Session 9: Bullying and Young People, 2

3rd Global Conference

Thursday 3rd November – Saturday 5th November 2011
Prague, Czech Republic

Consumption Culture as Bullying Power on Underclass Youth
Aslıhan B. Ozturk
Hacettepe University, Social Work Department, Ankara, Turkey

Consumption culture in the post industrial period of capitalism, bullies underclass youth, who have been socially excluded. As conspicuous consumption works through symbolic meanings over goods such as social status, happiness and freedom, the ones who do not have the economic power, feel inequalities and exclusion as a bullying power over them. Young people who are in the period of identity formation are affected most from advertisements and images which push people to build their identities through consuming goods.

In this research focus group interviews have been done with 58 juvenile delinquents who committed crimes against property. The research shows that the young boys aged 14-18, are mostly from underclass families and their poverty is experienced not only as economic deprivation but also as relative deprivation under the pressure of consumption culture. This turns out to feel anger towards “rich” who have conspicuous consumption patterns as a symbol of social status. They feel that they are excluded from society as they don’t have resources to consume and show smart goods. They are pushed to crimes against property to use and show conspicuous consumption.

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Effects of Internet Usage on Cyber- and School-bullying Experiences: A Two-wave Panel Study of Japanese Elementary, Secondary, and High school Students
Kanae Suzuki
University of Tsukuba, Japan

This study examines the causal relationship between students’ mobile and PC Internet usage and bullying experiences. A two-wave panel study was conducted at a half-year interval on 887 elementary school students, 2375 secondary school students, and 1005 high school students. The participants were asked about the numbers of emails they received or sent per day, the extent of their using chat, reading or sending messages on a mailing list, viewing and posting on information websites, creating their own information websites, playing online game, and taking pictures or recording video per day through their mobiles or PCs as well as their cyber- and school-bullying experiences in one month. The result indicated that the ratio of cyber-bullying experiences was low. Furthermore, multiple-regression models showed that cyber-bullying experiences increased as elementary school students more frequently took pictures or recorded video through their mobiles, and posted on information websites through their PCs. Cyber-bullying experiences also increased as junior high school students received and sent more emails, more frequently took pictures or recorded video, read or sent messages on a mailing list, viewed and posted on information websites, and created their own information websites through their mobiles, and as high school students more frequently viewed information websites through their mobiles. School-bullying increased as high school students more frequently took pictures or recorded video, and viewed information websites through their mobiles, although it decreased as elementary school students more frequently read or sent messages on a mailing list through their mobiles and PCs.

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The problem of cyber-bullying has been a topic of discussion in the recent years. In this background, results of a study revealed that use of the Internet accessed with mobiles increases cyber-bullying (Suzuki et al., 2011). Whether or not having a high level of proper netiquette has suppressing effects (moderating effects) on this negative influence was examined in this study based on a causal relationship according to a two-wave panel study on 884 elementary students, 2421 secondary school students, and 1003 high school students in Japan. Netiquette was defined as the ability for children to make the appropriate judgment about interpersonal conduct when using the Internet. The results indicated moderating effects of netiquettes on the use of emails with mobiles among elementary and secondary school students and even when the volume of email transmission and reception increased, cyber-bullying did not increase when there was a high level of proper netiquette. Also, even if there was an increase in the use of mailing lists, viewing information websites, and creating information websites with mobiles, cyber-bullying did not increase among secondary school students if there was a high level of proper netiquette.

Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)