Cyberbullying on the Rise, Especially for Teenage Girls
ENGAGE. EMPOWER. ENCOURAGE. August 2015
If You’re Not Making Disciples, What are You Making?
EQUIP Newsletter
MONTHLY PUBLICATION TO BETTER EQUIP STUDENT MINISTRY VOLUNTEERS
C Y B E R B U L LY I N G O N T H E R I S E , E S P E C I A L LY F O R TEENAGE GIRLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 1
GOING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 2
IF YOU’RE NOT MAKING D I S C I P L E S , W H AT A R E YOU MAKING? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3
MORE RESEARCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3
W H AT ’ S H O T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4
B O O K S TO C O N S I D E R READING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4
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Cyberbullying on the Rise, Especially for Teenage Girls M O N I C A D I S A R E , B O S TO N G L O B E
A study of more than 16,000 Boston-area high school students suggests cyberbullying is on the rise, most sharply with girls as victims and abetted by the prevalence of smartphones among teenagers.
The percentage of the students who said they experienced cyberbullying jumped from 14.6 percent to 21.2 percent over a six-year period ending in 2012, according to the study by the nonprofit Education Development Center. The study used selfreported health survey data from 17 unidentified schools west of Boston. The percentage of girls reporting incidents involving bullying or harassment on forums such as websites and social networks shot up 10 percent, while incidents targeting boys increased 3 percent, according to the study. At the same time, reports of in-
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person bullying decreased by 3 percent over the period. Specialists said the study, which will be published in September in the Journal of School Health, reflects the spread of technology that enables harassers to spread information quickly and often anonymously, and to target victims any time of the day. “I am not surprised in the least that cyberbullying has gone up,” said Rusty Sullivan, the co-producer of the Boston vs. Bullies program, an antibullying program used in schools throughout Massachusetts. “Cellphones, the Internet, and everything that goes along with it is such a bigger part of kids’ lives today than it was 10 years ago.” Increased cyberbullying “raises the stakes considerably” for bullying since the audience is virtually unlimited, Sullivan said. “Once the kid hits send, there’s no way to control it,” he said. Shari Kessel Schneider, a project director at Waltham-based EDC and the lead author on the new study, agreed that the instantaneous nature of cellphones probably has contributed to the rise in cyberbullying. Websites that allow for anonymous posts, or messages that can disappear after they are sent, are also prime vehicles for dissemination, she said. In 2010, Massachusetts passed a law heralded as one of the nation’s toughest antibullying statutes. It mandated antibullying training for faculty and students and required every school employee to report cases of bullying. Preventing cyberbullying, which is
defined as “bullying through the use of technology or any electronic communication,” was a key element of the bill. It takes only one embarrassing photograph to constitute cyberbullying, whereas in the past bullying often took a pattern of repeated behavior, said Gershon Ben Keren, head instructor at the Situation Effective Protection System program in Boston, which helps people predict, identify, and avoid violence. The relative ease of cyberbullying may help explain its increase, Ben Keren said. Gone are the days when a child could walk home, close his or her bedroom door, and escape being bullied, he said. The study collected survey answers from four different years, beginning in 2006. It was funded by the MetroWest Health Foundation. Because the surveyed students hailed from the suburbs west of Boston, the report cautions that results may not be generalizable to other regions. But the findings are consistent with other research, said Elizabeth Englander, a professor of psychology at Bridgewater State University and director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center. She and other specialists said it is well known that cyberbullying disproportionately affects girls.
“It tends to be very personal and very devastating,” said Mattleman, who called it “emotional, right to the core.” The study also highlighted a reluctance by many youths to seek help. In 2012, only one-third of cyberbullying victims told an adult about their experiences. Girls were almost twice as likely to seek help than boys. When the teenagers did seek help, they more frequently sought someone outside of school. Young adults are hesitant to involve parents because they think they will either overreact or take away their technology, Mattleman said. Nonheterosexual teenagers reported higher instances of cyberbullying in the study. In 2012, 31.5 percent of youths who are members of sexual minorities — such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transsexual — reported being cyberbullied, compared with 20.3 percent of heterosexual youths. “Even today, after marriage equality, they are still marginalized by their peers and in their schools,” said Emily Greytak, director of research at the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network in Boston. Greytak also noted the benefits of the Internet for LGBTQ youths, who go online for positive social support.
Girls tend to be more peer-focused than boys, and therefore more prone to forms of bullying such as exclusion and rumor spreading, said Jon Mattleman, director of Needham Youth Services.
