THOMPSON RIVERS UNIVERSITY Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China by Jiayi Li (Elizabeth) T00642744 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Education KAMLOOPS, BRITISH COLUMBIA April, 2024 Supervisors Dr. Terrence Sullivan Dr. Victoria Handford Dr. Pamela Gurney External Examiner Dr. William Smale © Jiayi Li, 2024 Abstract Bullying has been a topical issue worldwide for years, impacting many people regardless of their backgrounds. The consequences of bullying incidents can be severe and even reach a criminal level. In general terms, bullying behaviors have been officially classified from different perspectives, and various policies and regulations have been issued at educational institutions against bullying in many countries. However, the rate of bullying incidents still remains high, even though schools and enforcement officers are highly concerned and put effort into managing bullying issues. There are considerable studies on bullying behavior of students and employees at K-12 schools, but little research has been focused on bullying at post-secondary and higher educational institutions. This thesis sheds light on the origins, causes, and frequency of bullying incidents at universities in British Columbia (B.C.) Canada, and Tianjin and Beijing, China. A total of 130 enrolled university students participated anonymously in a quantitative survey. These students shared their knowledge and experiences regarding traditional bullying and cyberbullying incidents at university by responding to the survey questions. The study found that over half of the participants experienced and/or witnessed bullying incidents at universities, and a considerable number of students either did not know or could not rely on the current university anti-bullying policies and procedures to protect them from bullying incidents or in solving such problems. Moreover, the possible factors that led to bullying incidents were blended. Some of the factors, such as school performance and sex/gender identity, were prevalent in these locations of both countries; but for some others, like avocation and nationality, the responses were significantly different. Furthermore, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when university students in both countries attended school virtually, the chance of in-person bullying incidents at universities decreased, but cyberbullying cases maintained a similar rate as pre-pandemic levels. Finally, more than half of the participants wanted to seek revenge after experiencing bullying incidents. Keywords: Bullying at University, Bullying in Canada, Bullying in China, Anti-bullying policies and procedures, Anti-bullying laws, Causes of bullying incidents. Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... i Chapter One: Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 Research questions ................................................................................................................ 4 Chapter Two: Literature Review .............................................................................................. 6 2.1. Definition of Bullying .................................................................................................... 6 2.2. Consequences of bullying behavior ............................................................................. 13 2.3. Legal Loopholes and School regulation limitations on bullying ................................. 22 Chapter Three: Research Method ........................................................................................... 32 3.1. Participants................................................................................................................... 32 3.2. Procedure ..................................................................................................................... 32 3.3. Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 35 Chapter Four: Results and Data Analysis ............................................................................... 37 4.1. How did post-secondary students recognize bullying behavior and attitudes in Canada and China ............................................................................................................................ 37 4.2. How did post-secondary students recognize cyberbullying behavior and the attitude in Canada and China ............................................................................................................... 43 4.3. Post-secondary students’ mental health during the pandemic and the relationship to school bullying .................................................................................................................... 51 4.4. How did post-secondary students recognize and understand the current university policies, regulations, and laws against bullying.................................................................. 53 4.5. Responses to Research Questions ................................................................................ 55 Chapter Five: Discussion ........................................................................................................ 59 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 5.1. Validity, Reliability, Limitations, Delimitations and Recommendations for Further Study ................................................................................................................................... 59 References ............................................................................................................................... 63 Appendix A ............................................................................................................................. 75 Appendix B ............................................................................................................................. 82 Appendix C ............................................................................................................................. 97 Appendix D ........................................................................................................................... 104 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China List of Figures and Tables Figure 1. Social-identity Wheel. 35 Figure 2. Reaction Towards Bullying Behaviors and Incidents. 40 Figure 3. Responses Towards Bullying Incident Reports. 41 Figure 4. Bully’s Identities. 42 Figure 5. Social Media Platforms that University Students Frequently Access. 44 Figure 6. Experiences and Feelings When Exploring on Social Media. 45 Figure 7. Factors that May Lead to Cyber Bullying Incidents. 47 Figure 8. Types of Cyberbullying Incidents. 47 Figure 9. Reaction Towards Cyberbullying Incidents at University. 49 Figure 10. Responses to Cyberbullying Incident Reports. 49 Figure 11. Difficulties Victims Face When Dealing with Cyberbullying Incidents. 50 Figure 12. Identities of Cyberbullies. 50 Figure 13. Possibilities of One Type of Bullying Behavior Transforming to Another. 51 Figure 14. Impulse for Revenge After Been Bullied. 52 Figure 15. Feelings of Bullies or Potential Bullies After Bulling Others. 53 Figure 16. Awareness of Laws Against Bullying Behavior. 54 Figure 17. Awareness of University Policies, Regulations, and Procedures. 55 Table 1. Students’ Experiences and Their Attitude Towards General Bullying Behavior at University. 38 Table 2. Factors Causing the Onset of Bullying Incidents. 41 Table 3. Students’ Experiences and Their Attitudes Towards Cyberbullying Behavior at University. 46 Table 4. Reaction After Being Bullied. 53 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Acknowledgements Thompson Rivers University campuses are on the traditional lands of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc (Kamloops campus) and the T’exelc (Williams Lake campus) within Secwépemc’ulucw, the traditional and unceded territory of the Secwépemc. This region also extends into the territories of the St’át’imc, Nlaka’pamux, Nuxalk, Tŝilhqot’in, Dakelh, and Syilx peoples. As we share knowledge, teaching, learning and research within this university, we recognize that this territory has always been a place of teaching, learning and research. I am deeply grateful to my supervisors, Dr. Terrence Sullivan and Dr. Victoria Handford, for their guidance, patience, support and encouragement throughout my study. My heartfelt appreciation also goes to every committee member and faculty member for supporting my thesis process. My gratitude extends to my former instructor Dr. Liying Yang for helping me ensure my study was conducted smoothly in China. In addition, I want to acknowledge Dr. Bernita Leahy's meaningful support for promoting my survey in her classes. Special gratitude is extended to all participants for sharing their valuable experiences and inner thoughts through the survey process. Furthermore, I want to thank my mentor, Mr. Joe Dobson, and my colleagues and friends Deepika Nayyar, Eden Li, Jaskiran Kaur, Nivi Xavier, Saba Madarwala and Sonal Shukla from the Graduate Programs in Education Success Centre for their care and support for my study. Finally, I am grateful to my mother, Lijin Wang, my father, Yi Li, and my host family, Mr. Daniel Erickson and Mrs. Elaine Erickson, for their encouragement, prayers and support throughout my thesis process. i Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Chapter One: Introduction Bullying has been a systemic problem occurring in various fields worldwide. It is significant on university campuses, which causes a considerable number of violent cases annually (Hall, 2017; Murtaugh et al., 1999). Although university administrations and law enforcement show no tolerance to any form of bullying behavior, relevant personnel may not have the knowledge or are not familiar with policy in this area. Also, bullying behaviors sometimes are rated as peer conflicts and are ignored so that the victims experience difficulties defending themselves. Due to voids in this area, it is hard for law enforcement and university administrations to use specific laws and policy to protect students’ legal rights. Therefore, it is essential to use data to show the harm of bullying behavior so universities and relevant law enforcement can use a measurement tool when revising or legislating law and university policy. Bullying behavior is not just a modern human behavior, it has existed since human beings competed for survival. Many historical events have recorded human bullying behaviors in ancient times (Donegan, 2012). The incidents appear in different forms in history other than just “bullying”; they might be tribal conflicts, aggressions, and even wars. They occurred among individuals, among groups, among communities and among countries. Thus, bullying behavior can be studied and tracked back to the ancient era. As a human instinct behavior, bullying cannot be eliminated entirely but can be restricted. Even though many historical bullying events were not noticed until more recent generations, they are examples to study of early stage bullying behavior. To both the university and law enforcement, it is essential to recognize such behavior as early as possible to stop it from causing more damage. This study expounded on different types of bullying behavior from various perspectives. Depending on the number of people involved in a bullying incident, bullying behavior can be classified as individual or collective bullying. The victim can vary from an individual to a community. In mobbing cases, people recognize it as discrimination, but they usually would not notice it or take it seriously as bullying at the beginning. The situation might be worse in individual bullying cases. Physical and verbal bullying were the classic types of bullying behavior that the public noticed. 1 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China As Internet technology is rapidly developing, bullying is not limited to direct and physical harm; a new type of abuse has arisen- cyberbullying. Cyberbullying, also known as online bullying, refers to abuse via electronic devices that cause a wide range of injuries including invisible emotional harm such as threats, or the unauthorized disclosure of personal data. Due to network characteristics, cyberbullying behavior spreads broader, faster, and more covertly. Cyberbullied victims experience more brutal linguistic abuse that may lead to adverse emotional reactions, sometimes including an increased suicide ideation (Dragan, 2011; Kowalski et al., 2012). Since the harm is frequently invisible, the damage may continuously occur unless the result becomes obvious or raises some element of public concern, and is effectively addressed. While universities in some countries adhere to a notolerance policy in relation to any form of bullying behavior, traditional bullying behavior may have been reduced. However, the rate of cyberbullying is increasing rapidly. More students report that they were frequently suffering from online teasing and threats (Donegan, 2012; Myers & Cowie, 2017; National Center for Educational Statistics, 2019). Without powerful and appropriate anti-bullying theories and strategies directed towards this specific bullying behavior, bullying on campus may turn into an unmanageable form. Canada is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. One of parliament’s duties is passing laws (Canada.ca., 2017a; Canada.ca., 2017b). Under the threelevel government system, which has federal, provincial or territorial, and municipal (city) governments, most provincial or territorial governments have responsibility for education. Trustees, in most provinces, are elected at the local level and also have responsibility for policies and other aspects of public education. Therefore, school acts/education acts and policies, university acts and policies vary according to provincial or territorial governments’ jurisdictions. China, on the other hand, is a five-level governmental system that includes provincial (province, autonomous region, municipality, and special administrative region), prefecture, county, township, and village government, all of which is under the exclusive political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) (Wang, 2016). Therefore, local law enforcement and educational institutions obey a single legal system in China. Schools and universities in different provinces have the same or similar School Policy or University Policy. 