Analyze an Article About the Impact of Trauma in Education

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https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-018-0207-y

SPECIAL ISSUE INTRODUCTION

Cyberbullying Experiences Among Marginalized Youth: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go Next?

Guadalupe Espinoza1 · Michelle Wright2,3

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

Abstract Cyberbullying experiences are a social and health concern that many children and adolescents are facing in their day-to-day lives. One limitation of cyberbullying research is that studies have predominately focused on the experiences of youth from majority groups (i.e., European-American youth living in the U.S.). This limitation is addressed by focusing on cyberbullying involvement, both as victims and perpetrators, among marginalized groups. Specifically, studies examining cyberbullying among youth with disabilities and from ethnic, cultural and sexual minority backgrounds are presented. Furthermore, sug- gestions for future research on cyberbullying experiences among youth are outlined, namely taking into consideration the intersectionality of various identities and the identification of factors that may protect vulnerable children and adolescents from the pain of being victimized online.

Keywords Cyberbullying · Marginalized youth · Disabilities · Ethnic minorities · LGBTQ youth

Introduction

In the last decade there has been a steady increase in the number of studies focused on youth’s experiences with cyberbullying, both as perpetrators and victims. Impor- tant strides have been made in better understanding not only the prevalence rates but also the factors that influ- ence the likelihood and consequences of involvement in cyberbullying. As a result, numerous studies have shown that cyberbullying, like school bullying experiences, are robustly related to maladjustment among youth. A limita- tion of research on cyberbullying is that studies have largely focused on the experiences of youth from majority groups (i.e., European-American youth living in Western countries). Thus, many questions remain unanswered when it comes to

understanding cyberbullying among youth from marginal- ized groups. For example, to what extent do ethnic minority youth, such as Latino adolescents experience cyberbully- ing and what factors buffer them from the pain of being targeted? What is the long-term impact of being targeted online for young adults who stutter? For youth with a dis- ability, to what extent are they able to detect the presence or absence of cyberbullying? To address some of the gaps in the field, this special issue builds on the existing literature on cyberbullying and expands it to cover the phenomenon among youth who are marginalized and whose experiences have been largely understudied. Specifically, we present a set a studies that examine cyberbullying experiences among youth with disabilities, from ethnic and cultural minority backgrounds and youth who identify as LGBTQ.

What We Learn from the Contributions of the Special Issue

In total, eight papers are included in this special section focused on understanding the perpetration and victimiza- tion experiences among marginalized youth. The first three papers focus on the experiences of youth with disabilities. Similar to traditional bullying, early research on cyberbul- lying among youth with disabilities has shown that children

* Guadalupe Espinoza [email protected]

Michelle Wright [email protected]

1 Department of Child and Adolescent Studies, California State University, Fullerton, 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton, CA 92831, USA

2 Penn State University, State College, PA, USA 3 Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

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with particular disabilities may have a greater likelihood of being involved in cyberbullying (e.g., Blake et al. 2012; Kowalski and Fedina 2011) and as such, more research is needed to understand their experiences. These three studies compare prevalence rates between youth with and without a disability, identify protective factors, and consider the long- term impact of being involved in cyberbullying for youth with disabilities.

Specifically, in the first article, Kowalski and Toth (2018) examine the prevalence and correlates of cyberbullying per- petration and victimization among adolescents and emerging adults, ages 16 to 20, with and without disabilities. Regard- less of disability status, adolescents and emerging adults reported cyberbullying victimization, with the highest rates reported among individuals with disabilities. No significant differences were found for cyberbullying perpetration for either group. Kowalski and Toth suggest tailoring cyberbul- lying prevention and intervention programs to group char- acteristics as such characteristics might increase the risk of cyberbullying victimization. In an article focusing on ado- lescents with autism spectrum disorder, Wright (2018) found that high levels of parental mediation of technology use and social support made the association between cyberbullying victimization and depression weaker among adolescents. She concludes that perceived social support and parental mediation of technology use reduce the risk of experienc- ing cyberbullying victimization and the associated depres- sive symptoms. Consequently, Wright argues for additional research focused on investigating the protective factors for reducing the negative consequences resulting from experi- encing cyberbullying. Finally, Nicolai et al. (2018) focus on examining the differences in the psychological effects of cyberbullying among: (1) adults who stutter and who were also cyberbullied as adolescents, (2) adults who stutter and who were not cyberbullied as adolescents, (3) adults who do not stutter and who were cyberbullied as adolescents, and (4) adults who do not stutter and who were not cyberbullied as adolescents. Overall, this retrospective study of cyberbul- lying victimization suggests that there are long-term impli- cations (e.g., greater levels of depression) of experiencing cyberbullying, and that these effects could possibly continue into adulthood.

