A pilot study exploring students’ use of social media – a proactive approach to cyberbullying

This report presents the findings from the questionnaire stage of a research study which explored links between the frequency with which young people use a range of digital social networking media and the behaviours they engage on these media at different levels of relationships. The overall aim of the research was to map young peoples’ socialising strategies on digital media in order to help practitioners have a clearer understanding of what is going on when faced with issues which might be interpreted as cyberbullying. This will help inform decisions about the most appropriate interventions needed to respond to these issues and help young people communicate more safely on these media.
The research was carried out during September 2014 using online questionnaires in two secondary schools and a youth organisation in Sussex. 686 questionnaires were retrieved. Within these retrieved questionnaires, 543 were completed. A significant proportion of the remaining questionnaires were half completed with identical series of questions unanswered towards the second half of the questionnaire. Perhaps, large cohorts of young people completing questionnaires in lessons ran out of time.
The behaviour categories used in this research emerged from Edwards’ (2013) – a research project exploring the behavioural and linguistic dimensions of 300 young people’s relationship building strategies in physical sites over 18 months (See appendix 1). The findings are summarised first and then data is presented in tables. These findings will be used to guide further focus group research in January and February, which will gather further data in order to help develop a safer communicative environment on digital media.