On the Influence of Gender and Age on Cyber Bulling - Research Proposal Example

? Research Proposal on the Influence of Gender and Age on Cyber bullying Table of Content Chapter a Introduction…………………………………………………………………..3 b.) Background of the Problem………………………………………………….3 c.) Statement of the Problem ……………………………………………………4 d.) Purpose of the Study……………………………………………………… …5 e.) Research Questions (State your null and research hypotheses) ………….....6 f.) Implications of the Question for Practice or Research …………………......7 g.) Limitations of the Study …………………………………………………….8 h.) Definitions of dependent Variable, Independent Variable, and the relevant Variable(s)...…………………………………………….………8 1.) Assumptions……………………………………………………….………… ....8 Part 3 Methodology a) Design of the Study ………………………………………….………………….9 b) Instrumentation …………………………………………………………………9 c) Method for Collection of Data ………………………… ………………………10 d Subjects and Sample Selection………………………………………………….13 e) Method for Analysis of Data (t test of mean Subjects differences)………………………………………………………………………..13 f) Procedures………………………………………………………………………14 g). References……………………..………………………………………………15 h). Appendix………………………………………………………………………16 Introduction The world has been undergoing persistent transformation. Some of these transformations have been attributed to the trending developments in science and technology. Hereunder, among many areas encompassing science and technology that have impacted on human lives, information technology has stood out. Indeed, information technology has changed the lives of people across the globe. Information technology has reduced the world to a global village through fostering of advanced forms of communication. However, with the advancements in information technology have arisen insecurity issues. Insecurity issues have in turn sparked far reaching implications to the users. In particularly, insecurity issues in information technology have been closely associated with internet usability. This comes when the usefulness of internet cannot be presently overemphasized. It is for this reason that information technology and security issues become critical. Important, though, have been the concerns on how to address these forms of insecurity. Background of the Problem The aspect on information technology that is paramount to this discussion is cyber bullying and how whether or not it is affected by age or gender. According to Hopeline (2011), cyber bullying has emerged to be the newest platform on which the youths are increasingly abusing each other. The more concerning issue is that there are currently no appropriate techniques that intervene for cyber bullying despite large numbers of kids who access the information technologies. Internet and cell phone communications have been cited as tools for Cyber bullying. According to Hopline, what appalls even more is that Cyber bullying occurs during kids’ class time. Hopline cites that cyber bullying has far reaching implications on kids, so that the victims (kids) of cyber bullying only feel safe when in their bedrooms. This clearly shows that it does not under all circumstances hold that cyber bullying causes physical harm. However, cyber bullying is mostly associated with causation of harmful emotional fallout which may cumulate to other far reaching consequences. It is factual that kids are major victims of cyber bullying. It is also true that cyber bullying is so rampant that it has extended into kids’ classroom. It is known that moral deviance among kids is to blame for rampant cyber bullying. Moreover, adults (such as the Megan Meier’s hacker) are part of cyber-bullies. It follows that parents should be outgoing in advising their kids. However, how can parents advice their children when lacking such important information as to how bullying varies with age or gender. This paper seeks to propose a research to be conducted for ascertaining the influence of age and gender on cyber bullying, or cyber victimization. Statement of the Problem The current problem understudy is cyber-bullying among or victimization among boys and girls in primary and secondary schools. Research has indeed shown that primary and secondary schools students are one group of persons who are at the worse rate of experiencing victimization and cyber bullying through mobile phones and internet. Once victimization and bullying arises, the best and most immediate thing to think about is coping mechanisms to combat the prevailing victimization. Cyber bullying and victimization has indeed been proved to be prevalent among boys and girls in both primary and secondary schools. According to Saunders (2003), both boys and girls are victimized equally. Looking at the fact they are students in educational cycles they are expected to use internets in their leaning process; thereby making them high risk agents of bullying and victimization. Ironically, combating the signs of cyber bullying has often been associated with sluggishness and lack of commitment by teachers and parents. This way, they keep suffering under the woes of bullying. Invariably, in their attempt to keep committing themselves to their studies, these youths turn out worsening emotionally. Purpose of the Study This will be a research work that will set out to among other things achieve a number of purposes. First, the researcher seeks to use this medium to examine the differences between boys and girls in incidences of victimization and cyber bullying while focusing on mobile phones and internet use. Secondly, the research shall be used to scrutinize the experiences of bullying in primary school. In this regard, the researcher shall examine the relationship between cyber bullying and change in age. In addition, the researcher