OM O R S S A L C E H T D N O Y E B this G u o N y I o O t G reveal
week
God d i d t 1. Wha week lf? e s s i h m i t H you o about t l a reve d o G did t a h W 2. f? l e s r ult? u s o y e r t u a o ab as e g n a h c to s d e e n Page 2! 3. What COPYRIGHT - 2015
IMMANUEL BAPTIST CHURCH STUDENT MINISTRY
If You’re Not Making Disciples, What are You Making? ANDY BLANKS, YM360
What's your purpose for doing youth ministry? While the wording of our answers might differ some, the heart of our responses would probably be very similar, and may even be summed up in one sentence: The purpose of youth ministry is to lead
MORE ARTICLES AND RESEARCH ✴ 5 Things You Don’t Know About Milennials and Teens (YPULSE) ✴ Can I Use Snapchat Responsibly? (Adam McLane) ✴ The Cool Factor: Teens Report Positive Feedback to Using ECigarettes (Today) ✴ What Teens are Really Searching for Online (Yahoo)
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students to become disciples, or followers, of Christ. Now, how this gets done looks a million different ways. And, we must acknowledge that we play different roles with different students, depending on the level of parental engagement in a student's spiritual
development. But if you ask me, your call, or your task, if you will, is to play your part in making disciples of Christ. I think about discipleship a lot. I think a great deal about how we as youth ministers and youth workers lead students to be followers of Christ and not merely nominal Christians. And I had a thought the other day I wanted to pass along to you. It's this:
IF WE AREN'T LEADING STUDENTS TO BECOME DISCIPLES, WHAT ARE WE L E A D I N G T H E M TO BECOME? Are we leading students to be legalists? Do our students see their relationship with Christ as little more than a list of "do's and don'ts" to check off? Are our ministries full of teenagers who aren't motivated by
imitating Christ's holiness, but are instead driven by a Pharisaical sense of rule keeping? Are we leading our students to be lukewarm religionists? Do our students go through the motions at Church, but lead unremarkable lives at school, barely discernible from
those who don't know Christ? Are we creating spiritual consumers? Are we more concerned about the level of our students' entertainment than the depth of their devotion? Do we put more time, thought, and energy into our presentation than we do our content? Or are we, in a word, leading students away from Christ? Do the things we say and do demonstrate to students that following Christ is optional, a hard task reserved for the super-spiritual? Does the content of our programs show them that Christ is containable, and predictable, and not very life-changing or transformative? I'm confident that there's not a one of us reading this that would knowingly or willingly lead students to be these things. But, when you're not intentionally raisingup disciples of Christ according to the picture painted in Scripture, you will inevitably be leading students to become something other than a true Christ-follower.
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How can we know if we are helping students grow into disciples? In other words, what is the fruit of our ministry in the lives of our students? What does it look like when it works?
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NBC NFL PreSeason Game America’s Got Talent - Tues NBC NFL PreSeason Kickoff 60 Minutes The Big Bang Theory NCIS America’s Got Talent - Best Big Brother - Sun Big Brother - Wed American Ninja Warrior Source: Nielsen Co.
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W E A R E H E L P I N G TO SHAPE TEENAGERS' FAITH. WHAT ARE WE SHAPING IT TO BE?
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Source: Google
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If you see students who are growing in their knowledge and understanding of Scripture, you are helping them grow into disciples. If you see visible fruit of spiritual growth in their lives (in other words, if you see them applying their growing knowledge of Scripture), you are helping them grow into disciples. If you are actively working alongside students' parents as co-laborers in shaping their faith-lives, you are helping them grow into disciples.
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Source: iTunes
specific" activities, you are helping them grow into disciples. ✴
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If your students are developing a heart for the poor, the sick, and the outcast, you are helping them grow into disciples. If you see students willingly embrace leadership responsibilities, you are helping them grow into disciples.
The methods by which you lead students to become true followers of Christ will differ depending on the individual variables that define your ministry. But here's one thing that is universally true across all ministries:
IF WE ARE NOT INTENTIONAL ABOUT LEADING STUDENTS TO BECOME DISCIPLES, WE SERIOUSLY UNDERMINE THE CHANCE THAT IT WILL HAPPEN ON OUR WATCH.
BOOKS TO CONSIDER READING ✴ COUNTER CULTURE (DAVID PLATT) ✴ #CRITICAL ISSUES #ABSOLUTE ANSWERS (JAY STRACK ed.) ✴ STUDENT MINISTRY AND THE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST (RICHARD ROSS) ✴ THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP (DIETRICH BONHOEFFER)
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If your students are engaging in your church outside of "youth
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