Cyber-Harassment Student Survey

Abstract

The Cyber-Harassment Student Survey (CHSS), developed by Tanya Beran and Qing Li in 2005, is a specialized psychometric instrument designed to quantify the prevalence, characteristics, and psychological impact of cyber-harassment and cyberbullying behaviors within student populations. Initial application of the CHSS revealed that digital aggression was a highly pervasive issue, with nearly three-quarters of surveyed students reporting victimization within the preceding year. The survey is crucial for documenting the severe negative consequences associated with these behaviors, including elevated levels of anxiety, depression, and anger, alongside measurable detriment to academic performance. Consequently, the CHSS functions as a vital diagnostic and research tool for academics, school administrators, and policy makers working to understand and mitigate the challenges posed by digital aggression in educational environments.

Keywords

Cyber-Harassment, Cyberbullying, Victimization, Perpetration, Digital Aggression, Student Survey, Adolescent Mental Health, School Safety, Online Trolling, Educational Psychology

Authors

Tanya Beran, Qing Li

Purpose

The primary objective of the Cyber-Harassment Student Survey is multifaceted. Firstly, it seeks to establish the frequency and specific modalities of harassing behaviors facilitated through technological means, such as the Internet, cellular phones, and video cameras, across a defined student demographic. Secondly, the instrument aims to comprehensively assess the psychological, emotional, and academic consequences experienced by victims, while simultaneously identifying students who engage in these behaviors (perpetrators).

A key strength of the CHSS is its rigorous definition of harassment, which facilitates accurate self-reporting by clearly differentiating between harmful, repeated acts of aggression (harassment) and benign social interactions, such as friendly teasing or mutual conflict between peers of comparable power. By capturing data on both exposure (victimization) and engagement (offending), the survey provides a robust and comprehensive overview of the digital aggression landscape within school settings.

Construct

The CHSS is designed to measure the psychological construct of cyber-harassment. This construct is conceptually defined as a persistent and repeated pattern of behaviors—mean, hurtful, or deliberately exclusionary—that are directed toward a student utilizing digital technology, specifically where the target finds it difficult to defend themselves due to the nature of the medium or the asymmetry of power.

This central construct is operationalized through two distinct and measurable subscales, allowing researchers to differentiate between roles in the digital aggression dynamic:

• Victimization: This subscale measures the degree to which an individual student has been the target of harassment mediated via technology.
• Perpetration (Offending): This subscale quantifies the extent to which a student utilizes digital technology to engage in harassment directed toward others.

The behaviors assessed mirror traditional bullying tactics—including spreading rumors, social exclusion, and verbal abuse—but are specifically adapted for digital platforms. Furthermore, the survey investigates the specific types of technology employed in the harassment and records the resulting affective states (e.g., sadness, anger, anxiety) and functional impairments (e.g., school absenteeism, concentration difficulties, decline in academic performance).

Validity

While the original source material does not explicitly detail specific psychometric validation statistics, such as detailed factor loadings or construct validity coefficients, the instrument’s validity is strongly supported by its clear conceptual foundation. The scale items demonstrate a high degree of alignment with established academic definitions of bullying and harassment, meticulously adapted for the unique context of the digital domain.

The deliberate structural separation of items into distinct subscales—the Cyberbullying Victimization Scale and the Cyberbullying Offending Scale—provides evidence for structural validity. This bifurcation suggests a successful attempt to isolate and measure two distinct dimensions of the overall construct of digital aggression, which is crucial for accurately studying the complex roles within the cyber-social environment.

Reliability

Specific detailed reliability statistics, such as precise Cronbach’s alpha values or test-retest reliability coefficients, were not specified in the source documentation. However, standard practice for academic instruments of this caliber requires rigorous internal consistency testing.

It is presumed that the CHSS scales (Victimization and Offending) have undergone internal consistency assessments to ensure that the items within each scale reliably measure their respective intended constructs. Future research utilizing the CHSS should report these reliability metrics to confirm the scale’s consistency across diverse student populations.

Factor Analysis

The structure of the Cyber-Harassment Student Survey is empirically supported by findings suggesting that the items cluster into two principal and distinct scales. These factors represent the opposing experiences related to digital aggression.