shall investigate how bullying or victimization affects the child’s heath system. Furthermore, the research is going to be used as an avenue for conducting a comparative analysis of the risk factors associated with cyber bullying and its effects in terms of the age, gender, race, extra curricula responsibilities and family responsibilities that males in both primary and secondary school, involve themselves in. What is more, conscious efforts are going to be made to suggest preventive models that can be put in place to ensure that males in both primary and secondary school, in various educational institutions stay away from extreme stressors and burnout. Finally, the research shall have a purpose of identifying different cyber bullying coping mechanisms that can be put in place to help fight cyber bullying and its effects among males in both primary and secondary school, educators. The purposes outlined above are going to be the basis of this research work in several ways. For instance the purposes to be achieved will determine the general realization of the completion of the research work because the purposes need to be achieved before the research can be said to have been brought to a successful end. Again, it is going to determine the research questions with which the researcher will have to work with. Finally, the purposes outlined are going to determine the type of data to collect at the data collection stage of the research work. Research Questions The researcher has set out research questions in an attempt to identifying specific considerations to make in order to achieve the purposes outlined above. The research questions are said to have very close relation with the purpose of the study in the sense that the research questions are going to be tackled during research work. To this end, the following research questions shall be considered: Why is it important to understand the phenomena of bullying, victimization and cyber bullying? What are the risk factors associated with the causes of cyber bullying among boys and girls in primary and secondary schools? Who is more risk of victimization or cyber bullying, boys or girls? How different are boys and girls affected with victimization and cyber bullying? Is there any relationship between the extent of victimization or cyber bullying with age? Implications of the Question for Practice Successful completion of this research work will come with a lot of significance to a lot of people, especially primary and secondary students. First, data, results and conclusions from this research shall serve as updated literature on victimization and cyber bullying and their effects on children health system. The research findings will also be vital in exploring detrimental effects of victimization and cyber bullying on children health. To a large extent, this research shall help in coming out with new models on the type or kind of cyber bullying that boys and girls in primary and secondary schools experience as a result of their environmental conditions. The new trend of knowledge to be acquired shall indeed lead to a new paradigm shift whereby the knowledge shall be adapted for use and implementation by present and future policy makers. This is to say that the findings and conclusions from this research work will go a long way to shape the lifestyle, study habit and social structures of students in primary and secondary schools. This means that the policy makers, the government and all other relevant people who come across this document will have a renewed commitment towards the handling of cyber bullying and victimization issues. Finally, this research work is going to be a very useful medium for stakeholders in the educational sector to take very tangible decisions and come out with practical policies on ways of helping primary and secondary students fight victimization and bullying at school. Some of these practical policies may include the conduct of seminars and conferences for on vital topical issues like the effects of victimization on child’s health system. It could also include assigning mentors to offer support and guidance and the addition of cyber bullying free interventions to be enjoyed by all youths and students. Limitation of the study. This research would be limited to boys and girls in primary and secondary school. In this respect, primary and secondary school represent change in age while boys and girls represent gender. In consideration to this, the inclusion principle is boys and girls of primary and secondary school. While the exclusion principle is adults of ages above primary and secondary, as well as children below school going age. Dependent and Independent variables. The research this proposal seeks to suggest has cyber-bullying or cyber-victimization as the dependent variable while gender (boys and girls), and age (primary and secondary) as independent variables. This is in consideration that the study seeks to ascertain if changing gender or age, significantly affects cyber-bullying or victimization. In this regard, there is need to investigate if there is significance difference among boys and girls, as well as primary school students and secondary school students with regard to cyber-victimization. Defining relevant variables as variables that are under study and which are differ with different groups of the population, the relevant variables in this study include variables health of the boys and girls affected by cyber bullying, as well as health of the primary and secondary school boys and girls. Assumptions In this research, the assumptions are that ages of boys and girls at primary level and secondary levels differ such that primary level represent low age and secondary level