Cyberbullying VS Traditional

Bullying?
Which one is more harmful to your
students?
Haley Lambert ~ Shayla Beavers

Dr. Donald Duran

6400 Uptown Blvd. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87110
Servicecenter@aps.edu
Anti-Bullying Institute
Parchment Blvd. NW
Albuquerque, NM 87114
March 2, 2016
Dear Dr. Duran,
One of the most serious problems in many Albuquerque Public Schools today
would be the problem of bullying, both on and off electronic devices. Over the last
couple decades, cyberbullying has started to become a major problem across the United
States taking thousands of lives each year. In this report, I have extensively researched
the effects of cyberbullying and traditional bullying, and how they can affect a students
life and schoolwork. At the Anti-bullying Institute, a nationally acclaimed organization
against bullying, we strive to make learning environments of all kinds safe and
controlled to allow for a better experience for all.
The report enclosed will not only list the research that I have done in the city of
Albuquerque, but reports from all over the nation on how the different forms of bullying
are able to effect a student, not only in middle school and high school, but also how
those effects are able to transfer into college.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
HaleyLambert
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Introduction
In todays society, we have a lot of normal occurrences in our everyday lives for some
this is bullying. In the past, this form of harassment has been tossed to the side and considered
unimportant. In the last decade, the seriousness of the issue is starting to show through. Bullying
has turned from a form of teasing into a serious issue that is taking the lives of many youth.
Throughout this report we will look at the
differences and similarities between the two,
and the different affects they have on a victim in
their everyday lives.
There are several different types of
bullying, but one of the main and most common
forms would be cyberbullying. This is when
someone is attacked through electronic use,
rather than the traditional form of bullying,
which is a face-to-face encounter. One of the
main arguments surrounding bullying today is
which type of harassment has more affect on the victim, traditional bullying or cyberbullying?
Different forms of bullying have been occurring for centuries, and it can take place in and out of
the learning environment. One of the places where all forms of bullying are most prominent
would definitely be middle school and high school. Over the last few decades, thousands of lives
have been lost just in these two environments all across the globe, and the number rises with

each passing day. Many studies have been done about the different forms of bullying, and the
two most common types are traditional and cyber bullying.
Although, in the past, traditional bullying, which is where the attacker is physically
confronting the victim in someway. There has been a new form of bullying that has taken root in
our society. This is cyberbullying, which is the use of electronic devices to attack or harass. This
form of the bullying is fairly new to our society, although it is rising in popularity. Bullying has
been a problem taken lightly over the years, but in the past decade, we have seen a rising climb
in suicides and depression growing among youth and young adults because of bullying. Many
states are becoming aware of the seriousness of bullying and the affects it can have on a student.
Many schools have put policies into place that are meant to prevent bullying, but it has proven
unsuccessful. We will compare traditional and cyberbullying and how they are able to affect a
students daily life and schoolwork. We will also be looking at how these different forms of
bullying affect the students of different regions New Mexico, mainly in the city of Albuquerque.
Methods
For our research report, my partner and I had found several different scholarly articles
from not only the UNM library website, but also from Google Scholar. One of these articles was
Assessing Concerns and Issues about the Mediation of Technology in Cyberbullying by
Wannes Heirman and Michel Walrave. Much of the article was comparing cyberbullying to
traditional bullying. The article really focused a lot more on cyberbullying and its affect rather
than offline bullying.
Another great article was A Study of the Perceptions of College Students on
Cyberbullying by John Molluzzo and James Lawler. This article focused more on the affects of
cyberbullying on college students and outcomes that cyberbullying can have throughout their

lives. One of the major website that we found that included a lot information and statistics about
New Mexico was stopbullying.gov. The information on this site allowed us to understand a lot
more about the effects of all type of bullying on students in the New Mexico region. From this
site is lead us to many other commendable articles such as, The Relationship Between Bullying
and Suicide which goes into deeper detail about the how bullying can affect suicide, and
different ways that they are able to influence each other in school and the workplace.
The UNM Library was great source for peer-reviewed journal about the different forms
of bullying, although a lot of the articles that we found through the library were either national or
worldwide, but still had very helpful information. To find statistics we used a couple different
creditable websites including the Center of Disease Control for bullying prevention (CDC), and
Pacers National Bullying Prevention Center. Both of these sites had accurate statistics available
to us that, for the most part, matched in dates and information.
The people that I interviewed were two teachers, Connie Blue and Thomas Merrill. The
reason I chose teachers, instead of students, for interviews is because even though the students
are one those that are bullied. It can be very difficult to get the information I need from victims,
because of embarrassment or the comfortableness of talking of the event. When you talk to
teachers, you are talking to someone who has seen the affects and outcomes of bullying in a
learning environment, which is one of the main focuses of this study.
During the course of the interviews I asked several question including:

Which is worse, traditional bullying, or cyberbullying?