2 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China When comparing these countries’ government settings, Canadian schools and universities may adjust some policies and regulations based on local situations and circumstances whereas Chinese schools and universities follow a unified set of policies and regulations. As a result, it seems that the Canadian administration system is more humanized but might be less efficient, while the Chinese style is more efficient but might be mechanized. Nevertheless, the school bullying rates in Canada and China attract public attention. In a study about student bullying in Canada (Charach et al., 1995), about 49% of Grades Three to Eight students and/or their parents responded that the student(s) had experienced bullying within a two-month period. The reasons for being bullied were primarily related to peer relationships and social identities. Dr. Edward F. Dragan, who had worked in the education field for over 40 years and was working as a consultation firm owner called the School Liability Expert Group, and who self-identifies as an expert in consultation related to attorneys, schools and parents, wrote in his book (Dragan, 2011) that over 30% of students from Grades Six to Ten experienced either verbal harassment or rumor spreading, 13% had been physically abused, and 10% had been cyberbullied. Moreover, Dragan (2011) stated that the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC)’s reported there was a possibility that about 37 school shooting incidents were caused by bullying and harassment behavior. In the investigation conducted by Zhang and colleagues (2018) about bullying in China, eight relevant studies were compared (years ranging from 2002 to 2012). They stated that approximately 20% of Chinese students (ages three to twenty) who responded to the survey identified that they had experienced bullying incidents. The perceived significant reasons for being bullied were school performance and social relationships. Moreover, Zhang et al. (2018) indicated that the reasons for being bullied in China may change from academic performance-focused issues to social relationship-focused issues as students grow older. In the current study, a survey was used to collect data on enrolled university students' bullying experiences in their lives, whether as a bully or a victim. This study focused on discovering the relationship between university life, daily life, and bullying experiences. The information was collected anonymously through a survey. Also, there was a section in the survey targeting the situation of the new form of bullying behavior-cyberbullying, to compare its symptoms and consequences to other bullying behavior. To visualize the 3 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China relationship between bullying behavior and an individual’s internal feelings, a psychological test, Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), was used as an auxiliary tool in the study to formulate questions that would help participants ‘name’ their experiences. To conclude, firstly, this study observed the reasons behind bullying at university from diverse angles. Secondly, this study measured the harm of different bullying behaviors, compared them, and explored the relationship between personal and social factors and the bullying experience, to determine the signs of bullying offences at a preliminary stage and to determine whether there was one type of bullying that causes the worst damage to students' physical and mental health. Thirdly, this study collected feedback on current anti-bullying strategies and policies from universities in different areas (Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, Canada; and Tianjin Foreign Studies University and Tianjin Medical University in Tianjin, China). The purpose of the analysis was to determine if relevant strategies affect the university bullying rate and if current policies lead to a positive result along with the student's attitudes about the bullying event. It is worth mentioning that the local legal system directly impacts the university policy. Thus, this study also referred to law enforcement to some degree. However, due to the lack of research in this area, it might not be possible to make comparisons with other studies. Research questions Q1. What kind of injury/loss can bullying behavior cause among university students? A quantitative survey was used as the major method in this study. It includes a questionnaire with a series of open-ended and close-ended questions. This method focuses on collecting data on basic social identity information, and the relevant history and personal attitudes of participants. In fact, the causes of on-campus bullying behavior are not limited to academic experience, some other social factors may also cause a bullying incident in postsecondary institutions. The student sample in the universities are adults (above 18 years old) who have more complex social relationships than minors (Azmitia et al., 2008; Barber et al., 2001). Cultural background, financial status, and social experiences are factors that lead to complications for bullying. The questionnaire visualized the abstract factors. This study analyzed the results through a quantitative strategy, and the numerical responses revealed the major causes, factors, and significant results of the bullying/bullied experiences. 4 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China This study highlighted the factors and possibilities causing bullying perpetration. Also, individual identity and social identity are two essential factors influencing the results of the damage. For instance, a student from a lower social class or who works in the entertainment field who had more complex social connections might experience more bullying than a student with an average level social identity. Q2. What causes bullying types to transform from physical bullying to verbal/cyberbullying or cyberbullying to traditional bullying? This question involves participants’ mental acts. Sometimes, when perpetrators were not satisfied with the result of their bullying offence, they might continue bullying the target through a different type of bullying. For instance, from physical bullying the bully might switch to verbal/cyberbullying, or from verbal/cyberbullying to physical abuse. However, what factors cause the transformative action; and the severity of harm that victims carry in this situation was worth researching in-depth. Thus, this study investigated why a bully would switch their strategy from one type to the other and the chance a bully would use another type of bullying to attack the victim. Q3. What causes a victim to sometimes become a bully? Due to the severe results from bullying and the long-term impact on the victim, a bully may have experienced bullying themselves and been a victim. Runions et al. (2019) stated some victims who had been socially isolated and had experienced peer rejection because of bullying incidents were more likely to become a bully. However, the study did not clarify the factors that lead victims to become bullies, nor did it identify the types of bullying behavior that cause this transformation. The reason causes the role changing, and the type of bullying experiences that most likely lead to a victim becoming a bully were the two focused points of this research question that involve participants' responses and attitude changes. The data in this thesis was gathered in the shadow of COVID-19 when direct communication between individuals at universities was curtailed, as classes were held synchronously online rather than in person. Therefore, it was an opportunity to study the change in the bullying rate at universities without significant direct face-to-face communication among students. 5 Chapter Two: Literature Review 2.1. Definition of Bullying 2.1.1. Explanation through historical incidents The term ‘bully’ can be traced back to the 14th century. In the 1530s, ‘bully’ was used as a noun that carried a positive meaning- ‘sweetheart,’ which might be inspired by the Dutch word ‘lover, brother’ and the German word ‘lover.’ Due to the social concept’s development and influence, this word gradually turned into a negative word in the 17th century. By 1710, ‘bully’ was being used as a verb and evolved into today's form- inequitable violent behavior and phenomenon (Harper, 2013). Bullying occurs in various contexts such as a campus, a workplace, a home or worldwide. However, Donegan (2012) states that the origin of the word ‘bully’ was the "desire to survive" (p. 34). In the prehistoric age, stronger groups would attack vulnerable groups to contend for precious survival resources. As time went by, those early groups united and became countries, and as the territories expanded, the atmosphere and relationships became significantly competitive (Donegan, 2012; Sherrow, 2011). Bullying behavior, when translated into a political and historical context, has had a significant impact on China. As a descendant of that history, it is difficult to separate that historical context from my interest expressed through this present study. If the reason for bullying incidents among individuals was to dominate over others, then the cause of bullying incidents among nations can be the leaders' desire for dominance. From 1839 to 1860, China experienced two historical incidents, mainly against the British Empire, known as the Opium Wars (Ringmar, 2006). In 1834, the Chinese government started to halt the opium trade, which the British Empire used as a ruse to revise a passive trading situation with China and release the pressure from a decreasing domestic economy and the spending for dominating oversea territories. In 1839, the Chinese Governor General Lin Zexu closed the opium factories and destroyed all available opium, which triggered the First Opium War. With the Chinese Qing Empire's defeat, the Treaty of Nanking ended the war in 1842. The unequal treaty included a twenty-one million dollar compensation for opium and the cession of Hong Kong (Platt, 2018; U.S. Department of State, n.d.). Ten years later, in 1853, with a similar excuse of the opium trade, the British Empire, French Empire and Russian Empire started the Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Second Opium War against the Chinese Qing Empire. The war ended in 1860 with another unequal treaty-Treaty of Tientsin, which included six million taels of fine silver as compensation. During the war, the Forbidden City was occupied by the three empires' allied forces, and the Summer Palace was sacked and burnt down (Platt, 2018). Furthermore, at the end of the 19th century, due to long-term seclusion, the accurate perspective of current circumstances and modern scientific techniques in China lagged far behind the European countries. The allied forces, mainly from Europe, known as the ‘Eight-Nation Alliance’ (including the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, British Empire, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States), invaded China in 1900 (Bassett, 2016; Harrington et al., 2010). Unknown numbers of civilians who were accused or suspected of rebelling against the alliance and the Qing Empire were executed. Due to the military force between China and the Eight-Nation Alliance being extraordinarily imbalanced and political concepts being poles apart, the Chinese Qing Empire had to accept unequal treaties called the Boxer Protocol (Harrington et al., 2010). The existing government had to pay a considerable amount of indemnity (“450 million taels of fine silver, which equaled approximately $333 million [US Dollars] at the exchange rates of the time”) and concede the right to the Powers to station troops in Northeast China (Li, 2012; Spence, 1991). The war lasted more than a year (455 days). It was only fourteen years before World War 1. These historical events in China explains bullying behavior's common characteristics: (1) The behavior starts from an original human desire. The British Empire, as one of the most developed countries in the 17th century, demonstrated a great desire for global political and economic dominance, as did many other countries, including Spain, France, Portugal, Russia and others. The British Empire expanded its overseas possessions rapidly, from North America to the Middle East, Asia (India) to China (Lloyd, n.d.). In contrast to the British Empire and other European countries’ hyper-connected relationship, the Qing Empire was isolated from the rest of the world for years (Blishen, 2012; Larsen, 2011; Po, 2018). Due to the Qing Empire’s enclosed political and economic strategy, and the ruling class’s shortsighted and arrogant attitude, its people thought that China was the ‘most powerful’ country and led the world. This top-down complacency seemed to be the reason that the European countries were given the opportunity to enter this ‘ancient’ ‘outdated’ territory (Blishen, 2012; Larsen, 2011). The comparatively highly developed science and political 7 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China concepts and the imperialism and nationalism of the British Empire and the allied countries with the desire to expand their territories and rule were the two major factors that helped fuel World War I (Brantlinger, 2013; Cain & Hopkins, 1987). In contrast, Australia and China were rich in territories and resources and had a common condition that they were under an inward-looking state. That enclosed concept blinded these areas from recognizing their situation, which blocked supports from ally countries (Lloyd, n.d.; Marshall, 1996). The European Empires bonded closely and applied similar political, dominant and economic strategies, which significantly improved their military strength. As a result, those enclosed countries were defending themselves independently from not only one European Empire but all its allies, which leads to the second factor-the number of involved personnel (community). (2) The minority against the majority. As mentioned, European countries did not fight individually but united with other allies. For instance, the Qing Empire’s military was facing a force that combined eight European countries' military power in the 1st and 2nd Opium Wars (Fhlathúin, 2008; Marshall, 1996; Wilson, 2006). The same occurred in 1860s’ North America, where the United States government purchased Alaska for slightly over seven million dollars, the so called Purchase of Alaska. Due to a subtle triangular global relationship among Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, Russia sold Alaska to the United States, which meant helping the Russian economy to recover a little and avoiding breaking the balance with the United Kingdom, but these political leaders ignored local communities and local people’s will (Farrow, 2016; Jackson, 1967). (3) The bullying behavior was repeated. The 2nd Opium War broke out only 12 years after the 1st Opium War; the second time the invasion was significantly more ferocious than the first time, which led the Qing Dynasty to its end (Marshall, 1996; Wilson, 2006). Like overland exploration in North America, European explorers used violent methods to explore today's Canada and United States' territories and expelled Indigenous people from their homeland repetitively, since the 16th century (Kuman, 2006; Marshall, 1996; Wilson, 2006). The consequences still exist and continue to draw public attention today. 2.1.2. Bullying behavior in today’s public perception Social bullying behavior shares some characteristics with political bullying. Olweus (1999) and Burger (2015) both concluded that bullying behavior demonstrates three criteria: (1) harmfulness, (2) repetitiveness, (3) and imbalance. When society became more sensitive 8 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China to bullying behavior in the 20th century, violent bullying incidents were observed everywhere that people connected with one another, including the home, the workplace, school, and leisure places. The cause of bullying was broad and includes political concepts and other concepts such as race, sexual orientation, grade point average (GPA), gender and even attractiveness. In the beginning, bullying behavior occurred in a direct contact form, whether it was physical or verbal bullying. However, as modern techniques advanced, the forms of injury caused by bullying behavior became more varied and severe. The development of bullying harm is discussed in section 2.2. 