• The Cyberbullying Victimization Scale (comprising Items 1–6, 9–11) measures the experience of being targeted.
• The Cyberbullying Offending Scale (comprising Items 14–18) measures the experience of perpetrating the harassment.

The identification and confirmation of these two factors, likely through methods such as Exploratory or Confirmatory Factor Analysis, is fundamental to the instrument. This dual structure enables researchers to accurately differentiate between students who are victims, students who are offenders, and those who may occupy both roles simultaneously in the cyber-social environment.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-Report Questionnaire (Screening and Prevalence Tool)

Format: The survey can be administered via paper-and-pencil or online formats. It includes both open-ended descriptive questions, intended to capture qualitative data on technology use, and structured, closed-ended items utilizing a Likert-type scale.

Language Available: English (Original Study)

Population Group: Students (Adolescents/Youth)

Age Group: While not precisely specified in the original documentation, the scale is typically administered to middle or high school students, consistent with the demographic most commonly studied in cyberbullying research.

Population Details: The initial research targeted students who have access to and frequently use digital technology, the environment where digital harassment behaviors are most prevalent.

Test Methodology: The CHSS employs a mixed methodology survey approach. Key closed-ended items are scored using a 5-point frequency scale to measure the recurrence of behaviors. The response options are: Never (0), Once or twice (1), A few times (2), Many times (3), and Every day (4).

Keywords

Digital harassment, Cyber-Victimization, School bullying, Technology use, Affective impact, Academic consequences, Beran and Li, Psychological assessment, Self-Report, Likert Scale

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected]

Correspondence Address: Tanya Beran, PhD, Division of Applied Psychology, University of Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 1N4

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 2005 (Published)

Permissions: The scale is protected by Copyright © 2005 Baywood Publishing Co., Inc. Reproduction or use requires explicit special permission from the publisher, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc., located at 26 Austin Ave. PO Box 337, Amityville, NY 11701. The instrument was notably reproduced in the CDC compendium under special permission from the copyright holder.

Fee: The required fee for usage is not explicitly specified in the source material; accessibility and cost are subject to the publisher’s current licensing policies and the context of the proposed academic research.

Reference’s

• Beran, T., & Li, Q. (2005). Cyber-harassment: A study of a new method for an old behavior. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 32, 265–277.
• The original PDF source for the instrument and related information can be downloaded here: http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/bullycompendiumbk-a.pdf

Items of the Cyber-Harassment Student Survey

Harassment occurs when a student, or several students, say mean and hurtful things or make fun of another student or call him or her mean and hurtful names, completely ignore or exclude him or her from their group of friends, or leave him or her out of things on purpose, tell lies or spread false rumors about him or her, send mean notes and try to make other students dislike him or her, and other hurtful things like that. When we talk about harassment, these things happen repeatedly, and it is difficult for the student being harassed to defend himself or herself. We also call it harassment when a student is teased repeatedly in a mean and hurtful way. But we don’t call it harassment when the teasing is done in a friendly and playful way. Also, it is not harassment when two students of about equal strength or power argue or fight.

1. Have you heard of students using technology to harass other students (for example, the Internet, computers, cell phones, answering machines, video cameras)? If yes, what types of technology were used?

….. …..

2. If yes, how was the technology used? Please describe the event.

….. …..

3. Have these types of harassing behaviors involving technology been directed toward you?
4. If yes, how have you been impacted? (Check One)

a. I felt sad and hurt.

b. I felt angry.

c. I felt embarrassed.

d. I felt afraid.

e. I felt anxious.

f. I missed school because of it.

g. I cried.

h. I had difficulty concentrating.

i. My marks have dropped because of it.

j. I blame myself.

5. Do the people who harassed you by using technology also harass you in other way (not using technology)?
6. Do you ever use technology to harass others?

Response Scale (For items 3, 4 (A to j), 5 and 6):

• Never = 0
• Once or twice = 1
• A few times = 2
• Many times = 3
• Every day = 4

Scale Groupings:

• Cyberbullying Victimization Scale: Items 1–6, 9–11
• Cyberbullying Offending Scale: Items 14–18