Date of Award

6-2015

Document Type

Project

Degree Name

Master of Social Work

Department

School of Social Work

First Reader/Committee Chair

Shon, Herb

Abstract

Cyberbullying (CB) has been a growing concern that has affected students, parents, and professionals in significant ways.One of the main professionals that have been affected by CB are school social workers. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify what social workers need to know about CB. This study used a qualitative study design because we wanted to obtain an in-depth examination of CB views and beliefs.Data was gathered from 8 middle school teachers, a school principal and a school counselor from a public school in the western region of the United States.In the study participants were interviewed with ten questions focusing on CB. This study’s findings indicated 10 major themes which are the following:almost all participants were able to provide examples of CB occurring in the social networking website Facebook, more than half of all participants could not name any specific CB school policies or laws,the majority of all respondents had distinct views of the protocol for reporting CB,more than half of all the participants had different views of CB symptoms,the respondents were split in half on their beliefs of CB occurring more than traditional bullying,almost all participants believed that this public elementary and middle school took CB seriously, almost all of the teachers were uncertain whether CB was a problem at this public elementary and middle school, almost all of teachers had different ideas for preventing CB, almost all middle school teachers had different ideas for what helping professionals should know about iv CB, almost all teachers suggested different ideas for social workers to prevent CB. Future research should include training for school professionals on how to address CB as our results found that most participants were uncertain as to what to do and thus would be better able to provide suggestions for what social workers should know on CB.

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