Bullying and cyberbullying in a modern school

Introduction. One of the aspects of digitalisation of education is the transfer of interpersonal relations and group processes into a virtual environment. Bullying, one of the biggest problems in school communities, is also relevant when communicating on the Internet. The danger of both bullying and cyberbullying is that the bullying processes can be hidden from the eyes of adults, which makes it difficult to counteract, because from the outside the situation may seem favourable. For the same reason, the scope of the phenomenon needs to be assessed and clarified.

Aim. The current research aimed to investigate students’ subjective perceptions of the manifestations and experiences of bullying and cyberbullying in educational and online environment.

Methodology and research methods. To study the problem, a questionnaire was developed to identify the type and form of participation in school bullying and cyberbullying. The questionnaire survey was carried out among 1762 middle-level students of educational organisations of general secondary education and secondary vocational training in Ekaterinburg and the Sverdlovsk region.

Results. The presence of both school bullying and cyberbullying in the educational organisations of the Sverdlovsk region was revealed. The most common forms of both types of persecution and distribution by type of participation were identified. Distribution in school bullying: victims – 35.5%, instigators – 15.7%, ordinary participants – 11.5%, witnesses – 42.0%. In school cyberbullying: victims – 20.4%, aggressors – 7.7%, instigators – 4.7%, ordinary participants – 6.4%, witnesses – 20.4%. The transformation of school bullying in the digital space preserves the structure, types of participation, but adapts the forms of bullying and the degree of involvement of the participants. It can be argued that the involvement in cyberbullying (in all roles) is lower than the involvement in school bullying. The research results make it possible to start a study of the dependence of the forms and motivation of the persecutors on the space, in which these relations are realised.

Scientific novelty. The present research demonstrates a cross-cutting comparison of various forms of bullying and cyberbullying in school communities, recorded in representatives by different forms of bullying (victim, stalker, witness).

Practical significance. The questionnaire proposed in this paper can be used for the further analytical research on bullying and cyberbullying in school communities.

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