2.1.3. Types of Bullying Curelaru et al. (2009) classified bullying behavior by elements as follows: the nature of the act, the distance rapport with the aggressor, the number of persons, the obnoxiousness, and the type of reaction. In this present study, bullying behavior is classified according to two variable groups, the number of involved personnel and the interaction tactic. First classification—number of involved individuals. Individual bullying means the incident involves only two people. This type of bullying was one of the most frequent forms in every age group and community. Bandura (2002) stated that individual bullying happens more frequently due to a series of self-serving cognitive distortions. Aggressors use this strategy to protect their bullying actions, minimizing their feelings of guilt and shame. Bandura (1999; 2002) also identified this psychological mechanism as Individual Moral Disengagement (IMD) and classified it into four major categories: (1) the cognitive restructuring of harmful behavior, (2) obscuring or minimizing one’s role in causing harm, (3) disregarding or distorting the impact of harmful behavior, and (4) blaming and dehumanizing the victim. The IMD strategy often comforts offenders’ feelings when they bully others. Another phenomenon in individual bullying cases was the micro aggressive acts that occur mainly in an insubstantial form but often shows a ‘real and negative consequence’ (Johnson, 2018). A common form of a micro aggressive act was verbal bullying, which can happen anytime, anywhere for various reasons, such as agism, racism, religion, sexual orientation, etc. However, since people and relevant departments usually ignore or disdain this type of mild bullying behavior, it may sometimes lead to a severe result or turn into mobbing, or even worse, violent incidents. However, there were not enough studies and reliable data to analyze how the rate of individual bullying 9 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China behavior transforms to other types of bullying. It is essential to pay more attention to this mild bullying action and consider completing relevant policy and regulations to protect victim’s legitimate rights and interests. Collective bullying (Mobbing) means the incident occurs between a community and an individual or a larger group against a much smaller group. Mobbing, also known as group bullying, occurs in physical or psychological ways as well as through small, seemingly insignificant gestures or putdowns that were intended to intimidate the individual or group being bullied. In the educational field, mobbing can be divided into two sublevels- school bullying and academic bullying. Bullying incidents may occur through tactics such as: rumor, innuendo, discrediting, name-calling, racial slurs, sexual slurs, isolating, intimidating and so on, which more frequently happens among students. Academic bullying may involve either students or faculty or both. Examples include being excluded from group assignments, not being included in relevant meetings, promotion of one individual’s profile over another for unarticulated rationale, unwillingness to offer helpful comments when asked, disengagement during student or faculty presentations, imbalanced study or academic resources, or similar behaviors that were mostly unnamable and were definitely ‘below the radar’ of an observer (Cassell, 2011). Students who carry non-mainstream identities might also be subject to bullying because they were perceived as ‘different.’ Issues such as, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, political affiliations or opinions, and nationalities, may quickly become the focus of bullying in schools (Mahmoudi, 2019). Even though government and educational departments were taking collective bullying seriously and had launched a series of policies and regulations to protect students and educational personnel from bullying behavior, the bullying incident rate remained high and was increasing (Cismaru, & Cismaru, 2018; National Center for Educational Statistics, 2019). The challenge to personnel was to recognize and restrain the adverse circumstances of bullying before any critical harm had been caused. Intervention on behalf of both the bullied and the bully was essential when addressing the root causes and potential solutions to bullying and its external forms. What was the difference between physical bullying and verbal/cyberbullying in racism cases? Can cyberbullying change to traditional bullying behavior in the verbal cases? 10 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Second classification—interaction tactic. This section focuses on analyzing several types of bullying behavior via its presentation. First of all, physical bullying is one of the traditional bullying behaviors. As previously mentioned, the origin of bullying was in humans' desire to survive (Donegan, 2012; Dragan, 2011). According to Dragan (2011) and Donegan (2012), in the prehistoric era, stronger tribes would attack weak tribes to rob their living supply. The force was imbalanced, the numbers of a tribe’s warriors might also be significantly disparate, but to survive, the warriors might abandon their humanity attacking vulnerable groups. The battle among tribes was the ancestral model of bullying behavior. As time went by, the causes of physical bullying became varied. Aggressors may not have offended only for survival but for an emotional expression. Curelaru et al. (2009) classified physical school bullying's manifestations including, but not limited to, "physically assaulting, hitting, spitting, kicking, slapping, tripping, throwing stones, pulling, pushing, damaging victim's property, stealing things, gun threatening, touching or grabbing sexually" (p.13). However, few studies mentioned why offenders attacked victims via violent methods repetitively. Once the public recognized that physical bullying infringed upon the victim’s legal rights, relevant divisions (legislation departments and educational departments) launched a series of rules and regulations which effectively reduced and restrained violent school incidents. Yet, Verbal bullying has emerged as the word ‘verbal’ indicates as the use of oral ability to domineer over others. Verbal bullying means to use language as a weapon to substantially attack targets. Typically, verbal bullying is revealed through verbal insulting, name-calling, verbal threatening, staring, taunting, and rumor spreading (Curelaru et al. 2009; Dragan, 2011; Rigby, 2007). Since verbal bullying usually would not cause instantaneous physical injury, aggressors more likely choose micro aggressive acts like verbal bullying as an abuse method instead of traditional physical assault. For instance, according to Curelaru et al. (2009) and Su's et al. (2020) studies, for participants in the age groups of teenagers and young adults (20 years) the chances of verbal bullying was approximately two times more than physical bullying. Also, due to the characteristics of the micro aggressive acts, faculties had a hard time effectively restraining or banning verbal bullying. Nevertheless, along with the development of the Internet and electronic devices, a 11 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China new type of bullying appeared- cyberbullying became a common assault-style approach especially among youth. Cyberbullying is ‘known as electronic bullying’ (Dragan, 2011). It is bullying behavior that occurs through the use of electronic media, such as smartphones and social networks. Smith et al. (2008) defined cyberbullying as "an aggressive act or behavior that was carried out using electronic means by a group or an individual repeatedly and over time against a victim" (p. 376). This type of bullying behavior did not come to the public's attention until the 2010s, when the Internet, social networks and smartphones were booming worldwide. Wi-Fi and social media platforms provide an invisible screen that can protect clients' privacy and encourage people to express what they are terrified to announce to the public in a face-to-face manner. Nevertheless, offenders can use these ‘media’ to bully others without concern about opponents' physical reactions (Donegan, 2012; Myers & Cowie, 2017). Two significant factors have caused cyberbullying to grow fast and make it difficult to restrain: (1) legislation to protect against this form of bullying has been slower to emerge than cyber techniques' development. Even though the public and school divisions have been aware of this new style of bullying crime for years, more advanced cyber-techniques and new social media platforms are an endless stream that can always be one step ahead of responsive policies and regulations. (2) Limitation of law restricts school divisions to act. Due to a younger-age trend and the universality of electronic device acquisition, freedom of speech and the legal protection of fundamental human rights, it is a challenge for educational institutions and law enforcement to deal with these issues (Donegan, 2012). Also, due to the high probability for a child or individual to have access to electronic devices, the cyberbullying victim age group range tends to be wide and young. Dragan (2011) showed a set of data that indicated that more than 42% of students experienced cyberbullying, “[10%] teens and [4%] preteens were threatened online with physical harm, (p. 85) and close to 20% of students told no one about the incident. Also, cyberbullies can use the convenience of current communication techniques such as high-speed Internet to utilize diverse and speedy methods in wide-ranging areas for spreading rumors, stalking privacy on electronic devices, prank calls, and malicious slander and libel. Numerous researchers state that the frequency of different types of bullying may vary by elements such as age, gender, education level and social class. In Boulton and 12 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Underwood’s study (1992), they showed that during primary and secondary school ages, the chance of boys starting a conflict was approximately four times more than girls. On the physical contact side, studies show that there was more indirect physical contact in female students bullying cases than direct contact (physical aggression), which technically means male students had a higher rate in cases of violent physical bullying (Young et al. 2006). However, as age increases, the gap among different genders decreases; also, the higher educated the students were, the less chance of physical contact in bullying cases, while indirect contact bullying (verbal, cyberbullying) significantly increased. The frequency of direct and indirect contact bullying in the university student age group was fairly close (Boulton & Underwood, 1992; Nansel et al., 2001; Piskin, 2002; Rigby & Slee, 1991). 2.2. Consequences of bullying behavior 2.2.1. How does each type of bullying behavior affect university students’ health? In this section, the consequences of bullying behavior will be discussed through the interaction tactic classification. Physical bullying may cause direct physical injury, but it is not the only consequence. As with verbal bullying and cyberbullying, the consequences are not limited to psychological injury but may also cause subsequent physical injury, especially when indirect bullying eventually turns into a physical conflict (Rigby, 2003). Physical injury was the most visible trauma, such as scratches, bruises, coma, hemorrhaging and even death (Rigby, 2003; Rigby, 2007). Equally, psychological trauma may cause a similar level and even worse damage to a person even though it is invisible. According to study results, bullying behavior was a concerning factor causing later and long-term psychological and physical problems for both perpetrators and victims (Kim et al., 2006; Rigby, 2003). Rigby (2003), in his mixed-method research, concluded that both bullies and victims had onset different degrees of psychological problems that include “[l]ow [p]sychological [w]ellbeing,” which symptoms show as unhappy and negative life attitudes, to “[p]hysical [i]llhealth [s]ymptoms,” which were considered as an illness that may affect essential living abilities and may lead to suicidal ideation (Donegan, 2012, p. 37). Kim et al. (2006) stated that after a long exposure to a bullying environment, both perpetrators and victims show a significant increased trend in onset “antisocial personality,” “psychological health issues,” and “aggressive behavior” (p. 1040). Nevertheless, Dragan (2011) stated that according to a study “60[%] of those characterized as bullies in grades six to nine had at least one criminal 13 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China conviction by age 24” (p. 19), which was about the age individuals start working or had graduated from an undergraduate degree or diploma from a post-secondary institution such as a university or college. 2.2.2. Consequences from Bullying Behavior As a more recent model of bullying behavior (identified in the early 21st century), cyberbullying is considered to cause worse damage to individuals than traditional bullying (Kokkinos et al., 2014). Cyberbullying incidents commonly involve more people. The individuals are often randomly targeted. The bully and the victim often do not know each other at the onset of the bullying. The injury from cyber-bullying may be invisible and cause long-term negative individual harm. The process of cyberbullying often lasts longer (Kokkinos et al., 2014; Xiao & Wong, 2013). For example, Xuezhou Liu, a 15-year-old Chinese youth, committed suicide after experiencing non-stop cyberbullying, human trafficking, sexual abuse, and being abandoned twice by his biological parents (BBC, 2022; Global Times, 2022; Li & Shepherd, 2022). Through Liu’s suicide note, the public noticed that, when he underwent sexual abuse from his secondary school teacher, Liu chose to keep silent and attempted suicide. In China, when a child or young person obeys a request or an instruction from an adult without dispute, it is showing their respect to a person from a senior generation or a higher class. This sign of respect, culturally, is often expected, This concept has deep roots in many Chinese people’s mindsets, which stems from Confucian Doctrine inherited from many centuries and dynasties, such as obey and respect seniors and people from higher positions at all times with no rebellion (Bush & Haiyan, 2000). As time passed, this tradition sometimes led to doctrinal behavior where the younger generation would keep silent and avoid questions when processing an order from a senior family member, a boss from a department, or a teacher at a school, while superiors may ignore their followers’ needs and avoid being ‘questioned’ (Dai, 2021; White & Chan, 1983). Thus, in Liu’s case, after Liu’s biological parents refused to take care of him and cut the connection with him, Liu published some of his chat history on social media, including but not limited to the death of his adoptive parents, rejection from his biological parents, and sexual abuse. Cyberbullies and verbal abusers had continuously attacked Liu, even after the youth committed suicide in Sanya (Loh, 2022). Liu’s tragedy not only involves his biological family and the schoolteacher but also thousands of social media 14 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China users who had no connection or relationship with the victim. Although cyberbullying attracts public attention and personnel’s concerns (police, policy makers, the legal system, child welfare authorities, education authorities, and others), the legal loopholes and lack of knowledge in anti-cyberbullying initiatives cause significant numbers of Internet users to insult and harass the victim without concern for the possible consequences (BBC, 2022; Global Times, 2022; Li & Shepherd, 2022; Loh, 2022). The cyberbullying incident, described in the Liu case, occurred over less than 30 days but caused a severe result - death. Another Chinese cyberbullying case, known as the ‘227 incident,’ started in March 2020 and is still in process. The incident was started by the Chinese censorship group blocking a fan fiction publishing platform, Achieve of Our Own (Gao, 2020; Ho, 2021a; Ho, 2021b). As one of the most popular Chinese idols, Xiao Zhan had 29.8 million fans on Weibo, one of the biggest social media platforms. Though one of the worst cyberbullying incidents known in China, it became known in other countries. Xiao was the most famous victim of cyberbullying in China. The incident began over a controversy between Xiao’s fans and Achieve of Our Own (AO3) users. AO3 was a nonprofit online fanfiction/fan works repository that users can use to create and launch articles (Ho, 2021a; Ho, 2021b; Minna, 2020; Organization for Transformative Works, n.d.). The characters in the article were based on real idols, actors/actresses and other celebrities without asking for copyright or the right of portrait authority. Xiao’s fans complained and reported the AO3 platform to the relevant government division, identifying that the platform infringed on Xiao’s rights of portrait and reputation. As a result, the platform was no longer available for use in mainland China once the Internet censorship group (Great Firewall of China) blocked the website. AO3 users became impulsive and aggressive and started indiscriminately cyberbullying or harassing anyone who was connected with Xiao (Ho, 2021a; Minna, 2020). During a two-year cyberbullying experience, Xiao was asked to remain silent and could not defend himself, his family, and his friends. Xiao, as a celebrity, had many luxury brand endorsements, brands that hired him as their ambassador to improve their sales volume. Employing an ambassador can cost a considerable amount of money. There were also substantial earnings awarded to a product ambassador. The cyberbullies did not just attack Xiao himself but also tried to lead the public to boycott Xiao and many endorsed