Competency 4: Engage In Practice-Informed Practice

In 2014, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) did a study on bullying and the found that 19.4% of all the students interviewed had been bullied at school. This may not seem very surprising, bullying has been going on for decades. Generations of men and women have come to fear the people who walk the halls, stealing lunch money from those weaker than them. However, it is interesting to note that 14.8% of that 19.4% had reported being cyber bullied. Unlike the standard physical bullying, cyberbullying is a slightly more recent development, but it has evolved to become much more deadly. It gives bullies a better tool for creating more widespread pain. The awareness for cyber bullying needs to increase and ultimately, cyberbullying needs to be abolished completely due to its destructive capabilities.

1. This article was written based on a study of cyber bullying behaviors in a large group of middle and high school students. Increases in technology, and access to that technology have increased student ability to bully using an online forum. Not a lot of research had been done into this subject at the time of this article. Taking this into consideration there had been a few large scale studies done that corroborated the belief that cyber bullying is a significant problem. Researchers believed that due to the potential for exposure to this type of bullying, more studies needed to be done. With increased research there was the hope of diminishing the number of incidents of cyber bullying and the effects of those incidents. The research that had been completed also pointed to additional issues, including behavior problems, suspensions, substance abuse and depression among students who had experienced cyber bullying. The other side of previous research showed that the students who used cyber bullying as a weapon were more aggressive in their behaviors.

Social workers have a responsibility to provide effective services to clients. Practitioners utilize many theories, approaches, and interventions to ensure that the client’s needs are met. These tools are not chosen at random, much consideration is put into which theoretical framework or intervention a practitioner will employ. In order to provide a clear rationale for the tools utilized a practitioner must employ evidence based practice. The definition for evidence based practice is a comprehensive process (Katsikis, 2014, p. 260). According to Aveyard and Sharp (2013), evidence based practice encompasses several principles (p. 6). One principle of evidence based practice is ensuring our rationale is succinct, up to date and based on the best

Jose, P. E., Kljakovic, M., Scheib, E., & Notter, O. (2011). The Joint Development of Traditional Bullying and Victimization With Cyber Bullying and Victimization in Adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 22(2), 301-309. doi:10.1111/j.1532-7795.2011.00764.x

Hinduja, SK, Patchin, JW (2014). Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. 2nd ed. California: Corwin.

As a developing social worker, it is understood that the process of becoming a competent practitioner is endless. Therefore, it is important to engage in methods that extend my learning; preparing me to effectively advocate for clients in the future. The methods that will be important in extending my learning is diversifying my professional activities, researching and gathering information to assess clients’ situations, and seeking personal therapy. Engaging in these activities will not only improve how I advocate for clients but will help me understand the community/environment around me and how it affects myself and others.

“Cyberbullying is reported as an aggressive, intentional act distributed by an individual or group, using contact in an electronic medium, continuously and relentlessly against someone who cannot stand up for himself or herself easily”(Davison & Stein, 2014) With social media being so popular, bullies now have many avenues in which they can attack their victims, research shows that adolescents spend up to 17 hours a week on the internet, some children even up to 40hrs a week. (Davison & Stein, 2014) This is an

Please find the attached report for my research, “Cyberbullying is Whack, Keep Your Kids on the Right Track.” This report discusses the highly controversial topic of kids bullying other kids behind computer screens, tablets, and cell phones. The findings of the report discuss three different possible solutions as you will find I list facts found throughout research as well as recommendations to possibly correct the epidemic that is spreading across the word one child at a time.

Cyberbullying and the issues surrounding it within a particular middle school setting. While cyber bullying may be viewed as just another type of bullying, and the study focused on the issues that complicate the issue of cyber bullying and the possible approaches to minimizing the effects of cyber bullying. Cyberbullying victims predicted more favorable attitudes toward cyberbullying perpetration, more favorable attitudes toward cyberbullying predicted higher intentions to cyberbullying and higher cyberbullying intentions predicted more frequent perpetration of cyberbullying behaviors. The study revealed the impact of cyberbullying to the academic performance of the BSIT 3 students of Bukidnon state University External Study Center, Gingoog

Research oriented scholars in the field of social work have been concerned with the inadequacies of the use of research with practitioners (Rubin & Parrish, 2007). Social workers have tended to rely on supervisors and authorities for guidance in their practice instead of utilizing research studies (Mullen & Bacon, 2004). In recent years, evidence based practiced has been the latest attempt to bridge the gap between practice and research in social work education (Rubin & Parrish, 2007). Students of social work education will need to be able to comprehend research articles, analyze their faults, and utilize them in practice.

Cyberbullying has been considered to be as worse than traditional bullying as it relates to its effects on the victim. The distinction being mostly accredited to some precise feature that are supposed to differentiate cyberbullying from traditional bullying: an amplified possibility to seek out a larger audience, an amplified potential for anonymous bullying, lesser levels of direct response, reduced time and space bounds, as well as lesser levels of regulation.

Studies show that adolescents are the most prevalent group of people affected by cyber-bullying, they have also shown mixed findings about the correlation between age and cyberbullying. (Carter, Wilson, 2015.) Wang, Lannotti, and Nansel (2009) “found no differences in the cyberbullying among 9th and 8th graders, and fewer self-reports of cyberbullying among 9th and 10th graders.” Williams and Guerra (2007) found that “engagement in internet bullying increased from 5th to 8th grade, and then declined slightly among high school

According to a study done by the University of British Columbia about 25 to 30 percent of adolescents have admitted to taking part of or experiencing cyberbullying and a staggering 95 percent of adolescents claimed that what happened online was meant to to be a joke and not harmful. Rather than traditional bullying that have characteristics like aggression, a need for power/control, and proactively targeting the victim cyberbullying does not. Research shows that cyberbullying is done impulsively this is why there has been such a quick rise of this form of bullying. Cyberbullying also affects victims differently. Where as traditional bullying ends when the victim leaves school cyberbullying follows the victim in their personal life. This often leads to the victim being forced to deal with it alone because it is a part of their personal social

I. Introduction II. What is bullying a. Different types of bullying III. Cyberbullying a. Cyberbullying Research Center b. Studies c. Legal Issues i. Failed attempts IV. Controlling Cyberbullying a.

The goal of the research reports is to compare and contrast the effects of cyberbullying against those of traditional bullying. The research finds that cyberbullying does have the same effect as traditional bullying, but to a greater extent. Reviewing the research also shows that there is a connection between cyberbullying and traditional bullying. This review of literature is organized by the methodology of the research reports.