Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/282777 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 16650
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
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.
Subjects: 
school bullying
cyberbullying
Google Trends
JEL: 
H75
I12
I21
I28
I31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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