brands, such as Cartier and Piaget, which endured significant financial and reputational losses. This historical cyberbullying incident 15 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China was temporarily paused after Xiao Zhan and Xiao Zhan Studio, as victims, declared an apology announcement (see original full text in Appendix A). In the announcement, Xiao apologized, saying the public attention and social media platforms were significantly negatively influenced by his ‘no reaction’ and his fans’ behavior. Further, he stated that he realized it took too long for him to take responsibility for the incidents and that he failed to lead his fans towards appropriate behavior. He stated even though he could not expect everyone to like him, it was his duty to create a positive social environment regardless of whether it was in-person or on social media. This incident was the first time in Chinese history that a bullied victim had to apologize in public to the bully to calm the aggressors and the negative attention and save substantial financial loss (Ho, 2021a; Jing Daily, 2020; Minna, 2020). After two years of evidence collection, Xiao and his studio sued the lead cyberbullies in court. As a result, the court froze the defendants’ social media accounts, compensated him for the financial losses, and made the offenders apologize publicly (Gao, 2020; Jiang, 2020; Minna, 2020). Despite this 'end' to the story, anonymous social media accounts had been created. The cyberbullying and in-person bullying of Xiao and his relations continues. In the third quarter of 2022, as people started to adjust to the impact of the pandemic, students in China gradually returned to school and attended in-person classes. Another tragedy led to a youth's death. Yan Gao, a twenty-year-old student at Shandong College of Arts, was confirmed by police as dead by suicide at his home on September 10th, 2022 (iNews, 2023; Sun, 2022; Wei, 2022). His chat history on his WeChat (one of the most popular Chinese social media platforms) was disclosed to the public by his former classmates soon after the local police officer delivered a death notification (iNews, 2023). The chat history revealed some clues that Gao had been bullied by one of his instructors due to his social background and sexual orientation. Internet users, mostly from China, urged the school office and local police department to investigate the truth of the student's death (iNews, 2023; Sun, 2022; Wei, 2022). There are several points to consider in relation to Gao. First, the evidence seemed one-sided in this case. According to a few officers’ statements, the suspicion of school bullying between the teacher and the student was just from Gao's WeChat history. In the dialogue document, Gao complained about the unfair treatment in his class, the instructor's verbal and mental bullying experiences, and the isolation from the rest 16 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China of the class (iNews, 2023; Sun, 2022; Wei, 2022). Moreover, some suicidal expression messages were sent to his friend. These messages articulated that he was under unbearable pressure and wanted to kill himself because of this instructor. His classmates had orally indicated that they witnessed Gao experiencing some unfair treatment by that instructor, but no further or official evidence shows that the unfairness existed and/or meets the measurement of bullying behavior (iNews, 2023; Sun, 2022; Wei, 2022). Also, the involved instructor and the school office had not provided any evidence either to defend themselves or to prove the existence of the bullying behavior. Therefore, with the one-sided evidence of Gao, public opinion tends to lean toward the fact that Gao's death was a result of being bullied by a college instructor. From the students' and their families’ perspectives, the lack of knowledge and awareness of bullying behavior and related law and school policies may cause difficulties and conflicts in managing such incidents. Witnesses and victims' families may be affected by the public attitudes. Concerns about their loss without effective actions or investigation occurring, with no resolution in sight creates extended victims. The school office responded indirectly to the incident through a recent announcement, saying that social media users and Gao's parents were leading public opinion to a one-sided truth and causing negative attention to the college (iNews, 2023; Sun, 2022; Wei, 2022). Chinese educational institution’s leaders and employees at the post-secondary level were largely unaware of antibullying policies and regulations. Different policies or regulations that address school bullying incidents sometimes lead to inappropriate judgements and negative reactions from the public (Sun, 2022; Wei, 2022). As a result, during the investigation, which is still ongoing, public opinion has been split into three perspectives: those defending Gao, those defending the college, and those who remain neutral while maintaining their silence and waiting for results from the local police office. However, as the investigation is ongoing, further information is unavailable. Therefore, it is difficult to find any follow-up information related to this case. Moreover, there are some who believe that some of the disclosed information seemed to be erased or removed instead of being updated by ‘following official procedures,’ but it has led to an uncertain atmosphere with the public and with those who care about Gao since it seems the case is not being covered or resolved. Beyond this, some Internet users are trying to use social media to take various actions to support Gao. However, 17 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China those finite responses, follow-up reports from the police, and news reports that were initially disclosed were removed several days later. On the other side of the world, the Jubran case resulted as an important stage in British Columbia’s development of school protocols and policies against bullying behaviors Azmi Jubran was bullied throughout his high school years by his peers (Supreme Court of Canada, 2016). The bullying behaviors that occurred in this case included but were not limited to name-calling, verbal insults, harassment, which mainly fell under the category of individual bullying behaviors and the category of verbal bullying behaviors. In the late 1990s when minority sex identities and sexual orientations were not commonly recognized and treated equally, Jubran’s daily behaviors triggered his peer’s bullying behaviors. The bullying teasing and harassing behaviors significantly interrupted Jubran’s studies and life on campus. Although this victim reported his situation to the school and the school board and sought help, the school and relevant authorities did not respond to the complaint effectively and efficiently. Therefore, Jubran sued not only the bullies but also the school board for not providing an equitable educational environment. On April 6th, 2005, the tenth year after Jubran “filed a human rights complaint [in 1996] against the North Vancouver School Board” (Dafnos, 2007, p. 561; Supreme Court of Canada, 2016), the Court of Appeal for British Columbia (Vancouver) eventually allowed Jubran’s appeal that included the school board’s acknowledgement of their negligence with regards to the delayed addressing of the student’s complaint and their not providing an equitable educational environment. In Jubran’s case, several points drew public attention: (1) from the bully’s perspective, the victim’s sexual orientation was the key factor that triggered the incident. The teenage bullies started insulting and harassing their peer just because of his sexual orientation, which had never been confirmed throughout the trial. The evidence confirmed that the bullies knew that Jubran was not homosexual but continued the homosexual epithets regardless. However, the court also confirmed that no social identity should be the reason to bully others (Dafnos, 2007). (2) The school board through their ignorance and delayed response to Jubran’s complaints exposed him to harm from bullying behaviors without appropriate protection throughout his five years of school life. The harm could be deep and extended to his later life. (3) From society’s perspective, the Internet and social media in the 1990s were not as popularized as in the 2020s, which led to much less attention from the 18 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China public during the lawsuit than what would take place today. Nevertheless, Jubran was fortunate to receive justice when he was 24 years of age, and his case contributed many valuable lessons for schools in Canada with respect to bullying, but the next victim was not as fortunate. Also in Canada, a fifteen-year-old Canadian student, Amanda Michelle Todd, committed suicide on October 10th, 2012 (Judd, 2021). The girl had disclosed some of her cyberbullied experiences through a YouTube video. In fact, Todd not only suffered from blackmail through mail and the Internet but also suffered from physical and sexual abuse by a Holland man-- Aydin Coban (the principal culprit). The bullying experience caused indepth damage and long-term mental effects on this teenager. Todd's mental health significantly declined which led to further negative results such as language disability and severe depression. Although Todd visited a therapist and made some progress, the general social concept and legislation at that time could not stop the tragedy (Hainsworth, 2014; Yvette, 2020). The cyberbullying incident continued and got worse. After Todd’s family moved to a new city and she transferred to a new school, the offender sent the blackmails to the victim's new school, which put Todd into an irretrievable and hopeless situation. Unfortunately, her poor academic performance, mental deterioration and other issues broke her final defensive line and she hanged herself at home (Hainsworth, 2014; Yvette, 2020). The Holland Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and British Columbia Coroners Service started investigations. However, because of the restriction of the privacy laws in Holland and Canada, the investigators had to use unofficial methods to search for the virtual suspects. Eventually, Coban was extradited to Canada with five charges, including extortion, possession of child pornography, communication with a young person to commit a sexual offence and criminal harassment (Hainsworth, 2014). Nevertheless, due to some issues with Coban's travel documents, his extradition procedure was delayed until the end of 2020 (eight years after Todd’s death) (Yvette, 2020). Todd's case was another typical cyberbullying incident that caused a tragic result-death. Unlike other traditional bullying incidents, cyberbullying cases commonly last a longer time, and involve more Internet users who can either become an offender or a victim, and these people cannot be found until the case was brought to a criminal stage. According to Coban's lawyer’s statement in court, there were at least 39 individuals from different 19 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China countries who alleged that they had been harassed by Coban over many years. Due to the recent structures of the Canadian Council on International Law (CCIL) and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) they could not match each of Coban’s actions on the Internet to the definitions of existing crimes. The investigation and judicial procedure experienced many difficulties and delays in the trial (Hainsworth, 2014; Yvette, 2020). As a result, if society and the legal system cannot recognize the severity of cyberbullying incidents and take the case seriously at an early stage, similar tragedies may occur again. Eventually, Coban was found guilty of five charges in 2022, including: “possession of child pornography, extortion, criminal harassment and communication with a young person to commit a sexual offence” (Matassa-Fung & Judd, 2022, para. 5). A sentencing hearing date was set in September 2022 by Justice Martha Devli at the B.C. Supreme Court (Alam, 2022; The Canadian Press, 2022). After ten years of investigation, a court trial, and a criminal prosecution, Todd’s case finally came to an end and delayed justice prevailed. Coban was sentenced to 11-years imprisonment in the Netherlands. On September 16th, 2023, the Dacheng Bilingual School Board in the People’s Republic of China received a complaint from a student's father (Zhuang, 2023). The father stated that his 10-year-old son was severely bullied by two boys who lived in the same dormitory (Global Times, 2023; Zhuang, 2023). The Dacheng Bilingual School was established in 2020 by the Datong Municipal Government. It is a boarding school containing three levels of education: primary, middle and high school (K1 to K12). Currently, there are 6,000 people (including enrolled students and employees) who live, study, and work on campus. On the second day of school (September 17th, 2023) (CNR News, 2023; Dacheng Bilingual School, n.d.), the school board called both the suspected offenders' and the victim's families to the school and had a 'tripartite meeting.' The victim's father organized a case summary and asked the offenders' parents to write apology statements, and sign an agreement that the two families would pay for the victim’s follow-up physical examination fees. In his case summary the victim’s father recorded the main contents of the incident, and he stated that the bullying behaviors included but were not limited to verbal and physical abuse but also included sexual assault and harassment (Zhuang, 2023). During this process, the school board seemed to have stood aside from the incident and did not take any action. A week later, on September 23rd, the local bureau of education in Datong launched a 20 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China notification that they would send an investigation team to the school to investigate this case. However, the evidence about the case vanished (CNR News, 2023). According to the latest report from the government on September 26th, three administrative staff (the school principal, a vice-principal who was also the director of the primary and secondary school, a vice-principal in charge of campus safety and security), and three student academic lead teachers and their campus life adviser were dismissed (Zhuang, 2023). The students involved were asked to take therapy sessions, but there was no clear information from the government or law enforcement that the two students and their parents were found guilty of anything or if further investigation was needed. The incident spread fast on the Internet and social media and people were shocked and angry. There were several concerns raised about this school bullying incident: (1) Both suspected students were under adolescent age, and both offenders were nine years old. By the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors (Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, n.d), the involved children would be punished accordingly but would not be charged with a crime and would be forced to attend children's mental health therapy sessions. However, the severity and the harm to the victim student's physical and mental conditions seem beyond an apology and payment of follow-up physical examination fees. (2) The 'covering up' behavior from the school board and the local government worsened the situation. As a result, the Datong government released several announcements about establishing and completing the rules to fill the communication gap between school staff and students in order to avoid delayed protection for the victim. Furthermore, those rules also provided solutions for school bullying incidents, especially in the case of boarding schools. Students from these schools were often apart from their parents/guardians for weeks to months; strengthening campus security management and improving sex education at school would be essential to enhance students’ capabilities regarding self-protection from potential harm (Global Times, 2023; Zhuang, 2023). These were positive improvements with a long-term plan that did not directly impact this incident. The Regulation on School Protection for Minors issued on December 26th, 