The next five articles focus on the cyberbullying experi- ences among youth from ethnic, cultural and sexual minor- ity backgrounds. The “digital divide” that limited inter- net and cell phone access to only more affluent, majority groups has now largely diminished, and although there may be some difference in how groups use their devices (Tsetsi and Rains 2017), the ability to connect online, and subsequently be targeted online, is now a concern among most children and adolescents. Therefore, there is a need to examine the links between cyberbullying and internalizing symptoms, compare prevalence rates between majority and

minority youth, and identify protective factors for youth from ethnic and cultural minority backgrounds. Focus- ing on comparing the mental health symptoms based on minority or non-minority status, Duarte et al. (2018) find- ings revealed that sexual minorities experienced greater mental health symptoms when compared to non sexual minorities.

Comparing ethnic majority and minority youth, Barlett and Wright (2018) found that the relationships between cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying perpetra- tion as well as relational victimization and cyberbullying victimization were significant for majority adolescents but not for ethnic minority adolescents, whereas physical bullying perpetration and cyberbullying perpetration were associated for minority adolescents only.

In an article focused on identifying friendship factors that may protect Latino youth from the pain of being bul- lied online, Espinoza’s (2018) findings suggest that time spent with friends reduces the association between cyber- bullying victimization and distress, anger, and attend- ance problems. Similar patterns were found for friendship quality, however, friendship quality only attenuated the link between cyberbullying victimization and feelings of distress. Focusing on yet another understudied group of youth, Broll et al. (2018) study the association between traditional bullying and cyberbullying involvement and depression, anxiety, and stress among Canadian indig- enous adolescents. After accounting for age and gender, cyberbullying victimization was associated with greater reports of anxiety and stress while including traditional bullying victimization in the analysis, suggesting a unique contribution of experiencing cyberbullying.

Concluding this special section is a literature review authored by Abreu and Kenny (2018) that includes 27 stud- ies among LGBTQ youth conducted in the United States, Canada, Australia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Find- ings revealed that cyberbullying victimization of LGBTQ adolescents ranged from 10.5% to 71.3%. LGBTQ adoles- cents who experienced cyberbullying victimization reported more suicidal ideation and attempts, greater depression, lower self-esteem, physical aggression, body image prob- lems, isolation, and lower grade point averages. Based on the findings from the review, the authors make recommenda- tions that may be particularly salient to protect youth who identify as LGBTQ.

Overall, the manuscripts included in this special issue highlight the importance of focusing on cyberbullying and the associated mental health issues among marginalized youth. These studies also highlight the need for research to move beyond comparison of the cyberbullying prevalence among marginalized and non-marginalized youth, and instead for research to focus on the diverse cyberbullying experiences of youth.

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Recommendations for Future Research on Cyberbullying Among Marginalized Youth

As cyberbullying research continues to extend the popula- tion of youth who are studied and examine cyberbullying experiences among youth with disabilities, who identify as an ethnic minority, as LGBTQ, and/or who live in a non- Western country, there are still important gaps that need to be addressed. One such gap is the dearth of studies exam- ining the intersectionality of various group memberships (e.g., gender, ethnicity, generational status) and how this may uniquely shape youth’s experiences with cyberbully- ing. For example, it is not only important to test whether boys or girls are more likely to be victimized online, but also consider whether that boy or girl identifies as Asian- American or Black and how their ethnicity may intersect with gender to play a role in their likelihood of being tar- geted. Another gap is the identification of factors that may protect youth who are a part of marginalized groups and experience cyberbullying. That is, from multiple past stud- ies it is well recognized that being the victim of cyberbul- lying is associated with a host of maladjustment problems such as school absences, distress, and even suicidal idea- tion (e.g., Bauman et al. 2013; Espinoza 2015; Juvonen and Gross 2008; Wright 2015), yet, currently there are few studies that aim to identify family, peer or school factors that may serve as a buffer in the links between cyberbul- lying and maladjustment.

An Intersectional Approach

Currently, most studies examine cyberbullying among marginalized youth by focusing on one part of their iden- tity in isolation, such as examining the frequency of cyber- bullying involvement among LGBTQ youth compared to heterosexual youth or studying the impact of being vic- timized online among Latino youth. Although this has been an important first step in extending research from focusing more exclusively on experiences among White, middle-class youth, we now need research to explore how different identities intersect within an individual and how these intersecting identities impact youth in terms of the likelihood of being involved in cyberbullying, and also the consequences of such involvement. For example, Kowalski and Toth (2018) found that adolescents with a disability were significantly more likely to report victimization expe- riences online. However, they did not examine if those differences may be amplified based on the adolescent’s gender or ethnic background. That is, perhaps the risk of being victimized online is even greater for adolescents

who both have a disability and are from an ethnic minority group. Intersectionality research recognizes that multiple identities coexist and may fuse together in unique ways for individuals.