How would you describe traditional bullying?
Do you think all type of bullying affect how students perform in school?
Which one, out of traditional bullying and cyberbullying affects the student more?

For the surveys, there were 35 participants, all anonymous for their own privacy. We had
them answer several questions in form of yes and no questions, multiple-choice questions, and
an open-ended question. List below are the questions that was asked for each survey.

Have you been bullied before?

When did this bullying occur?
Do you know what cyber bullying is?
Have you been cyber bullied?
If yes when did this occur?
Do you think bullying can affect performance in school?
How do think bullying will affect victims?
Limitations
The limitations that we had for this report were that we were unable to interview in

different schools all across the state, or Albuquerque. Although information was able to be
collected through a couple different schools from the Albuquerque region, we were unable to
reach a lot of the areas we had hoped too. We also found that there are was commendable
statistics about bullying in only New Mexico, all of our secondary research data is from national
websites.
The survey website that we used was very limited and didnt have as many of the feature
as other survey site and it only allows very simple data analysis. The survey was also shared
through personal social media, would give the limitation of the population of the survey only
being high school, and college students and the age range between fifteen and twenty four, given
who took the survey.

The Results

Some of the results that my partner and I found for this project would include the survey
results and the interviews. I have included a detailed list of the questions and answers of each of
the interviewers. Also below is an in-depth analysis, including graphs, of the results of the
surveys that were taken for this report. First, the answers to the interview questions, the
interviewees limited to Connie Blue and Thomas Merrill.
Question One
The first question, Which is worse, traditional bullying or cyberbullying? Both teachers
had different opinions about this question. In Connie Blues interview, she replied that,
Cyberbullying is much worse then traditional bullying because it is hard to run from in our
technological world. Also, cyberbullying allows the attacker to have no consequences, over the
Internet or an electronic device they are able to be anonymous. She had also mentioned about
traditional bullying, that even though it is one of the main forms of bullying, it has become fairly
easy to control especially in the school system. Cyberbullying although it is becoming a major
problem, it has is fairly new and has not developed fully yet, but if we dont take it seriously it
many lives could be lost to cyberbullying in the coming decades.
During Thomas Merrills interview, I asked him the same question and he replied with the
opposite of Connie Blue. His answer stated that, Traditional bullying, because of the large
physical aspect, along side the mental damage it is able to cause to a student. Mr. Merrill also
stated that Cyberbullying is a problem in our society, it is hard to control and easily assessable.
Another summarization that Mr. Merrill made was, schools should attempt to deal with a
problem that are in their power and control and that includes traditional bullying.

Question Two

The second question, How would you describe traditional bullying? Ms. Blue answered
this in a very simple and to the point manner, she stated that It is a way for someone to
physically, mentally, or emotionally attack someone, whether they go to school with them or not.
Mr. Merrills answer was very similar in context, stating, That traditional bullying was a way
for students to attack each emotionally and physically. The reason for asking this question was I
wanted to compare the teachers views of traditional bullying and how they both perceived it
through the eyes of a middle school/high school teachers.
Question Three
The third question, Do you think all type of bullying are able to affect how a student
performs in school? The reason I asked this question was more for the teachers view of how
bullying can affect a students work. Connie Blue replied with, Yes, definitely. Especially here
at our school, we are able to pick up fairly easily if someone is having trouble with any type of
bullying in school, because of how low their grades are able to drop in a short amount of time.
Some other thing that she had mentioned were that bullying can cause a student to become
distracted, stress, or depressed which can also have a major effect on their school performance.
Mr. Merrills answer was fairly similar; he spoke about more about the traditional
bullying side of how it can affect their school performance. When asked this question his reply
was, Yes, especially face-to-face bullying which can not only emotional or mental damage, but
physical damage to the student as well.
Question Four
The fourth and final question I asked for the interview was, Which one, out of
traditional bullying and cyberbullying affects the student more? Connie answer for this question
was, Both are very difficult for a student, but I would say cyberbullying has to most affect

because students take what is said online and through email very seriously, especially when it is
something negative being said about them. Mr. Merrills reply was the opposite of Ms. Blues.
He stated that, Traditional is worse, especially if its physical, it can resonate with the students
for long periods of time. Other things that Mr. Merrill mentioned during his interview were how
mentally damaging both type of bullying can be, and how they are able to damage a student for
the rest of their life.
Figure 1

