Youth Bias-Based Victimization: Comparing Online Only, In-Person Only, and Mixed Online/In-Person Incidents

While research knowledge of bias-based bullying is increasing, there has been only limited research comparing in-person and online bias-based victimization incidents. The current study presents data on 521 bias-based incidents experienced by a large sample of youth (n = 854), 13–21 years old, examining differences between incidents that occurred solely online, solely in-person, or both online and in-person. Specifically, we examined whether the three types of incidents differed by: (a) respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics (i.e., gender, race/ethnicity, immigrant status, religion, any disability, sexual orientation); (b) incident-level characteristics (i.e., victimization type, perpetrator relationship, number of perpetrators, physical injury, any weapon used, duration of the incident, location of the incident, and disclosure); and (c) negative impact (emotional distress, school-related problems, and physical symptoms). Results indicated that online-only bias-based victimization incidents occurred less frequently, and impacted victims less negatively, than either in-person only or combined online/in-person bias victimization. Incidents that were a mix of online and in-person bias-based victimization were the most distressing type of incident for youth, even controlling for other aggravating features (e.g., the number of perpetrators). Findings highlight the importance of asking vulnerable youth about the context of bias-based victimization they may have experienced and suggest that prevention initiatives will need to incorporate strategies to address the different environments in which bias-based victimization incidents occur.