2020, and effective on June 1st, 2021 (Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, n.d; Zhuang, 2023), was aimed against sexual assault-related bullying behavior in schools. However, this case seemed to have not complied with this regulation. As a boarding school, 21 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Dacheng Bilingual School was responsible for protecting students from any physical and mental threats on campus and school employees were fired due to the breach of their duty of care (Global Times, 2023). Although the school board and the Bureau of Education responded quickly in this case, not much direct care or help was provided to the victim. (3) The description of the incidents that the two suspected offenders' parents signed was written by the victim's father, which people doubted had any legal effect. In summary, there were significant gaps between school policies, regulations, and laws and between the school and students' families. The responding reactions from the school board and the families seem unclear and unprofessional, which might directly impact the case result if it is presented in court in the future. Furthermore, the bullying behavior from his peers had harmed a 10-year-old boy; an inappropriate legal process might cause additional harm which would mean the student would not receive justice. To sum up, these incidents illustrated the influences of cyberbullying behavior. It seems almost impossible to recognize all the suspects behind the Internet from a victim's point of view, nor stop them from continuously sending harmful messages. Also, under the existing legal system, victims face various difficulties when seeking help. Once they fail to defend themselves, victims may experience worse ravages and the case may even be upgraded to a criminal level. Thus, currently, it seems easy to avoid legal responsibilities by attacking targets through a cyber method. Moreover, cyberbullies can spread unverified news or messages without considering the consequences or feeling guilty as they might not have a connection or not directly attack the victims. Therefore, cyberbullying incidents and behaviors snowball in many countries and are hard to ban or restrict. The duration of cyberbullying may be longer than other traditional bullying behaviors, and the harm is often deep, long-lasting, and invisible. The damage from cyberbullying can involve diverse areas and can cause various losses simultaneously. Therefore, it is necessary for society and legislatures to pay more attention and legislate relevant laws and regulations against cyberbullying behavior. 2.3. Legal Loopholes and School regulation limitations on bullying 2.3.1. Current North American anti-bullying laws in school bullying Although anti-bullying laws are being enacted in North America, in many states in the U.S. and provinces in Canada, bullying behavior is codified as a crime. Bullying acts 22 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China need to match the existing crime definitions, such as sexual abuse and physical insult, during a court trial (Dragan, 2011). Cyberbullying is a more recent form of bullying behavior that challenges courts and educational institutions to protect students and employees from invisible harm. The Supreme Court of the United States in the case Mahanoy Area School Dist v. B. L. (2021) stated there were close to 60% of American students who had been cyberbullied. The complex characteristics of cyberbullying blur the boundaries of the bullying incident engagement scenes such as campus, home, electronic devices, and social media platforms (Maunder & Crafter, 2018), hence it was difficult to confirm the major responsible party. For instance, if a student was cyberbullied at home, the bullies were from the school, and the cause of the incident was started on campus, it would be complicated to claim the school was liable since the incident did not take place on campus or near the school area. During the pandemic, more students virtually attended school which significantly reduced the physical contact but increased the chances of accessing the Internet. As a result, there would be increased possibilities of students experiencing verbal insults and virtual abuse off-campus more frequently than on-campus. Even though the United States, since 2015, had enacted anti-bullying laws by state that authorize school boards to address inschool bullying incidents, the ‘Third Circuit’s rule’ resists the resolution of cyberbullying cases (Baumann, 2015; Donegan, 2012; Johnson, 2019). The ‘Third Circuit’s rule’ was set to protect individuals’ freedom of speech, which bullies, and their lawyers may use frequently as a defense. To fill this loophole, the ‘Tinker’s standard’ had been enacted to authorize the relevant personnel on the school board to address off-campus bullying incidents. To protect students’ right to free speech, and also determine bullying behavior, the Third Circuit’s rule and Tinker have been frequently mentioned at the same time in many bullying incident investigations and lawsuits (Sec. 37.0832. Bullying Prevention Policies and Procedures, n.d.; The Florida Senate, n.d.). The ‘Tinker’s standard’ is set to fill the gap caused by the ‘Third Circuit’s rule,’ which measures if the speech content is beyond the appropriate range and leads to a negative result. However, this measurement can be subjective, and it varies by individuals’ experiences, so that a case result can be judged differently by diverse judges. Beyond the overall American anti-bullying legislation status, each state had to follow individual proceedings so schools in some states have to meet the Tinker Standard to be 23 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China qualified to address off-campus bullying (cyberbullying treated separately) or ask for a permit to be authorized to access the bullying cases. Therefore, although the current legal system in the United States seemed comprehensive, only half of school faculty members were familiar with this complex procedure and statute, which means there was about a 50% chance that the school employees did not know how to handle an incident or refer a case that was reported by students to the right department (Cismaru & Cismaru, 2018; Donegan, 2012). In Amanda Todd’s case in Canada, which was mentioned in the last section, it was a year after her suicide in 2012, due to a long-term and widespread cyberbullying experience, that Justice Minister Peter Mackay introduced Bill C-13, as anti-bullying legislation. This bill referenced privacy rights in the Internet environment (Boutilier, 2014; Wallace, 2014). However, Bill C-13 did not come into effect until 2015 as an Anti-cyberbullying law in Canada, which was three years after Todd’s tragedy (Puzic, 2015). This bill provided an Act to amend the Criminal Code section 162. Criminal Code section 162.1 (1) now states that: Everyone who knowingly publishes, distributes, transmits, sells, makes available or advertises an intimate image of a person knowing that the person depicted in the image did not give their consent to that conduct, or being reckless as to whether or not that person gave their consent to that conduct, is guilty. (p. 1) Nevertheless, due to the complexity in cyberbullying incidents, the spread of messages may not be limited to images or photographs. Many victims did not receive any resolution or response until the worse consequences attract public attention or result in similar criminal acts (Dragan, 2011). In some cases, once the tragedy had occurred, the damage and loss cannot be cured or reclaimed, which might impact the victims lifelong. In Canada, the current gaps in law may be one of the reasons for the continuous high rate of bullying among students which has not decreased over time. 2.3.2. School and University Acts, policies and regulations refer to school bullying This section briefly introduces relevant legislative content that university senate(s) frequently refer to when setting policies and procedures. Fortunately, universities and legislation divisions expressly state that any form of intentional injury to other individuals is recognized as a crime. On the legislative side, universities have to pursue a series of policies and codes of conduct as in British Columbia, Canada. Usually, the universities in BC are 24 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China composed of a chancellor, a president, a board of governors, a senate and faculty. However, some universities such as the University of British Columbia (UBC), are under special conditions that contain two senates. In the case of UBC, they are the Okanagan Senate and the Vancouver Senate. Therefore, the universities have to manage or resolve bullying incidents by strictly following some procedures, which may vary according to the provincial situation and university acts since education in Canada is a provincial responsibility. Firstly, universities have to define the inappropriate behavior that includes bullying by adhering to the Provincial Standards for Codes of Conduct Order. Secondly, the Safe and Caring School Communities policy from the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training was established to guarantee university students’ school life was free from ‘discrimination, bullying, harassment, intimidation and other forms of violence’ (For educators, n.d.). The federal government of Canada currently has a systemic code of conduct to address this modern bullying behavior (Legal consequences of cyberbullying, n.d.). The criminal law of Canada shows that cyberbullying can cause defamation, create insecure school environments that target students, and provide the consequences to a cyberbully. The Criminal Law of Canada indicates that defamation, harassment and publishing intimate images without consent are crimes under the Criminal Code. For instance, the Canadian Criminal Code Section 708.4 states: Any person who does an act which is not justified and which is intended to cause serious injury to another commits willful injury, which is punishable as follows: 1. A class "C" felony, if the person causes serious injury to another. 2. A class "D" felony, if the person causes bodily injury to another. For the school district aspect, the School Act (British Columbia, 2023) determines the school and teacher’s duties and responsibilities for student safety during school hours and at times when they voluntarily assume responsibility for students. The school board needs to educate teachers and relevant educational employees to recognize and handle violent school incidents. With systematic training, the risk of violent threats on campus would be under control and reduced. However, incidents that involve verbal bullying and cyberbullying are more challenging to deal with. It is a common phenomenon that the public and educational institutions often consider these types of conflicts as ‘banter’ and ‘harmless’ (Myers & 25 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Cowie, 2017), which sometimes underestimate its hidden threats and long-term consequences. Another example is the BC School District 73 Inclusive Education Service Handbook 607.1 which defined the meaning of bullying behavior (Peer Conflict, Mean Behavior and Bullying What’s the difference, 2018). Bullying behavior is a repetitive, intended, power imbalanced unilateral mean behavior. Teachers, instructors, and school employees have to take the case seriously each time a student or a group reports such incidents. Not only do educational administrations need to keep tracking the victim students’ status and provide a method of disposition to the bullies, they also need to offer a methodology to the witnesses for responding to such incidents. However, due to the particularity of cyberbullying behavior, the incident may not be witnessed in full, and can involve a greater number of offenders that do not have a direct or significant contact with the victim. Also, as cyberbullying incidents seem to cause more internal harm than other types of traditional bullying behavior, the schools and relevant departments sometimes cannot respond until the incident leads to a significant or visible harm. Moreover, according to the Privacy Act of Canada (Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, 2018), school staff members and enforcement officers can only access suspected devices to a certain degree by following a restricted confidential procedure, which often turns out no result. Thus, even though students can be protected by a systemic school policy and regulation, the cyberbullied students usually suffer from the emotional and mental abuse for a considerable period of time until they receive some response from the institutions. According to the Inclusive Education Service Handbook section 905.1-Child protection (School district no.73 (Kamloops - Thompson), 2021), people can report suspected abuse incidents to personnel like child welfare workers, the police, and school officials. The procedure of managing such incidents has four major parts. Firstly, the officers have to recognize if there was abuse or neglect. Then, a report and an investigation have to be performed in order to find the truth. Thirdly, by following the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section11(d) (Government of Canada, 2021), the accused individual has to be treated as innocent ‘until proven guilty.’ Finally, each school staff member has to attend an annual anti-bullying training program which varies with the position. By following and 26 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China proceeding with these steps, the school officials can approach a systemic methodology to manage relevant cases thoroughly. The BC School District 73 Inclusive Education Service Handbook 1000.1 (Community violence threat risk assessment protocol guide, n.d.) introduces the difference between peer conflict and the procedure on how educational employees assess and handle school violent conflicts in order to protect students’ health and safety. It provides a guide (VTRA Protocol) to assist the school officials and staff in assessing certain school violent incidents, school bullying included, and a procedure for responding and investigating such situations. Furthermore, to create and maintain an equitable and inclusive study environment, some universities in BC, Canada have established a series of anti-bullying regulations and training sections that may be slightly different based on each university’s situation. Unlike public schools, such as elementary schools and secondary schools, which directly respond to the School District Policy and Procedure, universities in BC follow different rules and procedures depending on the individual circumstances. For instance, according to the University Act, “the University of British Columbia was composed of a chancellor, a senate, a board, an Okanagan senate, a Vancouver senate, a council and faculties” (British Columbia, 2022) when other universities only comprise one senate. Therefore, the Okanagan Senate and the Vancouver Senate of UBC collaborate to set the policy and procedures for the university by applying the BC University Act and laws. Also, “The University College of the Cariboo was continued as a corporation under the name Thompson Rivers University [TRU] and was composed of the members of the board and members of the senate,” which contain only one senate that sets the policies and procedures that apply with the BC University Act, School Act, College and Institution Act, and laws (British Columbia, 2022; Thompson Rivers University, n.d.). Hence although in the same province, different universities obey diverse policies and procedures and have different organizational standards when managing a similar situation, which sometimes leads to contrasting results. 