Next are the survey

results, which include several
different questions. Our first
question, Have you been
bullied before? 80% said yes
and 20% said no, as seen in
Figure 1 above. This is not surprising, considering the overwhelming majority that face different
forms of bullying throughout their lifetime.
The next question, Have you ever been cyber bullied before? had quite surprising results with
only 29% saying that they have been cyber bullied before, and a large amount 71% say they have
never been cyber bullied as seen in
Figure 2 to the right.
The third question we asked
was, When did this bullying occur?

Figure 2

The results for this question were 55%

said middle school, 32% stated high
school, and 8% said college as seen in Figure 3. It is understandable how middle school is one of
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the leading places for all types of

bullying; there is a lot of change
happening during this time, which can
lead to aggression and a sense of
insecurity (Hase, 609).
The last question that was asked

Figure 3

was Do you think bullying can affect

performance in school? The information received from this graph was surprisingly even with a
total of 12 saying yes it does, 9 stating no, and 12 saying they dont know as seen in

Figure 4

Figure 4 to the below. At the end of the survey we included the question, How do you think
bullying will affect the victims? This was to understand how some of the surveyors felt about
the subject of bullying and the different types of bullying in our society.
Here are a few of the open-ended responses
that we received:

Itruinsselfesteemandapersons
viewofthemselvesoverall.Italso
makesthosewhoaredepressedeven
moredepressed,soitcanleadto

dangerousconsequences.
Ifeelthatcyberbullyingwillaffectvictimsinoneoftwoways:eithertheywilltakeitas
ifitweremeredisconnectedwordsonascreenwhichtheymightbeoffendedby,butnot
growdistraughtover,ortheywillviewitasapersonal,liferuiningattack,leadingto

10

depressionandwhatnotsimilartooffscreenbullying.Withtheincreaseduseof

technologyinthecominggenerationIwouldoptforthelatter.
Forsensitivepeople,itbreaksthemdownanddestroystheirselfesteemandgeneral

wellbeing.
SuicideduetocyberbullingwasabigdealwhileIwasinhighschool,butasidefrom
that,Ithinkcyberbullyingcanbedetrimenttoacademicperformance,physicaland
emotionalhealthandwellbeing.
Some of the most interesting results that were found in the secondary research included

that most of traditional bullying is prominently done by male, well cyberbullying is a mix
between the two genders (Waggoner, 16). Even though traditional bullying is mostly male, there
is still the large amount of females that will bully or be bullied through the traditional form.
These results also show the seriousness of cyberbullying, and how bullying can be affected by
genders, races, sexual orientation, etc. to both the bully and the bullied in a situation.
Another major argument that can be made when comparing cyberbullying and traditional
bullying that was found in our secondary research is the argument saying cyberbullying is just an
extension of traditional bullying (Beran, 15-16). After looking through several different articles
and using our own gathered data, we have come to the conclusion that cyberbullying truly is its
own form of bullying. It can be hard to compare the two because of the major differences
including how the attacker harasses the victim; and there is no consequence (for cyberbullying)
versus traditional bullying where it can be controlled. Both types of bullying can be harmful,
possibly at one point cyberbullying could have been an extension of traditional bullying, but
definitely in the past decade cyberbullying has turned into its own type of bullying that can be
just as harmful as traditional bullying.

