want out of their friendships, that they aren’t getting.
Greco, L., Freeman, K., & Dufton, L. (2006). Overt and relational victimization among children with frequent abdominal pain: Links to social skills, academic functioning, and health services.
Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 32:3, 319-329.
- This study found that children with frequent abdominal pain experience higher levels of victimization than their pain-free peers. This study’s interesting claims will be useful in my study as a supporting argument that physical outcomes may result from victimization as well.
Keyton, J. (2001).
Communication research: Asking questions, finding answers. Mayfield: Mountain View, California.
- This book offers guided approaches for different methodologies in communication research. I will use this source in my project because it offers reference when looking at implicit meanings in narratives.
Kumpulainen, K., Rsanen, E., Henttonen, I., Almqvist, F., Kresanov, K., Linna, S-L., Moilanen, I., Pih, J., Puura, K., & Tamminen, T. (1998). Bullying and psychiatric symptoms among elementary school-age children.
Child Abuse & Neglect, 22:7, 705-717.
- This study investigates the frequency of face-to-face bullying among elementary children. Findings describe negative relational outcomes as a result. This study will be helpful in my project because it looks at relational outcomes elementary children face after being bullied.
Lovaglia, M.J., Mannix, E.A., Samuelson, C.D., Sell, J., & Wilson, R.K. (2005).
Conflict, power, and status in groups. Theories of small groups: Interdisciplinary perspectives, 139-184.
- This book chapter investigates conflict, power, and status development within group behavior. It also discusses social power, as the ability to gain favorable outcomes at another’s expense. This resource will aid as reference in my deductive analysis of my project, as it also refers back to Weber and Marx’s definitions of conflict theory in terms of small groups.
McCroskey, J. C., & Beatty, M. J. (1998). Communication apprehension. In J.C. McCroskey, J.A. Daly, M.M. Martin, & M.J. Beatty (Eds.),
Communication and personality: Trait perspectives, 215-231.
- This article advances the communibiological paradigm, which suggests an alternative perspective for researchers to follow. It argues that the social learning paradigm, and theories created under this, account for little variance in human communication behavior. It also claims that people can change, and while some change a great deal, most people don’t change as much. I am including this source in my study because it provides a unique addition to why people act and communicate the way they do.
McCroskey, J. C., Daly, J. A., Richmond, V. P, & Falcione, R. L. (1977). Studies of the relationship between communication apprehension and self-esteem.
Human Communication Research, 3, 269-277.
- This study finds that individuals who approach conflict from an argumentative stance are seen as more credible, eloquent, creative, and self-assured, and are more likely to be viewed as leaders. It also defines destructive aggressive communication as hostility and verbal aggressiveness. I will use this in my study because it will aid in creating a link between aggressive communication acts of bullying, differentiating them between constructive and destructive.
Olweus, D. (1996).
The revised bully/victim questionnaire. Mimeo HEMIL Center. Bergen, Noway: University of Bergen.
- This article seeks to define bullying. Findings of this study reinforce that bullying is defined as an aggressive, intentional act or behavior that is carried out by a group or an individual repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself. This study will be beneficial in my project because it offers a concise definition of what bullying is thought to be based on previous research, and will serve as a base to create a definition based on what adolescents might see it as.
Pearce, M., Boergers, J., & Prinstein, M. (2002). Adolescent obesity, overt and relational peer victimization, and romantic relationships.
Obesity Research, 10:5, 386-393.
- This study's findings revealed that obese boys reported more overt victimization and obese girls reported more relational victimization compared with their average weight peers. Both boys and girls reported being dissatisfied with their dating status compared with average weight peers. This study will be useful in my project because it describes outcomes of victimization in relational form as well as overt form.
Putallaz, M., Grimes, C., Fosters, K., Kupersmidt, J., Coie, J., & Dearing, K. (2007). Overt and relational aggression and victimization: Multiple perspectives within the school setting.
Journal of Social Pschology, 45:5, 523-547.
- This study focused their sample on socio-metric status, ethnicity and gender among 4th graders, looking at victimization and outcomes. The findings presented that lower socially ranked girls were found to be the most relationally victimized. This study provides beneficial supporting research in my study in relation to different investigations of victimization among demographics.
Ramirez Jr., A., & Zhang, S., (2007). When online meets offline: The effect of modality switching on relational communication.
Communication Monographs, 74:3, 287-310.
- This study investigates the outcomes of switching communication contexts. Findings of this study yielded greater intimacy and social attraction than the other conditions in which face-to-face contact occurred. More specifically, context switching enhanced relational outcomes in early switching partnerships but strongly dampened those of late switching ones. This study will be useful in my project because it discusses the importance of communication context between face-to-face relationships vs. computer-mediated relationships.
Rancer, A., Avtgis, T. (2006).
Argumentative and aggressive communication: Theory, research, and application. Sage Publications, Inc.
- The book offers information and studies dealing with argument and aggressive communication, specifically talking about constructive aggressive communication and destructive communication. Differentiating the two is helpful in my study; it provides links to how aggressive communication messages can be used differently, and how they can cause different outcomes.
Schelling, T., (1960).
The strategy of conflict. Harvard University Press.
- This book discusses conflict theory, referring to research and development of the theory itself, as well as application. This resource will aid as reference in my deductive analysis of my project, as it also refers back to Weber and Marx’s definitions of conflict theory in terms of small groups.
Shariff, S. (2008)
Cyber-bullying: Issues and solutions for the school, the classroom and the home. Published by Routledge Inc.
- This book offers information and research dealing specifically with cyber-bullying, investigating teachers and administrators predispositions as well as tackling the issue of whose responsibility it is to monitor and control cyber-bullying. This book is a useful source for my study because it looks at current research involving cyber-bullying, as well as describes the struggle between adults and minors in addressing this complicated topic of digital literacy.
Slonje, R., & Smith, P. K. (2008). Cyberbullying: Another main type of bullying? Scandinavian
Journal of Psychology, 49, 147-154.
- This study investigates methods cyber-bullies use to bully others, including text message, phone calls, email, and picture/video. Picture/video category had the strongest negative relationship in the findings, as well as cyber-victims describe either telling no one, or one friend about the instance. Findings of the study are discussed in terms of a more traditional form of bullying however. I will use this study in my project because it offers description of cyber-bullying methods, but then interestingly compares the results to the traditional form of face-to-face bullying.
Whitney, I., & Smith, P.K. (1993) A survey of the nature and extent of bullying in junior/middle and secondary schools.
Educational Research, 35, 3-25.
- This study focuses on the frequency of face-to-face bullying, as well as looks at defining what bullying is. The definition in this study is consistent with findings in other studies, but will serve as a base to create a definition based on what adolescents might see it as.
