I. INTRODUCTION
Cyberbullying is the use of electronic or digital media to harass, humiliate, or threaten another person (Holladay, 2010). Cyberbullying is different than face-to-face bullying because electronic communications allow cyberbullies to maintain anonymity, and perpetrators can communicate messages to large audiences very quickly (Schneider, O’Donnell, Stueve, & Coulter, 2012). Although individuals may not want to engage in face-to-face bullying, they may be enticed to engage in cyberbullying because they may feel reduced responsibility and accountability. This is a major problem because 71% of American youth use Facebook, 52% use Instagram, 41% use Snapchat, and 33% use Twitter (Lenhart, 2015). Ninety-two percent of American youth have stated that they go online daily, and 24% of them have stated that they are online constantly. Cyberbullying is a major public health concern because it has been linked to school problems, social problems, mental health disorders, and suicide (Hase, Goldberg, Smith, Stuck, & Campaign, 2015; Rodríguez-Enríquez, Bennasar-Veny, Leiva, Garaigordobil, & Yañez, 2019; Wood, 2018).
Hundreds of thousands of individuals have experienced cyberbullying, and many of them have experienced it for more than one year (Evans, 2012). Youths who experience cyberbullying are more than twice as likely to hurt themselves or to attempt suicide (Wood, 2018). Thus, cyberbullying is a major social problem that is worthy of study. The current study, which is a correlational study, will add to the body of knowledge by examining data that were collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The research question and the null hypothesis are listed below.
Research Question: Is there a relationship between the percentage of female students who were cyberbullied and the percentage of female students who seriously considered attempting suicide?
Null Hypothesis: There is no relationship between the percentage of female students who were cyberbullied and the percentage of female students who seriously considered attempting suicide.