represent higher age. Moreover, it is assumed that there are no other factors influencing cyber bullying of boys and girls other than their age and gender. Methodology This aspect of the research shall be dedicated to knowing the step by step approach that was used by the researcher to arrive at data collected. It is also for a reflection on the major steps taken to achieve the purposes set for this research work in the early chapters of the research report. To this end, the following components have been discussed. Research Design Saunders (2003) outlines six major research designs that can be used by researchers. The subsequent paragraph presents the procedure that would be followed to gain precise information for the study. The study would utilize a quantitative tactic which means that data analyzed and converted into numbers. In social sciences, quantitative research is used to refer to systematic investigation of a phenomenon through a computation technique. The aim of the quantitative research is to employ and come up with mathematical theories or models that pertain to the phenomena. Measurement processes are key elements as far as quantitative research is concerned since they provide fundamental connections linking mathematical expressions and empirical observations. A quantitative research design determines the relationship between two things (dependent and independent variable). Quantitative techniques help to realize how frequently some actions occur. In this way, researcher can locate easily the average behaviors and he can find more accurate results. Instrumentation The instrumentation simply refers to the mechanism of data collection. In all, the researcher would make use of two major research instruments. These are the cyber bulling index, and questionnaire. It must be emphasized that the selection of these research instruments are based on the need to get both qualitative and quantitative data for the research. However, the two named research instruments best helped in the collection of quantitative data (Parkes, 2006). This is because they all deal with data that can be quantified on a given scale. For instance if respondents answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on a questionnaire, the data can easily be quantified into x number of yes and y number of no. The same is true for the other research instruments selected. One other important consideration is that two different orientations of research instruments were selected in order that the kind of data to be collected will vary. Seeing that there are various outlined purposes of this research, it is just appropriate that the means of data collection become wide and varied. Methods for collecting data In this study, surveys would be employed. Generally, surveys entail a representative research whereby, data collected from a group of people is generalized for a wider population base (Olweus & Endresen, 1998). For this research, therefore, the researcher will make use of the data that collected from the sample size to represent the wider idea as it exists among all males in both primary and secondary schools, within the surrounding area of the research and beyond. Because conclusions from surveys are generalized, it is always important to ensure that the selection procedure for the sample size is very fair and well represented. It is for this reason that the surveying sampling procedure will be used by the researcher. Again, it is important to make the scope of population wide so that there will be variety in variables. It is for this reason that the researcher shall use large sample. Even more, the conclusions from a survey can well be considered representative if the sample size is large enough. To this effect, the researcher shall use all boys and girls in both primary and secondary school. In order to gather information for analysis purposes, the questionnaire shall be employed. The use of questionnaire is for the collection of other forms of questions related to boys and girls in primary and secondary school. The questionnaire (Appendix A) will actually be used to cover wider range of questions and they will not be restrictive on particular tone of questionnaires (Mason, 2008). The questionnaire shall be attended to by respondents through writing. The questionnaire shall contain both open ended and close ended questions. Due to the size of the sample size however, a lot of the questions shall be closed ended to enable easier analysis and handling of the data. Close ended questions do not demand that respondents give answers from their own discretion (Mason, 2008). Rather, respondents are supposed to answer questions by choosing from among suggested options of answers. Examples of closed ended answers are ‘yes’, ‘no’ ‘agree’, disagree’, ‘always’, ‘often’ and so on. The questionnaires shall be given to the respondents with a deadline, by which time they are to submit the questionnaires. This means that the respondents shall be at liberty to answer questions in their own free will. The questions shall be answered anonymously. In this case, the ‘Daphne Questionnaire’ would be used to examine bullying and cyber-bullying experiences among boys and girls in primary and secondary schools. This questionnaire shall consist of fifty four questions. The first part shall consist of questions about children’s race, gender and place they live. The children will be expected to respond to some questions concerning their parents’ jobs. The third part shall consist of eighteen questions and it shall be titled ‘About yourself’. This part shall have a ray of questions. They shall all be intended to find out if they felt okay about how good students they are, if they are happy about how