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Discussions
When looking back on the research question, Comparing cyberbullying and traditional
bullying which one is more prevalent in school and how do both impact the student?The results
of the research have found that well traditional bullying can be more prominent in some schools
and regions across New Mexico; cyberbullying can have a greater and long-lasting impact on a
students life and their school competence. This form of bullying is much more serious because it
is able to follow the students home, compared to traditional bullying which can only take place at
school a controllable environment. Social media and the Internet is a dangerous place that is not
in anyway a controllable environment,
cyberbullying is becoming a greater problem as
the Internet grows. Although there may never be
a way to fully stop bullying, there is a way to
lessen to affect it has on students and their
schoolwork.
Prevention, although easy to state can be
hard to follow through, to help prevent
bullyings effects, it takes talking to students at
a young age. They have to understand the
seriousness of the issue at a young age, if not,
they wont be able to comprehend when they are
older that other lives matter and what they say or do can affect other on a massive scale. This is
probably one of the easiest ways to help prevent all types of bullying, communication. Many
schools and organizations attempt to use this way to prevent different forms of bullying, but it is

12

not being taken seriously. Other ways could include not allowing users to be anonymous on
certain social media sites, and for there to be more serious consequence when caught
cyberbullying or traditionally bullying someone. Bullying, although it cant be prevented, we
must teach students how to not let it affect them, and how to let the attackers see that someone
else is on the line when they harass someone, whether it be a face-to-face confrontation or
through a screen.
Conclusion
In conclusion, bullying has many different effects on a student, both in their home and
school life. It has caused countless death over the decades and the number is continuously
growing. In New Mexico, like many other states, our statistics of bullying have doubled over the
last few decades. Through his report, we have found that even though traditionally bullying is
still one of the leading ways for students of all ages to be bullied, cyberbullying is a dangerous
threat that is quickly becoming more common in our society.
In New Mexico, we have many different help websites, organizations, and telephone
numbers including ones like the Agora Crisis Center, which offers help to for a large amount of
problems, including bullying. All forms of bullying are issue that should not be taken lightly.
Every student deserves the chance to have a bright success future; to have that taken away
because of harassment, not only degrade our society, but the morals of the community around us.

Works Cited
Articles
Aricak, Osman Tolga, and Ahmet Ozbay. "Investigation Of The Relationship Between
Cyberbullying, Cybervictimization, Alexithymia And Anger Expression Styles Among
Adolescents." Computers In Human Behavior 55.(2016): 278-285. Academic Search
Complete. Web.
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Beran, Tanya, and Qing Li. "The Relationship between Cyberbullying and School Bullying."
Journal of Student Wellbeing 33rd ser. 1(2).15 (December 2007). Web.
Copeland, William E., PhD, Dieter Wolke, PhD, Adrian Angold, MRCPsych, and E. Jane
Costello, PhD. "Adult Psychiatric Outcomes of Bullying and Being Bullied by Peers in
Childhood and Adolescence." JAMA Psychiatry 70.4 (2013): n. pag. Web.
Gahagan, Kassandra, J. Mitchell Vaterlaus, and Libby R. Frost. "College Student Cyberbullying
On Social Networking Sites: Conceptualization, Prevalence, And Perceived Bystander
Responsibility." Computers In Human Behavior 55.(2016): 1097-1105. Academic Search
Complete. Web.
Heirman, Wannes, and Michel Walrave. "Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on
Cyberspace." Assessing Concerns and Issues about the Mediation of Technology in
Cyberbullying (2008). Web.
Hase, Craig N., Simon B. Goldberg, Douglas Smith, Andrew Stuck, and Jessica Campain.
"Impacts Of Traditional Bullying And Cyberbullying On The Mental Health Of Middle
School And High School Students." Psychol. Schs. Psychology in the Schools 52.6
(2015): n. pag. Web.
Molluzzo, John C., James P. Lawler, and Pascale Vandepeutte. "Perceptions of Students on
Location-Based Privacy and Security with Mobile Computing Technology." Data Mining
in Public and Private Sectors Organizational and Government Applications 28.1633
(2011). Web.
Waggoner, Charles R. "Cyber Bullying: The Public School Response." Insights To A Changing
World Journal 2015.1 (2015): 2-20. Academic Search Complete. Web.
Websites
"Bullying Statistics." Institute of Education Sciences: National Center for Education Statistics.
U.S Department of Education, 2015. Web.
"New Mexico Anti-Bullying Laws & Policies." New Mexico Anti-Bullying Laws & Policies. U.S
Department of Health & Human Services, Web.
Agora. N.p., 2015. Web http://www.agoracares.org/
Interviews
Blue, Connie. Personal Interview. 26 February 2016.
Merrill, Thomas. Personal Interview. 26 February 2016.

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Anonymous, Personal Interview. 23 February 2016.

15

Appendix
Below are the rest open-ended answers for our survey questions.

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