2.3.3. Universities’ responses and protocols towards school bullying As mentioned in the previous section, some universities in BC, Canada, proposed a series of anti-school bullying methodologies regarding the relevant content in law and the University Act. For instance, the University of British Columbia (UBC) has a website (Bullying and Harassment Prevention at UBC, n.d.) that contains the university’s policy 27 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China towards bullying and harassment behavior on campus and the definitions of bullying and harassment in different university official documents which can support the university to ensure people’s studies’/works’ safety and quality at UBC. The website is available to UBC personnel, and everyone can access the site. It concisely states the reporting procedure to people in different positions and gives brief instructions to the supervisor on managing such incidents. In addition, diverse resources are provided to the individual to use as an assistance tool, and systemic training and events have been arranged to help the faculty members, instructors, and staff of UBC acquire the knowledge and information to address school bullying incidents. However, the website addresses workplace bullying only rather than student-involved school bullying events. Therefore, from the perspective of students, they may not be able to find the adequate resources, systemic procedures, and precise support needed when dealing with bullying incidents utilizing the university’s public database. Another example is Thompson Rivers University (TRU) where the information on legal support towards harassment and discrimination is concisely displayed on the official website. Under the School Policy ‘Health and Safety’ (Thompson Rivers University, n.d.), TRU defined the responsibility for ensuring a healthy, safe, and inclusive campus environment for everyone at school. The document also states the procedures and expectations of each department (see original full text in Appendix B). TRU students are asked to obey a series of university regulations and acts, such as “the University’s safety policies and procedures and…Occupational Health and Safety Regulations and policies or guidelines of WorkSafeBC.” Once they experience or witness such incidents, their supervisors, instructors, and advisors are the people to seek and ask for help. In addition, ‘safety training programs and meetings’ are required by TRU. However, many students are not familiar with relevant documents and reporting procedures due to a lack of legal consultation and instruction on school bullying behavior from the university. Although TRU has a relatively completed anti-school bullying countermeasure, many students do not seem to know how to find and use it, and do not know about it until they actually experience an incident. Policies and regulations are inclusive and are revised over time. However, current legislation often seems powerless and delayed when dealing with verbal bullying and cyberbullying from a victim’s perspective. Through the survey from Donegan’s (2012) study, 28 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China over 85% of law enforcement officer participants responded to being highly concerned about virtual and cyberbullying barriers in the legal system. One out of four educational employees and almost half of law enforcement employees stated that they did not even know if any laws or regulations were aimed at cyberbullying. Therefore, since the perpetrators know they can avoid legal punishment via cyber methodology, the rate of cyberbullying behavior on campus is constantly increasing every year (Donegan, 2012; Myers & Cowie, 2017; National Center for Educational Statistics, 2019). It seems both educational and law enforcement officers struggle with this new version of high-tech bullying as relevant university employees and enforcement officers lack the academic and research support on the factors causing bullying behaviors and the internal relations among different bullying behavior types. Thus, this study focused on discovering the degree of harm cyberbullying behavior can cause (compared to traditional bullying behavior), the internal relationship between cyberbullying and other bullying behaviors, and the possibility and the causes of transformation between the bullying victim and the perpetrator. Furthermore, many Canadian and Chinese universities are setting their university policies and regulations by responding to or obeying the local administration framework, which means the policies and regulations may vary even among universities in the same province. It was interesting to explore university students’ responses to university cyberbullying incidents, and the frequency of their personal experiences to determine if antibullying policies can efficiently help reduce and manage cyberbullying incidents from a student’s perspective. Lastly, since Alan Turing first introduced machine intelligence in 1941 (Turing & Copeland, 2010), in the 2020s, a new generation of computer and Internet technology called Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gradually come to the public’s attention. This technology has taken the Internet environment and experience into a new era with significant new challenges. AI provides services that almost cover everything in daily life with its gigantic database and faster calculation speeds (Mcgarry, 2005), including but not limited to the medical field, computer science and military development. From the educational perspective, educators can upgrade and explore their teaching materials that would help schools and postsecondary institutions improve their academic environments, and students can now access a more diverse and high-speed database to support their studies. 29 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China However, the flaws are also evident and severe, such as privacy divulgation, copyright infringement and misinformation, which can cause various unpredictable types of harm to individuals and damage to communities and organizations (Russell et al., 2022). In the educational field, especially at the post-graduate level, where students have to complete heavier and more complex research and assignments to fulfill their study goals, the AI technique is a convenient tool but also a double-edged sword (Russell et al., 2022). At the current AI development stage, it is difficult for educators and students to determine if an assignment has been created by AI. Furthermore, as previously referenced, cyberbullying is a more recent bullying form initiated through the Internet and social media platforms. The AI technique is now a possible new ‘weapon’ that bullies can use to attack their targets, such as ‘transplanting’ an individual’s appearance to create false images and/or videos, and/or fake the victims’ signatures or handwriting, and then posting them on the Internet, which can lead to direct and possibly long-term harm to the victims. Such cases, connected to the Internet would make the cyberbullying behavior occur faster, cover a broader area (be easily transmitted internationally), and involve a more significant number of Internet users (including more random Internet clients but would also contribute to spreading false speech). A famous singer and songwriter named Taylor Swift experienced cyberbullying and sexual harassment in January 2024 (Contreras, 2024), in which the offenders plagiarized her photos, created images, and posted them on the Internet by accessing an AI technique. Due to the lack of legal support in such cases, Swift has not achieved justice yet, but social media helped to attract public attention, which helped the government and authorities realize these recent major concerns in society and start working on them. At the end of February 2024, the liberal government of Canada proposed legislation to enforce heavier sentences regarding online harm. Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act (Bill C63, 2024; Canadian Heritage, 2024; Major, 2024), which aims at the worst online situations, which include: “sexually victimizes children or revictimizes survivors, intimate content shared without consent, content that incites violence, extremism or terrorism, or foments hatred and content that is used to bully a child or induce a child to self-harm” (Bill C-63, 2024; Wherry, 2024). This Act would amend the Criminal Code, and extend the current maximum fiveyears in prison sentence for online harm cases to life imprisonment. This bill is not just a 30 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China response to the Taylor Swift incident but also responds to recently rapidly growing online hate speech, such as the cyberbullying that took place in Amanda Todd’s case. Nevertheless, this new Act has limitations like other Acts; it does not address situations like "misinformation," "disinformation,” or private communication. Thus, creating a peaceful and inclusive online environment and protecting Internet users will be time-consuming, and more areas need to be covered by law in the future (Bill C-63, 2024; Wherry, 2024). 31 Chapter Three: Research Method This study was a quantitative research study which included a survey (Appendix D) and a questionnaire referred to as the Symptom Checklist 90-R (Appendix C) combined in one document, both of which were used to collect the quantitative data. This study focused on university students and the data was collected separately by two sub-groups of students. One sub-group of students was in China and the other sub-group of students was in Canada. Each sub-group had significantly different social identities and life experiences. 3.1. Participants The age group in this study focused on university students who were older than 18 years old. The target universities were located in Kamloops, BC Canada, and Beijing and Tianjin, China. To enable the collection of data from students with diverse backgrounds, the universities were regular/public universities in both countries. According to a study by Chidiac et al. (2022), the principal group of social media users are people who are postsecondary students and under 50 years of age. Also, these students had a greater chance to be employed either full-time or part-time compared to other levels of students (Marshall, 2010). Thus, the university student was an ideal target group for this study, since youth are the primary social network client, and post-secondary students are the major carrier of bullying incidents (Tight, 2023). Also, participants within different environments and with various life backgrounds may be exposed to different kinds of bullying perpetration and how such factors influence bullying behaviors at post-secondary institutions was worth exploring. 3.2. Procedure The survey was created on SurveyMonkey, and the link was sent to the participants through e-mail and messaging. To ensure the research procedure was anonymous, all responses to the survey were returned directly to SurveyMonkey. Once the surveys were completed and returned, the data was analyzed by the survey platform and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The survey focused on exploring how much students experienced, witnessed, and understood bullying behaviors and relevant university antibullying procedures, and their basic recent feelings (such as headaches and insomnia) under the pressure from the pandemic. Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Bullying behavior links closely with an individual’s background and life experience. Therefore, the survey questions referred to the elements in the Social-identity Wheel (LSA, 2018) (Figure 1.). The elements used in the survey questions included individual identities (grade, spare time activity, part-time/ intern job, GPA level, work experience, job positions, relationship status) and social identities (race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religion, age, physical/emotional/developmental (dis)ability, first language, national origin). These elements shape people as individuals showing their differences. Some social identity statuses may change for multiple reasons, and others may not. However, many bullying incidents were triggered by one or more social identities. In the social identity section, if participants were full-time students or did not have any source of income, then responses were related to the family or guardian’s socio-economic status. The questions in the Symptoms Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) were used as reference material in the final part of the survey, which had been used in studies for many years in over 50 countries to learn participants recent feelings and this questionnaire had been translated into different languages, such as Chinese. Therefore, this study used the questions from the checklist for discovering participants’ recent internal feelings using professional, reliable language. The questions that were used in this checklist use common language in an empathetic tone that would be more acceptable to participants. The questions in the SCL-90-R were structured for 13-year-olds and older, which meets the requirements in this study. The questionnaire with open-ended and closed-ended questions included three sections as follows: traditional bullying, cyberbullying and multiple bullying. The questionnaire aimed at bullying history and relevant experiences. For participants to understand the content easily, specialized vocabulary was annotated at the end of the questionnaire (see Appendix D). By sending out e-mails containing the survey link directly to the possible participants, the students could access the survey through the link on SurveyMonkey, after reading and accepting the consent form. The participants answered these questions based on their personal and/or witnessed experiences regarding bullying behavior at an early school age and at their current time at universities. The questionnaire included single and multiple-choice questions, and some questions had common boxes under the last option so that the participants not only could choose the answer from the options provided but also could add other answers and further explanations. Since the survey was 33 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China anonymous, the participants could provide their answers with less concern and pressure. The questions focused on investigating the percentage of students who experienced and/or witnessed bullying incidents, the frequency and duration of bullying incidents, and the amount of knowledge that participants gained regarding bullying and anti-bullying legal support. In the second section of the survey, the participants answered the questions through a 4-point Likert scale, scoring from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely) according to the individuals’ current situation (Derogatis & Savitz, 2000). The final section of the survey focused on participants’ abstract feelings, such as anxious feelings and their sleeping patterns, which assisted in the analysis of the study. Based on each participant’s situation, they would respond to the questions in this part of the survey by simply selecting the option that most likely represented their status. This present study did not use the symptoms checklist to determine or diagnose if any participant suffered from depression, anxiety and/or other mental issues but would only collect data on the percentage and the frequency of university students who have headaches, feel pressure, etc. regarding bullying incidents at university whether on or off campus. 34 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Figure 1. Social-identity Wheel. Note. Adopted from “Social Identity Wheel Overview and Framing Material.” 3.3. Conclusion Bullying has attracted the public's attention since the last century. However, the rate of bullying incidents in schools has remained high. Due to Internet expansion, a new type of 35 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China bullying (cyberbullying) has rapidly grown among youth. Also, with more international students studying abroad and the globalization trend, the factors that influence the bullying rate occurring at the university has become more complex. In order to manage this oncampus aggression efficiently, it is essential to understand the harm caused from bullying and the internal relationships occurring among different types of bullying. In addition, since the pandemic swept the world, people had less direct contact with others and online-courses became a major instruction method at the university. Furthermore, Canadian universities and Chinese universities’ administration methods are under different governing circumstances. Canadian universities come under provincial statutes while Chinese universities are governed through a unified national administrative system. It was interesting to observe if the cyberbullying rate on university campuses decreased according to a country’s administrative framework. An additional question arose regarding how the new circumstances arising during COVID-19, which occurred during the conduct of this study, impacted the rate of bullying at the university and how that affected the results of the study. 