much their family loves them and if they are the kind of person they want to be. The respondents shall have four options as responses to the questions. These are strongly disagreeing, disagree, agree, and strongly agree. Part four of the questionnaire shall be about how children feel concerning their family, as well as other people. This section shall consist of eleven questions. The questions would be about how often children parents showed real interest on them or how they felt concerning their friendships. The responses options shall include never, hardly ever, sometimes and often. The fifth part of the questionnaire shall consist of eight questions. These questions would be about how children feel about their school. Other questions shall be about their relationships with the teachers or their classmates. Children shall be expected to answer from a scale to yes usually, yes sometimes and no. The sixth part of the questionnaire shall have six questions divided such that three of questions to be directed to bullying experiences with the other three to indirect bullying. Other questions, in this section, shall be meant to inform the researcher if children had never been bullied, or had bullied others. Additionally, other questions shall investigate the bullies, the victims and the witnesses. In respect to this, children shall be expected to select one of the following answers: 1. I do not have any experience of been bullied, bully someone or seen someone been bullied, 2.Only happened once or twice, 3. It happened two or three times a month, 4. It happened once a week, 5. It happened several times a week or more. The last two parts shall refer to cyber-bullying and internet. Basing on this section questions, most of them shall be quite similar to the bullying part. However, they shall have separate questions for bully, victim and witness incidents. After this the students shall be expected to fill a table with seven questions referring to incidents for example: wetting the bed, having nightmares, having a poor appetite. They shall have to choose from five options: never, once or more since September 2011, once a month or more, once a week or more and most of the days. In the end they will be expected to mention how many days in total they had been absent from school in the last six months and how many of these days were due to illness and which due to holidays. Method for Analysis of Data In this study, t test of mean differences shall be the most applicable statistical method for analyzing data. This is because the t-test is more often than not used in determining whether the difference between the two means is significant. For this case, the t-Tests statistical method is widely used by most researchers for making comparison of the mean values of the numeric outcome for two groups. Clearly, it is most suitable for this study given that it shall be used to calculate the means for boys and girls and for making the comparison to ascertain if they differ significantly in regard to cyber-bullying. It shall also be used to calculate the means of boys and girls at secondary and primary school. This will help ascertain if the means ages of boys and girls differ significantly. Subjects and Sample Selection The sample shall be a handy percentage out of the total population size to be built. The population on the other hand refers to all people who have some level of possibility of becoming part of the sample size. In common terms, the sample size is referred to as respondents (Nansel et al, 2001). This means that they are people from whom the researcher collects data directly. It is always important to build a sample size for data collection when there is a very large population to deal with. Presently, the population of the research comprises of boys and girls in both primary and secondary school. It would be seen that this population presents a very large number of people whom the researcher will have to deal with. With the sample size, the researcher will now be dealing with a number that is quite manageable and not out of the control of the researcher. In this research, the sample consists of sixty five students. Thirty two of them will be primary students while thirty three will be secondary students. In the primary sample, seventeen students shall be males while fifteen shall be females. On the other hand, in the secondary sample, sixteen shall be males and seventeen shall be females. PROCEDURE This procedure shall be conventional to the guidelines of the Ethics of a University. Before starting the process of handling the questionnaires to the children, letters shall be sent to parents and to head-teachers, describing the nature of the study. These letters will serve the purpose of informing them about the content of the questionnaire. The main aim additionally, shall be to confirm about the confidentiality of the study. In this respect, parents shall sign the parental consent forms as an approval for their children to participate in the study. In this regard, they shall have one week deadline to send them back to the researcher. It shall also be required that teachers and head-teachers approve the study. This, therefore, necessitated that this researcher inform them about the study, the collection of data, and the process to be followed and about the privacy of the questionnaires. It is also worth noting that teachers will be informed that they will be present during the process of the survey and if they have any objection that need be discussed with the researcher. After the collection of the consent forms, the questionnaires shall be handed out at them by the researcher at the schools. The researcher shall present this study in the classroom and explain the questions that the children need to answer. Children shall be informed about the confidentiality of their answers. In addition, the researcher shall inform them that they can withdraw their participation whenever they want and they do not need to apologize for this. References Hopline. (2011). Cyber Bullying. Retrieved on 8th Oct, 2012 from http://bubbiosity.tumbir.com/post/ Mason, K.L. (2008) Cyberbullying: a preliminary assessment for school personnel, Psychology in the schools, 45(4), pp. 323-348. Nansel, T.R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan, W.J., Simons-Morton, B. & Scheidt, P. (2001) Bullying behaviours among US youth: prevalence and association with psychological adjustment. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285, pp. 2094-2102. Olweus, D. & Endresen, I.M. (1998) The importance of sex-of-stimulus object: Age trends and sex differences in empathic responsiveness. Social Development, 3, pp. 370-388. Parker, T. (2012). Ugly toll of technologies. Forgetfulness and Impatience. a href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packagehtml/technology/20100607/index. Saunders, K. (2003). "College student’s academic online learning: reviews of current literature." College Learning 42.1 (2011): 89. Retrieved on 8th August, 2012 from http://go.galegroup.com/ps?id=GALE%7CA275852053&v=2.1&u=s8492775&it=r&p=AONE&w=w Appendix A DAPHNE Questionnaires: About you, your school and cyberbullying These questionnaires are confidential and no one in your school will know what you have answered. It is also anonymous, so please don’t put your name on it. If you do not want to answer any questions, then leave them out, but we would be most grateful if you could answer as fully as possible. You do not have to complete the questionnaires if you don’t want to and you can withdraw your data at any time. Please answer the following questions as truthfully as you can. Questionnaire 1: About you This questionnaire will tell us about you, your family background, and how you feel about yourself. First some questions about you. Q1: Are you a Boy/Male or a Girl/Female?  Boy/Male  Girl/Female Q2: How would you describe your ethnic origin? White Black or Black British:  British  African  Irish  Caribbean  Other European community  Any other black background  Any other white background (Write here)................................... (Write here).................................... Mixed Asian or Asian British  White and black Caribbean  Indian  White and black African  Pakistani  White and Asian  Bangladeshi  Any other mixed background  Chinese (Write here).....................................  Any other Asian background (Write here)....................................  Any other ethnic origin  I do not wish to record my ethnic group (Write here)....................................... About your family: Now some questions about your parents’/carers’ education and jobs. Q3: What is the highest level of education that your parents/carers have reached? Mother/Female carer:  primary  secondary  Higher Education (university/college) Father/Male carer:  primary  secondary  Higher Education (university/college) Q4: What are your parents’/carers’ jobs? What is your father/male carer’s job? (Write here).................................................................................... What is your mother/female carer’s job? (Write here)................................................................................ How you feel about yourself: For each question, choose the one answer that best describes how you feel about yourself. There are no right or wrong answers - just give your honest opinion. Please cross the appropriate box for each question. Q5: I am happy with the way I can do most things  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q6: I am as good a student as I would like to be  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q7: I am happy with the way I look  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q8: I am as good at sports/physical activities as I want to be  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q9: I am as good as I want to be at making new friends  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q10: I am doing as well on school work as I would like to  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q11: I like my body just the way it is  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q12: I like being just the way I am  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q13: I feel OK about how well I do when I participate in sports/physical activities  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q14: I get along as well as I would like to with my family  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q15: I feel good about my height and weight  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q16: I am happy about how many different kinds of sports/physical activities I am good at  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q17: I am as well liked by other people my own age as I want to be  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q18: My family pays enough attention to me  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q19: I am the kind of person I want to be  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q20: I feel OK about how good a student I am  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q21: I feel good about how well I get along with other people my own age  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree Q22: I am happy with how much my family loves me  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Agree  Strongly agree How you feel about your family and other people: For