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Open Access Knowledge and Scholarship

Date of Award

5-2013

Culminating Project Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Criminal Justice: M.S.

Department

Criminal Justice

College

School of Public Affairs

First Advisor

F. Barry Schreiber

Second Advisor

Stephen Hennessy

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Keywords and Subject Headings

Cyberbullying, Bullying, Parental Involvement, Youth, Teens

Abstract

In a society where 77% of youth aged 12-17 own a cell phone and 95% have access the internet (Lenhart, Ling, Campbell, & Purcell, 2010), American families are quickly discovering the consequences of adolescent abuse of their electronic and virtual environments. A research study completed by Hinduja and Patchin (2010) revealed that "cyberbullying victims were 1.9 times more likely and cyberbullying offenders were 1.5 times more likely' to have attempted suicide than those who were not cyberbullying victims or offenders" (p. 208). These researchers further discovered that these risks of suicide increased when certain external factors existed. Those factors included academic difficulties, low self-esteem, and a lack of a support structure. When considered in combination with research revealing that adolescents who feel they lack parental support when experiencing emotional and/or school concerns will exhibit poorer school adjustment, lower self-esteem, and lower identity integration (Ryan, Stiller, & Lynch, 1994), one could conclude that parental involvement in various aspects of their child's life would greatly impact their child 's experiences with cyberbullying. This study focuses on parental involvement in their child's use of electronic devices, academics, extra-curricular activities, and the child's perceived level of emotional support from his or her parent.

Comments/Acknowledgements

Without question, I could not have completed my master's degree without the love and support of my family. A special thank you to my husband, Eric Stottlemyre, for occupying our two boys when I needed to do school work. I would also like to thank Dr. Barry Schreiber for advising me during this journey and for your encouraging remarks. Big thanks to Randal Kolb and Kristin Brietzke in the statistics department for having such patience with me as I tried to make sense of the data.

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