Predicting Electronic Victimization Among Home School Youth: The Role of Technology use and Skill Level

Many studies have shown that Internet access is available to the majority of youth. Due to increased access to electronic devices and the internet, youth are able to engage in unsupervised electronic interactions (Raskauskas & Stoltz, 2007). As a result, youth are easily able to send hurtful e-mails, make posts to hurt someone emotionally or destroy their reputation. Most studies on electronic victimization have been performed in public or private school settings (Raskauska & Stoltz, 2007). The home school population was chosen for this study because it has been suggested by researchers that electronic victimization is an extension of traditional forms of victimization (e.g. relational, social, physical) that begins at school but then transfers over to electronic mediums (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006. Researchers have also found that high Internet use is significantly associated with being a victim of electronic aggression and an electronic aggressor (Giles, Casas, Bower, & LaVoie, 2012; Ybarra & Mitchell, 2004). Moreover, research has also shown that youth who engage in many different online venues (e.g. chatrooms, email, instant messaging, social networking sites, etc.) are more likely to be electronic victims and electronic aggressors (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006). The current study examines whether frequency of technology use and technology skill level predicts electronic victimization. The sample consists of 23 homeschooled students (13 females) between the ages of nine and seventeen (M = 13) residing in 12 different states. The present findings show that electronic victimization and aggression are also occurring in the home school population