Cyberbullying among highschoolers at the Yen Bai Western ethnic minority boarding school: Current situation and contributing factors

Objective: To assess the current state and contributing factors of cyberbullying among boarding high school students at the Western Ethnic Boarding School in Yen Bai in 2023. Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive study on cyberbullying involving 414 ethnic minority high school students aged 15-19 at the Western Ethnic Boarding High School in Yen Bai from July 2023 to Aug 2024. The research utilizes Cyber Bullying Inventory framework with total sampling method. Results: Approximately 29.0% of students reported experiencing some form of bullying, with 23.7% encountering it occasionally and 5.3% frequently. The most common incidents involved "harassment by strangers or disliked acquaintances sending disruptive messages," "unauthorized access to social media accounts," and "false accusations or untrue statements being made about oneself." Strangers or unknown individuals were responsible for the bullying in 52.2% of cases. To handle cyberbullying, the majority of high school students (63.5%) opted to share their experiences and seek advice. Grade 12 students were found to be at a higher risk of cyberbullying compared to those in Grades 10 and 11. Conclusion: The incidence of online bullying among ethnic minority students is relatively high, with varied and frequent experiences. Most of the perpetrators are strangers or individuals unknown to the victims. Keywords: ethnic minorities, boarding school students, cyberbullying