Technology Based Harassment Victimization: Placement in a Border Victimization Context

This basic research project aims to improve current policy and practice on technology-based harassment victimization by examining it within the context of other types of youth victimization, risk, and protective factors. A nationally representative sample of 1,000 youth (ages 10-17) will be surveyed to: 1) understand technology-based harassment as it is occurring in the context of concurrent and prior victimization experiences, including whether poly-victimized youth are at particular risk for technology-based harassment; 2) define a typology of technology-based harassment incidents and their relationship to adverse consequences for youth; 3) determine whether technology-based harassment has similar risk and protective factors as other types of peer victimizations such as physical violence, sexual harassment, and bullying; 4) explore the role that incident-level characteristics of technology-based harassment (e.g., duration,relationship with the perpetrator) have on its impact (distress and disclosure), and 5) assess the
frequency and level of involvement of youth as bystanders of technology-based harassment.
Data will be collected from a national sample of youth (ages 10-17), who will be
interviewed by telephone about their experiences with technology-based harassment during the last 12 months. These youth will have completed the recent (2011) NatSCEV2 (The National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence) about lifetime and past year victimization exposures. The majority of households participating in the NatSCEV (80%) agreed to be re-contacted for future studies. Youth from families who agreed to be re-contacted tended to report more adversities and willingness to participate in future surveys was also more common among older youth, girls and racial minorities. However, lifetime property crime, exposure to family violence and, exposure to community violence were the only differences with significant, moderate effect sizes. This sampling opportunity allows for a longitudinal component to the study design in a cost-effective manner and permits an understanding with more precision how prior victimizations (as measured by the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire) serve as risk factors for technology-based harassment. This study builds on a highly successful, 12-year long research initiative focusing on internet victimization and safety at the Crimes against Children Research Center, as well as a program conceptualizing and examining poly-victimized youth. ca/ncf