36 Chapter Four: Results and Data Analysis The data collection in this study was through a survey with two separate parts: a survey to recognize school bullying behavior and related policies, regulations, and law with two inner sections; and a feelings expression questionnaire. The targeted group was enrolled university students in Canada and China. There were more than one hundred and fifteen participants including 59 participants from Canada and 57 participants from China, who completed the survey. The full survey required 15 to 20 minutes for each participant (student) to complete. The first section in the first part of the survey asked questions about the general phenomenon of school bullying behavior and related policies and laws, which targeted the circumstances of bullying incidents and the accessibility of the anti-bullying behavior policies and procedures in the post-secondary institutions under two different legal and education systems. The second section of the first part of the survey used similar questions but focused on the cyberbullying behavior phenomenon. The target groups in this study were enrolled university students, who were individuals with full legal authority and independency to complete the survey and questionnaire without guardiancies. In this chapter, the data is analyzed from four perspectives: 1. How did post-secondary students recognize bullying behavior and attitudes in Canada and China; 2. How did post-secondary students recognize cyberbullying behavior and attitudes in Canada and China; 3. How were participants feeling about the frequency and type of bullying and cyberbullying while attending classes virtually during the pandemic; 4. How did post-secondary students recognize and understand the current university policies, regulations, and laws related to antibullying? 4.1. How did post-secondary students recognize bullying behavior and attitudes in Canada and China Table 1. shows the data of bullying behavior and incidents among university students. The responses received were from both domestic and international students in the two countries. Two-thirds of the participants responded that they experienced and/or witnessed bullying incidents at university. Among them, close to 90% of the participants were witnesses to the incidents, and more than 70% of the participants could classify the bullying behavior. According to the responses, the chances of the participants experiencing/witnessing collective bullying incidents was almost two times more than individual bullying incidents; Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China and verbal bullying was one of the most common presented forms. In addition, it was important to note that the chance of experiencing/witnessing cyberbullying incidents in China was more than two times that in Canada. However, around half of the participants in total (a quarter of the participants in Canada and over 50% of the participants in China) chose to tolerate or keep silent regarding such behavior or experience, while three-quarters of students in Canada, compared to less than half the students in China, showed no tolerance for bullying behavior and incidents. (See Table 1.) Table 1. Students’ Experiences and Their Attitude Towards General Bullying Behavior at University. Questions Responses from Canada Responses from China In total Yes 71.42% Yes 62.26% Yes 66.67% Witness 90.9% Witness 86.66% Witness 88.54% Yes 76.92% Yes 72.91% Yes 72.73% Have experienced or witnessed bullying incidents Your role in the incident Recognition of the type of bullying incident The number of people involved Type of Bullying Collective Individual bullying- bullying mobbing 16.66% 40% Physical Verbal 9.09% 81.8% Cyber bullying 9.09% Individual Collective Individual Collective bullying bullying-mobbing) bullying bullying-mobbing 35.29% 56.8% 35.48% 54.84% Physical 41.17 % Verbal 66.66% Cyber bullying 25.49% Physical Verbal 40.32% 74.19% Cyber bullying 24.19% Reaction to Bear it No tolerance Bear it No tolerance Bear it No tolerance Incident 25% 75% 51.02% 48.97% 46.97% 53.03% 38 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Other questions in this section were related to follow-up actions to bullying incidents, such as seeking help, the institution’s personnel reactions, and the origins of the bullying behavior among university students. First, those who chose not to tolerate the bullying behavior were asked about their follow-up actions to the behavior. Some students would directly call the university security or the police for help, and some would turn to their professors or university officers to report the situation and ask for their support (see Figure 2.). Second, regarding the resolution of the incidents, there was slightly more than one third of total participants who responded that the school or legal enforcement officer took the matter seriously and managed the case legally, and another one third in total responded that although the school or legal enforcement officer took the case seriously, it turned out there was no resolution in the end (see Figure 3.). Thirdly, the causes of bullying incidents were blended. In general, socio-economic status, spare time activity, and school performance were the top three most common reasons that caused the incidents. However, it was observed that half of the Canadian participants chose nationality and religion as a factor leading to a bullying incident, which was close to three times more than the number from China and two times more than the number in total. (See Table 2.) In addition, besides the listed reasons, there were 23.19% of students in total who left notes in the common box on the site and listed reasons other than the existing options in the survey. According to their notes, appearance was another reason that can lead to a bullying incident among university students. 39 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Figure 2. Reaction Towards Bullying Behaviors and Incidents. 40 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Figure 3. Responses Towards Bullying Incident Reports. Table 2. Factors Causing the Onset of Bullying Incidents. Questions Factors causing the onset of bullying incidents Responses from Canada Responses from China In total - School performance 28.57% 40.99% 34.78% - Sex/gender identity 28.57% 38.09% 33.33% - Sexual orientation 26.78% 28.3% 27.54% - Spare time activity 14.18% 41.5% 39.13% 21.42% 47.16% 44.93% 50% 18.86% 24.64% - Socio-economic status -Nationality and religion 41 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Finally, the last question asked was about the offenders’ identity. In response to this question, peers (the most common option) and students from a higher grade or university employees (the second most common option) were the groups that university students were mostly being bullied by, with the responses from both countries being similar. Other than being cyberbullied by people they know (peers and people in a higher position), random people from the Internet were the third highest option for this response. The data shows that one-third of the participants (including 21.42% of students in Canada and 33.33% of students in China) claimed that they experienced and/or witnessed bullying incidents from one or more random people whom they did not know. (See Figure 4.) Figure 4. Bully’s Identities. From a general point of view, post-secondary students who study in Canada and China had a high rate of witnessing and/or experiencing bullying incidents. Nearly 90% of student respondents had witnessed bullying incidents in their university, and over 72% of 42 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China students could recognize and classify the bullying behavior. However, the attitude toward such behavior in the two countries had distinct differences. The rate of students in China who would tolerate and stay silent about bullying behavior was double the rate in Canada. Also, the number of students in China who would directly call the police for help was five times more than the students in Canada. The students in Canada preferred support from the university and their professors, which was approximately three times more than the students in China. Pastimes and socio-economic status were the major factors that led to bullying incidents in their universities, and nationality was the main reason that students in Canada experienced bullying incidents. 4.2. How did post-secondary students recognize cyberbullying behavior and the attitude in Canada and China In the second section of the survey, questions focused on cyberbullying. Due to the rapid growth of the Internet in the 2010s, the usage rate of social media among postsecondary students was close to 100%. More than 72% of respondents indicated that they could access their personal electronic devices during class hours, and roughly 86% of participants could freely access their devices while on campus. Most participants responded that they would spend approximately three hours per day exploring social media such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, WeChat, Weibo, and Tik Tok, and mainly used social media for surfing the Internet for interest or expanding their knowledge base. However, close to half of the participants responded that although it was interesting to surf on social media, they did not feel secure. More than half of the participants had witnessed and/or experienced cyberbullying incidents on these platforms. (See Figure 5. and Figure 6.) 43 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Figure 5. Social Media Platforms that University Students Frequently Access. 44 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Figure 6. Experiences and Feelings When Exploring on Social Media. The numbers previously referenced in Table 2. show the state of students’ experiences and their attitudes towards cyberbullying at university. There were more than half of the participants witnessed/experienced cyberbullying incidents. The top three factors that lead to cyberbullying incidents, they were socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and nationality and religion. Although nationality and religion were not the most significant factors that led to a cyberbullying incident in general, they were the highest in the responses from Canada. Moreover, 36.53% of participants in China witnessed and/or experienced such incidents due to their spare time activities, which was five times more than the responses from Canada (see Figure 7. and Table 3.). Cyberbullying was categorized by three major types: spreading rumors, malicious slander and libel statements, and infringing an individual’s right to privacy (see Figure 8. and Table 3.). The duration of the cyberbullying incident varied according to country; there were more participants in Canada who responded that the cyberbullying would last for a month or more, while more participants in China reported the incidents would last for around one week. Also, close to half of the participants in total reported that cyberbullying incidents might occur any time on-campus (see Table 3). 45 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Table 3. Students’ Experiences and Their Attitudes Towards Cyberbullying Behavior at University. Responses from Questions Canada Experience or witness to cyberbullying Role in the incident - Nationality and Factors that caused the onset of cyberbullying incidents Yes 50% Responses from China In total Yes 65.38% Yes 59.15% Witness Victim Witness Victim Witness Victim 28.57% 21.42% 55.76% 9.61% 50% 18.6% 35.71% 21.15% 24.24% 21.42% 25% 24.24% 14.28% 30.76% 27.27% 21.42% 30.76% 28.78% - Spare time activity 7.14% 36.53% 27.27% - Spreading rumors 35.71% 55.76% 51.51% 42% 50% 43.93% 7.14% 57.69% 46.96% Religion - Sex/gender identity - Sexual orientation - Socio-economic status - Malicious slander Types of and libel statements Cyberbullying - Infringing individual right to privacy Duration of -More than 30 days 21.42% 17.3% 18.18% Cyberbullying -Around seven days 14.28% 28.84% 25.75% Anytime 50% Anytime 46.15% Anytime 47% Incident Occurrence 46 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Figure 7. Factors that May Lead to Cyber Bullying Incidents. Figure 8. Types of Cyberbullying Incidents. 47 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Nevertheless, when asked about their reaction to cyberbullying incidents, about a quarter of the participants responded that there was nothing that could be done (see Figure 9.). The responses to the question about the resolution and results of the incidents were slightly different from the responses in the first section (traditional school bullying incidents). There were slightly more than 20% of the participants from both Canada and China who responded that the case was taken seriously and solved properly, but close to 20% of the participants from China (zero from Canada) reported that personnel took the case seriously but the incident ended up with no resolution. In addition, there were situations where neither the university nor law enforcement took the case seriously which ended up as well with no solution/result, or the worst case scenarios where the cyberbullying incidents, complaints or reports were ignored (see Figure 10.). In response to the survey questions about the difficulties when victims faced cyberbullying incidents, the participants found that it was public opinion that made the situations more complex because they could not respond directly to the offenders which was the second common difficulty when facing cyberbullying incidents. Isolation from the major group was the third difficulty facing a cyberbullying victim (see Figure 11.). One major reason that caused cyberbullying incidents to be complicated and hard to manage was the perpetrator’s identity. In cyberbullying cases, there was a greater chance that the victim(s) were bullied by random people from the Internet. Peers were the second significant group of offenders who bullied others through cyber platforms (see Figure 12.). 48 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Figure 9. Reaction Towards Cyberbullying Incidents at University. Figure 10. Responses to Cyberbullying Incident Reports. 49 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Figure 11. Difficulties Victims Face When Dealing with Cyberbullying Incidents. Figure 12. Identities of Cyberbullies. 50 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China There was also evidence of cyberbullying behavior transformation which started from another type of (traditional) bullying incident. Some responses showed that some incidents started from verbal bullying, which eventually turned into a cyberbullying incident. About one third of participants reported that some cyberbullying incidents transformed into verbal bullying incidents, and close to one fifth of the respondents said that some cyberbullying incidents eventually turned into physical bullying incidents, and some even to school violence. (See Figure 13.) Figure 13. Possibilities of One Type of Bullying Behavior Transforming to Another. 