Sarah Larsen

Date Approved

6-24-2013

Embargo Period

3-3-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. School Psychology-Professional School Psychology

Department

Educational Services, Administration, and Higher Education

College

College of Education

Advisor

Allen, Terri

Subject(s)

Bullying in schools; Bullying in schools--Law and legislation--New Jersey

Disciplines

Child Psychology | Student Counseling and Personnel Services

Abstract

The current study investigated the new HIB (Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying) legislation as part of the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act for New Jersey public schools in regard to students' perceptions of severity of cyber, relational, physical and non-bulllying scenarios. The study also observed students' ability to identify non-bullying scenarios from bullying scenarios since the revisions were made in 2011. Gender and size of high school the students graduated from were also accounted for. Results of the study were obtained via a two-part survey completed by college students (n = 80). The first section asked for background information such as year graduated from high school, gender, and size of high school, while the second potion asked participants to rate 24 cyber, relational, physical and non-bullying scenarios on severity (0 = not bullying, 1 = low severity, 2 = moderate severity, 3 = high severity). The findings suggest there was no difference between students who experienced the revisions of the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act and those who did not when comparing perceptions of severity of different forms of bullying. However, the findings did show that females rated physical bullying and non-bullying scenarios higher in severity than males did and students who attended larger high schools rated non-bullying scenarios lower in severity than those students from small and medium sized high school did.

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