each question, choose the one answer that best describes how you feel about your family and other people. There are no right or wrong answers - just give your honest opinion. Please cross the appropriate box for each question. Q23: My parents make time to pay attention to me  Never  Hardly ever  Sometimes  Often Q24: When I am lonely, I feel bored  Never  Hardly ever  Sometimes  Often Q25: I feel abandoned by my friends  Never  Hardly ever  Sometimes  Often Q26: I want to be alone  Never  Hardly ever  Sometimes  Often Q27: I feel left out by my friends  Never  Hardly ever  Sometimes  Often Q28: I like being on my own  Never  Hardly ever  Sometimes  Often Q29: My parents are ready to listen to me or to help me  Never  Hardly ever  Sometimes  Often Q30: When I am lonely, I don’t know what to do  Never  Hardly ever  Sometimes  Often Q31: My parents show real interest in me  Never  Hardly ever  Sometimes  Often Q32: Time drags when I’m on my own  Never  Hardly ever  Sometimes  Often Q33: I feel sad because I have no friends  Never  Hardly ever  Sometimes  Often Q34: At home I am looking for a moment to be alone, so that I can do things on my own  Never  Hardly ever  Sometimes  Often Questionnaire 2: About your school This questionnaire will tell us how you feel about your school. Your school: Please write here. Q1: School: ............................................................................................................................................................ Q2: Year: ............................... Q3: Age: ......................years...................months How you feel about your school: For each question, choose the one answer that best describes how you feel about your school. There are no right or wrong answers - just give your honest opinion. Please cross the appropriate box. Q4: Do you feel that your school is a happy and caring school?  Yes, usually  Yes, sometimes  No Q5: Do you feel safe at school?  Yes, usually  Yes, sometimes  No Q6: Does your school seek and listen to the opinions of pupils?  Yes, usually  Yes, sometimes  No Q7: Do you have good relationships with most of the teachers in your school?  Yes, usually  Yes, sometimes  No Q8: Do you trust most adults in your school?  Yes, usually  Yes, sometimes  No Q9: Do you have good relationships with the other students in your class?  Yes, usually  Yes, sometimes  No Q10: Do you have good relationships with the other students in your school?  Yes, usually  Yes, sometimes  No Questionnaire 3: About bullying and cyberbullying This questionnaire will help us find out how you use new technologies (mobiles and the internet) and how you get on with each other in and out of school. Please answer the following questions as truthfully as you can. First, some general questions about mobile phones and access to the internet. About mobile phones and access to the internet: Do you have a mobile phone?  Yes  No Do you have any computers linked to the internet in your home? (For this question you can cross several answers)  No, we don’t have a computer linked to the internet in our home  Yes, in my room  Yes, in the living room  Yes, elsewhere: where? (Please write here).................................................................................... Now we want to ask you some questions about your experiences of bullying and cyberbullying but it is important to be clear what these words mean. Bullying is behaviour carried out by an individual, or a group, which is repeated over time in order to hurt, threaten or frighten another individual with the intention to cause distress. It is different from other aggressive behaviour because it involves an imbalance of power which leaves the victim defenceless. Cyberbullying is a new form of bullying which involves the use of mobile phones (texts, calls, video clips) or the internet (e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms, websites) or other forms of information and communication technology to deliberately harass, threaten, or intimidate someone. We would like to know about your experience of bullying and cyberbullying wherever it happens, in or out of school. About bullying: First, we’d like you to answer some questions on traditional types of bullying. The next five questions are about direct forms of bullying, which include: hitting, tripping up, taking belongings name calling and taunting (perhaps about race, gender, sexuality or disability) to someone in person, face to face Remember, this does not include cyberbullying. Q1: Have you been directly bullied in the last two months?  I haven’t been directly bullied in the last two months  It has only happened once or twice  Two or three times a month  About once a week  Several times a week or more Q2: Have you directly bullied someone in the last two months?  I haven’t directly bullied anyone in the last two months  It has only happened once or twice  Two or three times a month  About once a week  Several times a week or more Q3: Have you seen or heard of anyone else being directly bullied in the last two months?  I haven’t seen or heard of anyone else being directly bullied in the last two months  It has only happened once or twice  Two or three times a month  About once a week  Several times a week or more The next five questions are about indirect forms of bullying, which include: telling lies or spreading false rumours about someone behind their back sending mean notes to try and make someone disliked excluding someone from a social group on purpose Again, this does not include cyberbullying. Q4: Have you been indirectly bullied in the last two months?  I haven’t been indirectly bullied in the last two months  It has only happened once or twice  Two or three times a month  About once a week  Several times a week or more Q5: Have you indirectly bullied someone in the last two months?  