The research on intersectionality among children and ado- lescents lags compared to research among adults (Ghavami et al. 2016). However, there are some studies that have started to tackle the challenge of taking into account numer- ous identities and their intersection in the study of cyber- bullying. In a study focused on examining the prevalence of cybervictimization, Stoll and Block (2015) hypothesized that the extent to which ethnicity is predictive of cyberbul- lying involvement among high school students may depend on their gender and sexuality. The results revealed that gen- der and ethnicity did intersect. Specifically, among students of color, rates of cybervictimization did not differ based on their gender, but among white students, it was female students who were most likely to be victimized online. Although no intersection of ethnicity and sexuality was found, the results reveal how the intersection of gender and ethnic identities may impact victimization rates. In a differ- ent study among adolescents that also examined the intersec- tions of ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, the results showed that when examining the intersections of these iden- tities in the associations between bullying (school and cyber) and suicidal ideation, it was sexual orientation that most robustly put adolescents at the greatest risk of suicidal idea- tion (but did not intersect with ethnicity or gender; Mueller et al. 2015). Thus, these two studies differ in their results on the extent to which an adolescent’s ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation intersect to impact bullying.

Overall, the limited studies in the area show mixed results, but as this is an area in its nascent phase, more stud- ies are needed to understand and account for how mutual and simultaneous identities play a role in cyberbullying among youth. It will certainly be challenging for research that uti- lizes an intersectionality framework to take into account the various and complex identities relevant for children and ado- lescents, but it is important to note that in their day to day lives, there are some identities that may be more relevant, especially within the online context. Thus, researchers will need to consider the unique aspects of both the online con- text and their particular sample to identify the intersecting identities that may be most critical to capture.

Identification of Protective Factors

As the research on cyberbullying among youth from marginalized groups continues to grow, so does the evi- dence that across all groups, youth who are victimized online fare worse compared to youth who do not expe- rience victimization. For example, in a study among Asian and Pacific Islander high school students, reports

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of cyberbullying increased the likelihood of substance use and suicide attempts (Goebert et al. 2011). Kowalski et al. (2016) found that being cyberbullied was especially linked to low self-esteem and greater depression among college students with a disability. Moreover, research in this special issue highlights how LGBTQ youth who are cyberbullied report a number of psychological, emotional, behavioral and academic problems (Abreu and Kenny 2018), and that Indigenous adolescents in Canada who are cyberbullied report higher levels of anxiety and stress, over and above the impact of school bullying (Broll et al. 2018). Thus, given our growing understanding of the ways in which youth are impacted by cyberbullying and given that this may be further complicated given the challenges they face as members of marginalized groups, it is impor- tant for future work to test and identify factors that may protect youth from the pain of being victimized online.

In the current issue, some strides are made towards filling this gap with Wright (2018) identifying that both parental mediation of technology use and social sup- port weakened the positive link between cyberbullying victimization and depression among youth with autism spectrum disorder, and Espinoza (2018) finding that time spent with friends protects Latino adolescents from the anger, distress, and attendance problems that result from being bullied online. Given differences in culture, abil- ity, context and a number of other factors that may differ among youth from various marginalized groups, a pro- tective factor for one group may not necessarily be pro- tective for another group of youth. For example, it could be hypothesized that family closeness and support may serve a greater protective role for victims of cyberbullying from collectivistic backgrounds (e.g., particular Latino or Asian backgrounds) where the role of family is particu- larly emphasized (Fuligni et al. 1999). Given that LGBTQ youth tend to first come out to their friends before their parents and other family members (Savin-Williams 1998), then when they are victimized online, peer and friendship support may be more protective against negative outcomes than family support. Thus, more research is needed to test and identify the factors that will protect youth from the pain of being cyberbullied, as this will be paramount to the continuing development and improvement of interven- tion programs to help victims of bullying, especially those youth who may be the most vulnerable. In conclusion, understanding the cyberbullying experiences among mar- ginalized youth that is presented in this special issue and furthermore, future research extending this research area will help educators, social workers and policy makers as we all work towards addressing this important problem of cyberbullying that many children and adolescents are facing in their day to day lives.

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