THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF BULLYING ON THE QUALITY OF FUTURE INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS By: Jamie Kalff

Background  There has been a lot of research on the topic of adolescent bullying recently  However the research is limited when it comes to Who is doing the bullying And the recent addition of cyber bullying, as a form of how they are being bullied, with verbal and physical abuse already studied widely

Research Question  Does the method of bullying, who is doing the bullying, and what they are being bullied for, change the quality of future interpersonal relationships and the self-esteem they hold within those relationships? Who: A close friend, peer, anonymous person, family member How: Cyber bullying versus verbal abuse versus physical abuse Why: Academics, social behavior, family background, and appearance

Hypothesis  Self-esteem will be more adversely affected if the victim is being bullied for appearance based reasons or by a family member.  The quality of the victim’s interpersonal relationships will be worse if they are bullied by a close friend and/or in the form of cyber bullying.

Participants/ Sample  Undergraduate and Graduate students  Will be given course credit for participation  Diverse population from 4 different universities located strategically around the country  Estimated sample of 200 students from each school

Measures  The Teasing Questionnaire- Revised (Storch et al., 2004)  Revised Adult Attachment Scale (Collins, 1996)  Janis-Field Self-Esteem Scale With Appearance Subscale (Pliner, Chaiken & Flett, 1990)  Friendship Information Questionnaire (Foth, Scott & Heimberg, 2004) Will be revised to include the quality of those friendships and will be pilot tested  Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997)

Procedure  Students selected from around the country  After IRB approval and informed consent, the participants will be given instructions to take each of the five measures  They will not be told what the study is about as to not alter their responses  One month later the same participants will take a re- test to ensure consistency  After they have taken the questionnaires twice there will be a debriefing

Analysis Who WhyHow  Who Close friend Peer Family member Anonymous  Why Academics Social behavior Family background Appearance  How Cyber bullying Verbal abuse Physical abuse

Analysis  We want to determine what combinations (of who, why and how) affect the victim the most negatively ‒ which causes lower self-esteem, both personally and in relationships, as well as the quality of the relationships the victim has  We will compare the quality of the interpersonal relationships between the participants who were bullied in every combination with those who reported not having been a victim

Analysis  Retrospective correlational study based on 5 Dependent Variables: each of the 5 questionnaires They will be analyzed to determine a correlation between who, why, and how

Possible Limitations  The sample size may be hard to acquire  Participants may not be honest and forthcoming regarding their victimization history or current self- esteem  Sample is not representative  The frequency of bullying is hard to determine We aren’t differentiating between the victims who were bullied for a month versus throughout the duration of high school and middle school

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