The COVID-19 Pandemic Disrupted Both School Bullying and Cyberbullying

Andrew Bacher-Hicks, Joshua Goodman (), Jennifer G. Green and Melissa Holt

No 29590, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: One-fifth of U.S. high school students report being bullied each year. We use internet search data for real-time tracking of bullying patterns as COVID-19 disrupted in-person schooling. We first show that, prepandemic, internet searches contain useful information about actual bullying behavior. We then show that searches for school bullying and cyberbullying dropped 30-35 percent as schools shifted to remote learning in spring 2020. The gradual return to in-person instruction starting in fall 2020 partially returns bullying searches to pre-pandemic levels. This rare positive effect may partly explain recent mixed evidence on the pandemic’s impact on students’ mental health and well-being.

JEL-codes: I20 I21 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ure
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Published as Andrew Bacher-Hicks & Joshua Goodman & Jennifer Greif Green & Melissa K. Holt, 2022. "The COVID-19 Pandemic Disrupted Both School Bullying and Cyberbullying," American Economic Review: Insights, vol 4(3), pages 353-370.

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Journal Article: The COVID-19 Pandemic Disrupted Both School Bullying and Cyberbullying (2022)
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