The Blue Tree Foundation published the <2021 National Research on School Violence and Cyber Violence>. The Blue Tree Foundation's research report, which has been informed of the current status of school violence for the first time in Korea since 2001, has three differentiated characteristics as the 20th result.
First, it used questions appropriate for the purpose and subject of the investigation.
The Blue Tree Foundation's survey includes second and third graders in elementary school. This is to reflect the low-age trend of school violence, which greatly reduced the number of survey questions to 23 and infographicized all the surveys to increase readability and understanding of the questions. In addition, we added questions such as prosocial competence, psychological and social awareness of students surrounding school violence, parental attitude towards media supervision, and effective intervention, reflecting the tendency of prior researches and counseling results on school violence.
Second, it added an in-depth interview method.
The former versions of survey from Blue Tree Foundation adopts a quantitative survey method that shows the current status via number. Quantitative research methods have the advantage of being able to objectively verify data and to provide figures using statistics. In response, the <2021 National Research on School Violence and Cyber Violence> added an in-depth interview(IDI) to maintain the existing quantitative investigation method but understand more profoundly how school violence and cyber violence occur.
Third, it included detailed types of cyber violence.
The Blue Tree Foundation tried to increase the understanding and awareness of cybe violence by including the detailed types of cyber violence questions. In addition to cyberbullying, we wanted to check the specific status by adding cyber harassment, cyber denigration, cyber trickery, cyber sexting, cyber coercion and extortion, and cyber stalking. To understand the status of cyberbullying, in the case of the interview survey, we also selected students who have experienced cyber violence among school violence, their parents, and teachers who have experienced cyber violence.
Overview of the research
· Survey period: from December 07, 2020 to January 14, 2021
· Subject to Survey: 6,230 students from 2nd grade in elementary school to 2nd grade in high school (confidence level: 95%; error range: ± 1.24%)
· Interviewees: 6 students (2 students in elementary school, 1 student in secondary school, 3 students in high school), 2 parents, and 2 teachers who have experienced cyber violence
· Investigation content:
- Survey: 23 questions in total, demographic characteristics, current status of victimization/perpetration/witnessing from(of) school violence and cyber violence, prosocial competence, perception, etc.
- Interviews: One-on-one in-depth interview (IDIO, media usage and parental media supervision, prosocial competence, victimization-perpetration-bystander/defender psychosocial awareness, cyber violence cases and media characteristics, interventions/solutions, etc.
Main Results of the 2021 National Research on School Violence and Cyber Violence
First, the rate of experience in cyber violence has more than tripled in the COVID-19 era.
∘ The rate of victimization from cyber violence 16.3%, up 3 times from the previous year’s 5.3%
∘ Cyber harassment 22.5 %, cyber denigration 15.7 %, cyber bullying 8.3 %
∘ Characteristics of media that are difficult to deal with : anonymity 41.1%, offentlichkeit 14.8%, propagation power 14.6%
∘ Application where cyber violence happens : Kakao Talk 18.7%, Facebook 17.6%, TikTok 9.5%
Second, the school violence vaccine is pro-social competence.
∘ Groups with no experience of bullying at school (4.10 points) and groups with experiences of bullying at school (3.74 points) are contrasted.
*The full points of pro-social competence are 5.00.
∘ If the new friend you met was a victim of school violence in the past, I would not be his/her friend : 6.5%
∘ If the new friend is you met was a former perpetrator of school violence, I would not be his/her friend : 43.4%
Third, a lesson from the phenomenon of recurring past school violence: The school-led solution should be taken while the incident has just happenned.
∘ It was painful because of school violence : 47.8%
∘ It was very painful because of school violence : 13.1%
∘ School violence victims 17.3%, witnessers 16.2%, perpetrators 7.6%
∘ No matter what happens, school violence is an unforgivable crime and the perpetrator should be severely punished : 98% Agree
∘ A win-win solution for both victims and perpetrators is true apology and forgiveness, so communication opportunities are necessary even after time passes : 88.9% Agree
∘ It is unfair for the current perpetrator to be deprived of all rights and stigmatized because of past mistakes : 45% Agree
Fourth, it is necessary to nurture bystanders to be active defenders of school violence.
∘ I witnessed school violence : 7.0% (14.6% last year)
∘ When witnessing school violence, ‘I pretended not to know’ 26.7% (23.3% last year), and the reason for neglecting school violence was ‘I feared I would be harmed if I take action’ 32.4%, ‘I did not want to care about other people’s affairs’ 29.9%
∘ When witnessing school violence, ‘I took the side of the perpetrator’ 7.2%, the reason for taking the side of the perpetrator was ‘because the student was a friend of mine’ 38.9%, and ‘I fear that I would also be harmed’ 23.9%
∘ When witnessing school violence, ‘I informed my parents or teachers’ 18.8%, ‘I comforted the victim’ 18.7% ‘I made the perpetrator quit’ 15.1%,
∘ ‘Reason for taking defensive actions to report or help’, ‘Because I thought the perpetrator did wrong’ 20.3%, ‘Because the victim was my friend’ 19.2%, ‘Because I felt pitiful and heartbroken’ 17.3%,
∘ Interview Response: active defenders “are friends of the victims, inform an adult, have courage, and have mutiple friends besides the perpetrator”.
Fifth, it is necessary to strengthen the social response system that can report school violence.
∘ After victimization of school violence, 'received parental help' 25.0%, 'received teacher’s help' 24.2%, 'did not receive any help' 18.8%
∘ After perperation of school violence, 'I was scolded by school teachers' 24.3%, 'nothing happened' 21.5%, 'parents were scolded' 18.2%
[Additional Facts Main Results]
Victimization of school violence during this year : 6.7%
Perpetraton of school violnece during this year : 4.1%
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*Reference : National Research on School Violence (The Blue Tree Foundation, 2001-2021)
The driving force behind which the blue Tree Foundation has been able to continuously carry out these tasks for over 20 years as an NGO was the belief that it is the basis of change to inform our civil society of the reality and seriousness of school violence and cyber violence.
The students and teachers from 17 cities and provinces across the country (South Korea) who actively participated in our foundation's research despite their busy schedules, were the heros for this report. The Blue Tree Foundation, which dreams of a world free from school violence and cyber violence, will always be with the youth. Thank you.
Purchasing Inquiries: You can purchase it at the Book Mall on the website of the Prevention Education Center.
▶Go to "The Book Mall on the website of the Prevention Education Center"
Please look at the blog post of the Press Conference of a National Research on School Violence and Cyber Violence (in Korean) as well!
Thank you.
