COVID-19, School Closures and (Cyber)Bullying in Germany

Helen Rahlff, Ulf Rinne and Hendrik Sonnabend ()
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Helen Rahlff: University of Hagen
Hendrik Sonnabend: Fern Universität Hagen

No 16650, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We analyze the prevalence of bullying in Germany during COVID-19, both as a real-life phenomenon (in-person bullying, or in our context: school bullying) and via social media and electronic communication tools (cyberbullying). Using Google Trends data from 2013 to 2022 and exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment when schools switched to distance learning, we document stark changes in the prevalence of (cyber)bullying in Germany: Our results indicate that during school years affected by COVID-19, online searches for school bullying decreased by about 25 percent, while online searches for cyberbullying increased by about 48 percent during the same periods.

Keywords: cyberbullying; school bullying; Google Trends (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H75 I12 I21 I28 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2023-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big, nep-hea and nep-ure
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Published - published online in: Education Economics , 15 November 2024

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