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    1. Social Harm
    2. Psychological Harm

Results

Table 2 presented the descriptive statistics of measures utilized in the current study. Among 823 cyberbullying victims aged 12 to 18 in public and private schools in the United States, approximately 24 percent of students expressed experiencing some level of social harm (26 percent of females; 20 percent of males), while approximately 19 percent experienced some level of psychological harm (22 percent of females; 15 percent of males). The current data contained 66 percent of white students compared to other races, and most of the school on the data showed at least one safety features in school. Majority of cyberbullying victims in the current data did not experience hate words in school (70 percent), but approximately half of students (52 percent) saw hate-related words or symbols written in his or her school.

Table 2. Descriptive Statistics Table 2. Descriptive Statistics

Social Harm

Table 3 showed the outcome of NBRM for cyberbullying victims with social harm. Findings from Table 3 supported hypothesis one, the presence of adult support reduces the level of social harm by cyberbullying victims. The results also supported hypothesis two, the presence of peer support reduced the level of social harm. When students felt substantial support by adult figures in school, their rate for social harm would be expected to decrease by a factor of 0.64 while holding all other variables in the mode constant. For example, when a student has no adult support, his/her/their social harm is equal to 100.

If the student has some peer support (1 unit increases), that student’s social harm would down to 64 from 100, indicating a 36 percent decrease. When students felt the more substantial support by their peers, their rate for social harm would be expected to decrease by a factor of 0.73, while holding all other variables in the model constant. We further dicussed this issue in the next section.

The current study also included measures of hate words and hate symbols because of the possibility for cyberbullying victims to experience social harm due to negative school experiences. The findings indicated that cyberbullying victims who heard hate-related words were 2.76 times more likely to experience social harm. Seeing signs of hate symbols in school also increased social harm by 1.54 times. The level of social harm by cyberbullying victims was reduced for every additional year in school by 13 percent. Unlike previous literature, we did not find any statistical significance between male and female cyberbullying victims’ level of social harm, as well as differences in race.

Table 3. Negative Binomial Regression Model for Cyberbullying Victims with Social Harm Table 3. Negative Binomial Regression Model for Cyberbullying Victims with Social Harm

Psychological Harm

Table 4 indicated the outcome of PRM for cyberbullying victims with psychological harm. As shown in Table 4, the presence of both adult and peer support reduced the level of psychological harm. Cyberbullying victims experienced less psychological harm by the presence of adult support (31 percent) and peer support (28 percent). These findings supported the hypotheses three and four of the current study.

Table 4. Negative Binomial Regression Model for Cyberbullying Victims with Psychological Harm Table 4. Negative Binomial Regression Model for Cyberbullying Victims with Psychological Harm

Unlike social harm, cyberbullying victims with psychological harm were not significantly affected by negative school experiences and environments, such as hearing hate words or seeing hate-related symbols on school property.Besides, victims with psychological harm were 78 percent more likely to be female. Similar to social harm model, the finding also indicated that the level of psychological harm among cyberbullying victims was reduced for every additional year in school by 13 percent.

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