Urban Middle School Students' Perceptions of Bullying, Cyberbullying, and School Safety

This study examined 427 urban middle school students' perceptions of bullying, cyberbullying, and school safety utilizing the Student Survey of Bullying Behavior-Revised 2 (Varjas, Meyers, & Hunt, 2006 Varjas, K., Meyers, J. and Hunt, M. H. 2006. Student Survey of Bullying Behavior – Revised 2 (SSBB-R2), Atlanta, GA: Georgia State University, Center for Research on School Safety, School Climate and Classroom Management. Google Scholar). A unique finding is that cyberbullying may represent a unique modality of victimization and bullying compared with other school-based modalities. Cyberbullying and relational bullying were not associated with perceived school safety. Males reported more physical victimization, verbal victimization, and verbal bullying, and less relational victimization. Males and older students reported feeling safer at school. Older students reported less physical, verbal, and relational victimization, and less physical and verbal bullying. Importantly, physical, verbal, and relational bullying and victimization may represent more general underlying constructs of bullying and victimization, calling into question the distinctiveness of individual forms.