Research Question and Variables
The main question that the proposed research aims to address is to identify the underlying causes of cyberbullying among adolescents and the main factors that need to be considered when developing prevention strategies. The independent variables are the age, background, and social status of respondents, and the dependent variables include their engagement in cyberbullying and factors that influence their social media behavior. For the purpose of this research, cyberbullying is defined as the aggressive pressure and repeated harmful actions towards an individual inflicted through electronic devices, including posting, sending, or sharing negative or wrong information (Peled, 2019). The focus of the research is placed on bullies rather than their victims.
Methods
An anonymous online questionnaire will be used to collect information about adolescent cyberbullying behavior. The questionnaire will be designed based on the similar surveys used in the studies by Akrim and Sulasmi (2020), Shams et al. (2017), and Peled (2019). It will include a section on participants’ demographic characteristics, including age, background, and social status, and several sections on their social media behavior and factors of influence.
Particular attention will be given to questions related to the reasons behind bullying as perceived by bullies themselves. The questions will concern emotions experienced by adolescents who engage in cyberbullying, their motives, desired outcomes of their behavior, and the selection of victims. The results of the survey will be processed and interpreted using quantitative research techniques, description analysis, and correlation analyses.
The reliability and validity of the questionnaire will be determined through a pilot test with a limited number of participants. Due to the sensitive nature of the research, anonymity will be used to ensure that the respondents give honest answers. According to the study by Flowers et al. (2020), which first used an anonymous online survey to access the adolescent population, “anonymous responses might reflect more honest reporting and be higher correlated with measures of actual behavior” (p. 3). The limitations of the method are connected with the inability to verify the demographic information and the possibility of inaccurate self-report data.
Population of Interest
The population of interest is high-school students between 14 and 18 years who engage in cyberbullying behavior. No specific requirements are made regarding their gender and ethnicity. The questionnaire will be distributed online, and the respondents will be invited to participate voluntarily. With the focus of the research being placed on bullies rather than victims, the first question of the survey will be “Have you ever engaged in cyberbullying?” and a positive answer will be required to continue.
Procedures
The selected research method requires an Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. It will be obtained in accordance with the standard procedure, which includes completing the Mandatory Online Certification for Researchers and the Research Project Application and preparing the Informed Consent Document (“Institutional Review Board”, 2018). An Informed Consent Document will be provided to participants prior to the research, explaining the purpose of the study and promising to protect their identity.
With the study being conducted anonymously among adolescents, a waiver of parental consent is required for ethical reasons. Parental content significantly limits the researcher’s ability to gather anonymous data and negatively affects the quality of responses (Flowers et al., 2020). According to Flowers et al. (2020), if students are asked to provide their parents’ contact details, they “will not answer truthfully or might opt out of the survey to avoid the consequences” (p. 2). With a waiver of parental consent, the participants will only need to provide their own consent to the research.
References
Akrim, A., & Sulasmi, E. (2020). Student perception of cyberbullying in social media. Talent Development & Excellence, 12(1), 322–333.
Flowers, J., Marr, D., & McCleary, D. (2020). Bullying prevalence: An online survey of adolescents. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 1–14. Web.
Institutional Review Board. (2018). Bellevue College. Web.
Peled, Y. (2019). Cyberbullying and its influence on academic, social, and emotional development of undergraduate students. Heliyon, 5(3), Article e01393. Web.
Shams, H., Garmaroudi, G., & Nedjat, S. (2017). Factors related to bullying: A qualitative study of early adolescent students. Iran Red Crescent Medical Journal, 19(5), Article e42834. Web.