I haven’t indirectly bullied anyone in the last two months  It has only happened once or twice  Two or three times a month  About once a week  Several times a week or more Q6: Have you seen or heard of anyone else being indirectly bullied in the last two months?  I haven’t seen or heard of anyone else being indirectly bullied in the last two months  It has only happened once or twice  Two or three times a month  About once a week  Several times a week or more About cyberbullying: The next questions are about your experiences of cyberbullying. First, we will ask you about bullying through mobile phone use and then we will ask you about bullying using the internet. About mobile phones: Examples of bullying using a mobile phone are: sending or receiving upsetting phone calls (e.g. malicious prank calls) taking, sending or receiving unpleasant photos and/or videos using mobile phones (e.g. happy slapping) sending or receiving abusive text messages by mobile phone Q7: Have you been bullied through mobile phone use in the last two months?  I haven’t been bullied through mobile phone use in the last two months  It has only happened once or twice  Two or three times a month  About once a week  Several times a week or more Q8: Have you bullied anyone else using your mobile phone in the last two months?  I haven’t bullied anyone else using my mobile in the last two months  It has only happened once or twice  Two or three times a month  About once a week  Several times a week or more Now, a few questions about witnessing/seeing other people being bullied by mobile. Q9: Have you seen or heard of anyone else being bullied through mobile phone use in the last two months?  I haven’t seen or heard of anyone else being bullied through mobile phone use in the last two months  It has only happened once or twice  Two or three times a month  About once a week About the internet: Now, we need to know if someone has bullied you using the internet. Examples of bullying through the internet are: Malicious or threatening emails directly to you, or about you to others Intimidation or abuse when participating in chat rooms Abusive instant messages (MSN, Yahoo, AIM etc) Websites where secret or personal details are revealed in an abusive way or where nasty or unpleasant comments are being made. Examples of websites are: Social networking websites (myspace, facebook, bebo, piczo etc) File sharing websites (YouTube, flickr etc) Blogs (blogger, blogspot, LiVEJOURNAL etc) Q10: Have you been bullied on the internet in the last two months?  I haven’t been bullied on the internet in the last two months  It has only happened once or twice  Two or three times a month  About once a week  Several times a week or more Q11: Have you bullied anyone else using the internet in the last two months?  I haven’t bullied anyone else on the internet in the last two months  It has only happened once or twice  Two or three times a month  About once a week  Several times a week or more Now, a few questions about witnessing/seeing other people being bullied on the internet. Q12: Have you seen or heard of anyone else being bullied on the internet in the last two months?  I haven’t seen or heard of anyone being bullied on the internet in the last two months  It has only happened once or twice  Two or three times a month  About once a week  Several times a week or more Comments: this last section is for you to write what you think about cyberbullying. Q13: Do you have any comments or suggestions or stories about cyberbullying? (Please write here) ........................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. Psychosomatic and Health Questionnaire We would be grateful if you could spend a few minutes filling in this short questionnaire about your health and school attendance since September 2011. Child’s code/ID:_________________________ Age: _____ years Office use only ID _ _ _ _ _ _ Section 1 Since September 2011 how many times have you complained of: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 or more 1 Headache 2 Tummy ache 3 Sore throat / ear ache, etc 4 A cold / cough 5 Feeling sick (nausea) 6 Breathing problems (e.g., asthma) 7 Skin problems (e.g., eczema) 8 How often was the illness bad enough not to go to school? never sometimes often always Did you made up these illnesses? Information sheet (please keep this): Thank you for taking part If you have a problem with bullying, cyberbullying or anything else mentioned in the questionnaire that you have just completed, then you can talk to your teacher or head teacher who will be able to help. If you do not feel comfortable talking to someone in school, then you could talk to your parents, and they can come with you to talk to a teacher about the problem. It is important to remember that bullying happens to lots of people, and you are not the only one that this happens to. There are people in your school and in organizations who can help you. Line SOS 1056 child’s smile, it is open 24 hours and you can call whenever you want. You will have the opportunity to talk with psychologists who could help you for free. It will not be needed to give any personal information. Non-profit registered association ‘the mentor’, for child’s protection and prosperity. It offers counseling and telephone support to adults, children, parents and teachers about school bullying and child abuse. The support is free and confidential as there is anonymity. Moreover you can find more information at www.mentoras.org . Advisory Centre for Social and Child Support in Ilion city. Adress: Agias Elenis & Plithonos Gemistou, Palatiani Ilion, 13121. Read More