**3.1.1 Bully victimization**

a Restricted to youth who sent and received text messages at least once in the past year (70%, n=806)

Table 2. A comparison of 1-year bullying victimization rates across environments

Overall, 40% of youth reported some bully victimization in the past year. Rates across environments are shown in Table 2. An examination of the school-online overlap suggests that most of these youth were bullied at school exclusively: 59% were bullied only at school; 13% were bullied only online; and 28% were bullied both at school and online

#### **3.1.2 Bully perpetration**


a Restricted to youth who sent and received text messages at least once in the past year (70%, n=806)

Table 3. A comparison of 1-year bullying perpetration rates across environments

Comparisons of Bully and Unwanted Sexual

**3.2.1 Distress** 

other environment.

(n=122)

the bully's identity.

**4. Discussion** 

**3.2.2 Knowing one's perpetrator** 

(n=1,149)

online only, and 42% both at school and online.

On the way to and from school

**3.2 The bully victimization "experience" across environments** 

Environment Very / extremely

School (n=358) 37.5 (128) 12.0 (44) Internet (n=181) 15.4 (34) 45.8 (84) Cell phone text messaging (n=95) 32.9 (28) 29.0 (23)

Somewhere else (n=152) 36.7 (56) 27.2 (46) Table 5. The bully victimization expereince: Victim distress and knowing one's perpetrator

When asked to indicate if they "knew" the bully (i.e., the respondent could recognize the bully or knew who they were), almost half (46%) of youth bullied online said they were not sure or did not know who the bully was (see Table 5). About one in four youth said they were unsure or did not know their bully via text messaging (29%) and one in three said they were unsure or did not know their bully on the way to and from school (22%). Slightly more than one in ten youth bullied at school (12%) said they did not know or were unsure about

Based upon data from 12-17 year-olds surveyed nationally, involvement in bullying and unwanted sexual experiences appears common: 40% report being bullied, 18% report bullying, and 25% report being victims of unwanted sexual experiences in at least one environment that they navigate. Although it is difficult to compare these data with previous studies that have focused more specifically on experiences occurring either at school or online, it is fair to say that our findings provide further evidence that involvement in youth

aggression, either as a perpetrator or as a victim, is widespread.

Experiences Online and Offline Among a National Sample of Youth 209

Almost one in four youth (25%) reported being victims of unwanted sexual experiences in the past year. As show in Table 4, 18% of youth reported unwanted sexual experiences at school, and 18% online. Among victims, 29% reported being victimized at school only, 29%

Youth who reported being bullied were asked to indicate how they felt about the most serious incident in each environment they were bullied. As shown in Table 5, more youth reported being upset by their most serious bullying incident at school (37.5%) than any

> upset by the most serious incident

> > % (n) % (n)

38.8 (46) 22.4 (25)

Not sure / Do not "know" the bully

Eighteen percent of youth reported being bullies in the past year. Table 3 shows bullying rates by environment. The school-online overlap was similar to that noted for victims: among youth who bullied in either place, 59% bullied only at school, 10% bullied only online, and 31% bullied both online and at school.

Fig. 1. Overlap of bullying experiences across environments

As shown in the Figure, the majority of youth were not victims (60%) or perpetrators (82%) of bullying in any environment. For those who were involved in bullying, the most common experience was victimization (20%) or perpetration (9%) in one environment. Fewer reported being victimized (9%) or perpetrating (4%) across two environments. Very few reported being bullied or bullying others in four or all five of the environments queried.

#### **3.1.3 Unwanted sexual experiences**


Table 4. 1-year unwanted sexual experiences victimization rates across environments

Almost one in four youth (25%) reported being victims of unwanted sexual experiences in the past year. As show in Table 4, 18% of youth reported unwanted sexual experiences at school, and 18% online. Among victims, 29% reported being victimized at school only, 29% online only, and 42% both at school and online.
