Online Harassment Occurs Largely Among Friends

A new study has revealed that when that harassment occurs online, the victims tend to be in mainstream social groups at the school - and they are often friends or former friends, not strangers.

One may think that victims of school bullying are mostly isolated youth who do not fit in.

Bullying by Peers Makes Victims More Vulnerable to Mental Health
A recent study suggests that bullying by peers changes the structure surrounding a gene involved in regulating mood, making victims more vulnerable to mental health problems as they age.

The research is part of a burgeoning field of study into the effects of social media on everyday relationships and behavior.

Some statistics indicate that as many as 160,000 students a year skip school just to avoid being harassed, and texting and social media are making it easier than ever to harass classmates. Victimization from schoolmates has been correlated with everything from depression and anxiety to thoughts of suicide and struggles with academics.

To study so-called "cyber-aggression" - harassment that occurs online - Diane Felmlee of the Pennsylvania State University and Robert Faris of the University of California, Davis, studied 788 students at a preparatory school in Long Island. They mapped the students' social network structure relative to online harassment: asking students to name their close friends, which schoolmates they have picked on or been mean to, and which schoolmates had picked on them.

Nearly 1 in 3 Children With Food Allergies Experience Bullying: Study
According to a recent study, nearly a third of kids who are diagnosed with food allergies are bullied.

What they found was that cyber-aggression occurs in the mainstream of the school and largely among friends, former friends, and former dating partners. They also found that non-heterosexual students were more likely to be the victims.

Examples of the types of harassment found online were posting humiliating photos, texting vicious rumors, posting that a student is gay and making fun of him, and pretending to befriend a lonely person.

Australian PM Tries to Offer Solutions for Cyber-bullying
To fight cyber-bullying, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has urged social media giant Twitter to sign up to new guidelines.

"Cyber-aggression occurred most often among relatively popular young people, rather than among those on the fringes of the school hierarchy," Felmlee said.

"Those engaging in cyber-aggression also were unlikely to target strangers but often were in close relationships with their victims at one point in time, close enough to know how to harm them," she added.

Bullying in Children - Tips For Teachers and Parents
Bullying is a harmful action (physical or psychological) carried out by a child against another. It is usually repetitive and unprovoked.

The researchers found that some of the processes that contribute to aggression in school include jockeying for status, enforcing norms of conformity, and competing for girlfriends or boyfriends.

The research was presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) annual meeting today in New Orleans.

Source-ANI