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Cyberbullying by Adolescents: A Preliminary Assessment
Educational Forum, The, Fall 2005 by Strom, Paris S, Strom, Robert D
Low self-esteem is sometimes given as an explanation for why bullies frighten or intimidate peers. However, research does not support this opinion. In fact, a strong relationship exists between inflated self-esteem and violence. Studies have determined that individuals with unrealistically high self-concepts often violently attack others who dare to challenge their self-impression. In addition to bullies, this troublesome group includes racists, gang members, persons with ties to organized crime, rapists, and psychopaths. Attacks on these individuals' self-esteem can be counterproductive and even dangerous. Interventions that concentrate on self-control rather than self-esteem might prove successful (Baumeister and Vohs 2003).
Everyone should experience a positive self-concept, but sometimes it is in a person's best interest to be ashamed of his or her behavior, even if the misconduct did not result in disapproval from others. Self-evaluation is a key factor in developing maturity, yet students rarely get to practice self-assessment in school or receive healthy criteria that they can apply. Middle and high school students identified as cyberbullies might benefit from being part of cooperative learning teams in which peer and self-evaluation are applied to provide anonymous feedback about social skills. The Interpersonal Intelligence Inventory (III) provides individual student profiles of feedback from peers and compares team observations of performance with self-impressions (Strom and Strom 2002).
(4) What changes occur as a result of participation in rehabilitation programs? Students who abuse peers are not making satisfactory progress in their social development. Therefore, rehabilitation programs for these students should be field-tested to ensure that they provide participants with:
* opportunities to practice self-evaluation skills and get anonymous peer feedback;
* empathy-building exercises to find out how others feel, and training in how to respect others' feelings;
* examples of civil ways to cope with frustration and conflict that result from everyday relations;
* activities that require patience, self-restraint, and nonviolent anger expression;
* self-direction by setting goals with reasonable criteria for evaluating improvement;
* awareness of how social and emotional growth impact adjustment and satisfaction;
* realization that getting good grades cannot make up for social relations that fail because of mistreatment of others; and
* acceptance of responsibility for personal misconduct instead of blaming others.
Skeptics may doubt that classes are the best method for helping cyberbullies. Those who oppose classes argue that singling out students for remedial instruction is degrading and might lead to lawsuits from parents. The concept of rehabilitation, however, calls for improving behavior by applying corrective instruction. Helping adolescents to overcome social skill deficiencies and emotional immaturity is likely to become a more prominent expectation in the mission of secondary schools. This is more developmentally appropriate than only imposing punishment (Strom and Strom 2003).
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