Cyber sexual harassment and cyber bullying victimization and associations with not feeling safe at school in Sweden

• Background: In a recent WHO report (1), it is stated that the “stranger danger” narrative when it comes to cyber perpetration needs to be toned down. It is more common for young people to be victimized by somebody they know such as friends, peers at school and relatives (2-4). The hypothesis is that many of the cyber perpetrators are peers at school, that means that perceived school safety is as a very important issue to address. Aim: To determine the association between cyber sexual harassment as well as cyber bullying victimization and not feeling safe in school as well as being afraid of other students at school among Swedish 15-year-olds.Mathods: January-April 2023, a survey addressing cyber sexual harassment and cyber bullying, was disseminated in a random sample of high schools (n =24/41) in the Northern part of Sweden. Participating students were in grade nine (15-year-olds). The sample consisted of 68 homerooms, and 1 501 students. Response rate was 80%, (N =1 213). Binary logistic regression models was used to determine the associations Adjusted for demographic and socioeconomic factors as well as perceived peer support were made. In addition, the models was adjusted for offline victimization.Results: There were no significant associations between online victimization and not feeling safe at school either gender. Low peer support seems to be an important factor for both boys and girls regarding not feeling safe at school. There were no significant associations among boys at all. Online and in-person bullying was associated with being afraid among girls. An additional analysis show that girls were mainly cyber bullied by an unknown person and a girl at school, while it was most common to be bullied in person by a girl at school and next most common by a boy at school.Conclusions: Peer support seems to be of importance for feeling safe at school. Facilitating and promoting good peer relations at school may increase feelings of being safe at school. Girls being victimized by cyber as well as in-person bullying showed an increased probability of being afraid of somebody at school. This somebody is likely to be a girl at school as the most common perpetrator was a girl at school. Future research should investigate how being afraid of somebody at school affects school attendance and academic achievement, including potential mediating factors such as poor mental health.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)