that students perceive they are being affected in these ways. Ybarra and Mitchell (2004a)
supported this finding reporting that "students were six times as likely to report emotional
distress as a result of being the target of Internet harassment compared to victim-only
youth" (p. 1313). These findings again reinforce the idea of interrelatedness of systems
present in the lives of students. In these instances, it suggests that technology or peer
systems play a role in influencing school systems.
2.2.8.1  Self-Esteem
Patchin and Hinduja (2010) examined the relationship between self-esteem and
cyberbullying. They concluded that both victims and offenders of cyberbullying had
significantly lower self-esteem than their peers who indicated no association with
cyberbullying. As a result, they were able to identify physiological harm resulting from
cyberbullying and isolated self-esteem as one particular outcome. This has not been done
in previous studies.
2.2.8.2  Suicide
Hinduja and Patchin (2010) studied both thoughts of and actual attempts at suicide
among students associated with cyberbullying or traditional bullying. They found that 20%
of their respondents claimed to have had thoughts of suicide, and 9% claimed to have made
an attempt at some point. Their results suggested that both cyberbullying and traditional
bullying were significantly associated with increases in suicidal thoughts and actions. Both
offenders and victims reported more thoughts and actions of suicide than their
counterparts who did not report being involved in peer-aggression; however, victimization

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