The findings bring to light a discrepancy. Interestingly, 30% or more students indicated that they had
experienced incidents of undesirable and obsessive communication. Based on the operational definition of
cyberbullying that was given in the student survey, the incidents of undesirable and obsessive communication are
forms of cyberbullying. One would expect that all of those who indicated that they had experienced these incidents
would have also reported yes to cyberbullying. Instead, only 11% reported “yes” to being cyberbullied, instead of
the expected 30%. One questions why these undesirable incidents are higher than the 11 % that responded yes to being cyberbullied. Is it possible that these instances are not considered bullying but are accepted as a part of social
life “online?”
From the data, 71 % of the respondents indicated that they had told a parent/guardian or other adult about
the cyberbullying experience. Upon reflection, the researcher questions whether a respondent considers a university
peer to be an “other adult?”
To better understand who was doing the cyberbullying, question four queried if the respondent was
cyberbullied by classmates (50 %), someone outside of university (57 %) and “I don’t know” (43 %). The combined
percentage of greater than 100 % brings the question as to whether the victims were being bullied by more than one
person.