100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Verbal bullying to cyber bullying Cyber bullying to verbal bullying Response from Canada Response from China Cyber bullying to physical bullying In total 4.3. Post-secondary students’ mental health during the pandemic and the relationship to school bullying In the last two and half years (since the end of 2019), the COVID-19 pandemic had rapidly affected people’s lives worldwide. Students (including post-secondary school students) were asked to study virtually, which meant they were physically isolated from peers and society. During this time, many students shifted from 100% face-to-face instruction to 100% virtual classes, which also led to a major psychological adjustment to adapt to the circumstances. During the pandemic, students in Canada and China experienced at least three semesters of isolated virtual learning when they could only be physically exposed to their families and could only have virtual contact with their peers. According to the responses 51 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China from the final part of the survey, approximately one-third of the participants responded that they were being overly sensitive, overwhelmed, emotionally impulsive, found it hard to trust others and suffered from headaches and loss of concentration. More than half of the participants wanted to seek revenge for bullying incidents (See Figure 14.). Among them, close to 70% chose verbal bullying, and more than one third of the participants chose cyberbullying as their approach. (See Table 4.) Even though 77.58% of participants in total felt guilty if they ever bullied others, there were 17.24% of participants who had no guilty feelings when bullying others since they thought they were following the behavior of others. (See Figure 15.) Figure 14. Impulse for Revenge After Been Bullied. 52 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Figure 15. Feelings of Bullies or Potential Bullies After Bulling Others. Table 4. Reaction After Being Bullied. Questions Impulse for revenge -Verbal Approaches to bullying revenge -Cyber bullying Responses Responses from from Canada China Yes 57.14% Yes 63.46% Yes 62.12% 66.66% 70% 69.23% 33.33% 35% 34.61% In total 4.4. How did post-secondary students recognize and understand the current university policies, regulations, and laws against bullying Considering the significance of post-secondary students’ attitudes and reactions towards bullying behavior in both countries, it was essential to realize how much students notice and understand university policies, regulations, and laws against bullying. One survey 53 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China question was, “Do you know any of the laws related to bullying?” There were only a few of the total participants and one third of the participants from China who noticed that there were laws protecting people against bullying behavior. More than half of the participants said they did not know of such laws; and another 10% responded that there were no such laws (see Figure 16.). Another question was whether students knew that universities had a procedure for violent threats/risk assessment to manage school bullying incidents and protect students from harm. More than half of the students did not know their universities had such a procedure to protect them; only a quarter of the participants noticed that there was a procedure at universities against bullying behavior; and about 20% responded that they assumed there was no such procedure at university (see Figure 17.). Therefore, close to 70% of post-secondary students were not aware of anti-bullying laws, and approximately 74% of students in this study were not aware of the university procedures for managing school bullying situations. Figure 16. Awareness of Laws Against Bullying Behavior. 54 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Figure 17. Awareness of University Policies, Regulations, and Procedures. 4.5. Responses to Research Questions Q1. What degree of harm can bullying behaviors cause to post-secondary students? According to the survey responses, a number of post-secondary students in Canada and China had witnessed and/or experienced at least one type of bullying incident while at university. The bullying behavior could have lasted for weeks to months and negatively affected the victimized students. Due to social media popularization in both countries, the origin of bullying behavior was no longer limited to individual or peer conflicts but can sometimes increase to a group-targeted conflict, which involves more random Internet uses. Sometimes, bullying incidents may occur randomly simply because of people's social identities. Moreover, many university students feel defenseless and hopeless since their case might be put on hold by the university and legal enforcement officers, as the students and even some university officers may not be aware of anti-bullying policies, regulations and procedures. Based on the responses and messages that the participants left in the survey, bullying behaviors and incidents could recall their early-age related memories and sometimes even caused physical symptoms such as shortness of breath, headache, insomnia and even worse behaviors, such as anxiety and aggression. On the other hand, when students witnessed or experienced bullying incidents in the university, they stated they felt stressed, hopeless and depressed, and the symptoms might last for weeks to months. Compared to the Canadian 55 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China participants, students from China tended to keep silent and bear such behavior due to local social circumstances. They felt shamed and not supported, which could lead to developmental mental problems, like depression and anxiety, and even personal behavior changes in negative ways. Under certain extreme circumstances, it is possible that some bullies start bullying others, even becoming a school shooter as their revenge (Dragan, 2011), as they know there is a great chance that they can avoid punishment from the law. Furthermore, Dragan (2011) also mentioned in his book that students who experienced bullying incidents and/or bullied others during their school age had a greater chance of being involved in criminal incidents in their adulthood. Therefore, bullying behaviors not only cause physical and mental harm to the victims but also to the bullies, which may lead to a bad loop and a negative result for society. Q2. What causes bullying types to transform from physical bullying to verbal/cyberbullying or cyberbullying to traditional bullying? From the data, substantial numbers of post-secondary students who experienced bullying incidents had the impulse to seek revenge on the bullies. Approximately 27% of participants in this study reported that some traditional bullying incidents transformed into cyberbullying because, from the student’s point of view, there was less chance the bullying behavior could be stopped, and cyberbullying behavior tended to last longer due to a lack of legal support and more significant numbers of involved participants. Also, more than 48% of participants in this study responded that a cyberbullying incident could transform into a verbal and/or physical bullying incident. According to the data and the responses from the participants who had left some messages in the common box, some of the university students in Canada had learned basic knowledge and information about the university anti-bullying policies and regulations from the orientation at the university and some public anti-bullying lectures; yet, the university students from China had close to zero experiences in attending such events. They learned this information from the Internet, their peers and their bullied experience. Unfortunately, based on the data and participants’ responses, the information and knowledge gained were misappropriated and ignored. Even though the universities would manage the incidents by policies and laws, more participants from both Canada and China responded they did not 56 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China receive any support from the universities, which made them want to handle such situations in their own way rather than using a flawed and delayed and/or time-consuming process by relying on the authorities. However, students from both countries responded similarly to actions taken after experiencing and/or witnessing bullying incidents at university, and they chose to take another type of bullying behavior to seek revenge. In some cases, students chose to verbally bully and/or cyberbully their targets since the chance they would be exposed and reported to the authorities was low, and the punishment could be mild. In contrast, there were a few responses that left some messages stating that they had witnessed and/or experienced some extreme situation that after long-term verbal bullying or cyberbullying, either the offenders or the victims chose to take physical action to continue or stop such situations. Q3. Why did victims sometimes become a bully? As data shows in this study, more than 60% of participants indicated that victims wanted to retaliate against the bullies. Besides this need for retaliation, the lack of promotion of anti-bullying policies and laws was another essential factor that made victims become bullies. As previously referenced, university students in Canada and China had acquired information and knowledge from the universities, but it was complicated and difficult to access support. Firstly, the results showed that not only the students but many employees and administrative officers in post-secondary institutions did not know there were policies, regulations, and laws that protect students and employees from the harm of bullying behaviors; respondents indicated that cases were frequently put on hold or ignored. Thus, with no solution or fair judgement for the victims and little consequence for becoming a bully, it was not surprising that some victims become bullies. Secondly, anti-bullying statutes and measurements in many countries were far from complete. In some cases, the school and the courts could not make decisions; hence, the definition of bullying acts could not fit or be classified by criminal law (Dragan, 2011). In addition, due to current university policies and regulations and existing laws, decisions cannot be made until actual harm occurs to the victim. Therefore, some participants who were first victims, physically and/or mentally, suffered from constant bullying (especially in the cyberbullying area). Furthermore, the results from the survey mentioned that some of the participants had to bear the harm caused until authorities and society could obtain enough evidence to make a defendable final 57 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China decision, but the loss and the damage could not be compensated in certain cases. Hence, some students who were victims started to become offensive as a weapon to defend themselves, which led to a negative loop. To sum up, this study shows that although post-secondary students were adults with full legal capacity, the rate of bullying incidents in the university is not decreasing. Bullying in post-secondary institutions is severe and needs attention from all faculties and legal departments, including the need for additional legislation. Unlike K to 12 students whose legal guardians pay close attention to this issue, students in post-secondary institutions make decisions independently that can lead to irreversible results. Paying attention and having a complete follow-up procedure for bullying incidents in universities and other post-secondary institutions is requisite. Faculty employees and officers have to realize the physical and mental differences between minor and adult students while managing school bullying incidents since adults may be more capable of taking actions without any guardians’ guidance and have more complex social relationships, while minors need permission and guidance from their guardians or teachers before taking actions. Finally, disseminating relevant legislation against bullying to university students and employees is necessary in order to effectively prevent such incidents. 58 Chapter Five: Discussion Throughout the results of this present study, reviews from research papers, and monitoring the latest news, some important information was revealed. First, bullying behaviors and incidents have been a public concern for centuries, which increased in their forms as societies developed. The origin of bullying behavior started from human beings’ natural desire for survival and dominance, which isn’t limited to individuals but can involve multiple communities, even countries. Secondly, bullying behaviors are classified into two categories: (1) the manifestations of bullying behavior and (2) the quantity of people involved in one bullying incident. However, due to the Internet and computer technology's rapid growth in the 21st century, the boundaries among each type of bullying behavior become fuzzy. More cases revealed more than one manifestation of bullying behaviors occurred in one incident, and/or the bullying behavior transformed from one type to another, such as verbal bullying transforming to cyberbullying. The current legal systems in Canada and China are incomplete, which caused many victims to suffer from such incidents for a considerable amount of time with severe mental or physical harm, and some even losing their lives. Thirdly, from the results of this study, several facts and concerns came to the fore: (1) a significant number of university students have experienced and/or witnessed bullying incidents throughout their school age. (2) The participants in both countries showed a low level of reliability to their universities and related authorities, and they did not trust that their universities and law enforcement could address bullying incidents appropriately and/or efficiently. (3) The students have a low level of trust in the university and relevant authorities’ capabilities to deal with bullying incidents, and a considerable percentage of participants responded that they have the impulse to seek a way for revenge even if it means they would become bullies themselves. 5.1. Validity, Reliability, Limitations, Delimitations and Recommendations for Further Study 5.1.1. Validity and Reliability Validity “refers to how accurately a method measures what it is intended to measure" (Middleton, 2023), and reliability refers to the degree to which the results of a given study can be repeated or replicated under the same conditions (Abbas, 2023). The survey questions Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China designed for this research were consistent in both countries (Canada and China), and they were based on a professional questionnaire that is used in many countries. A Likert Scale and quantitative analysis methodology ensured that the results were objective and avoided the researcher’s individual emotional bias. Furthermore, limited options were provided for each survey question to assist in visualizing subjective responses in an objective format. This avoided overly blended responses from the participants and subjective evaluation from the researcher. This study was an exploratory research study since there had been very little research regarding bullying incidents and behaviors among post-secondary students. Therefore, the study chose two countries (Canada and China) to study the similarities and differences between students as adults dealing with school bullying incidents under different educational and legal systems. Also, a survey was divided into sections, which included general bullying, cyberbullying, and relevant policies and laws. This study recruited both domestic and international university students from Canada and China to participate in the study, so the data reveals the responses from participants with diverse social backgrounds within two different social and study environments, and two different legal systems. Also, the survey was created in inclusive and neutral language without professional terms to avoid misunderstanding and reduce random dropouts. Chinese and English were used for the survey since they were the common languages of the participants. Participants were able to choose their preferred language to answer the questions in the survey. 5.1.2. Limitations and Delimitations Limitations mean the factors that are often outside of the researcher’s control, such as the quantity of participants (Jansen, 2024), while delimitations mean “the boundaries of the research study, based on the researcher’s decision of what to include and what to exclude, to make it more manageable” (AJE Team, 2022). University students in the study sample cannot represent all components of post-secondary students, such as various professions and social experiences etc. Moreover, this study was conducted in limited locations included one province in Canada and two municipalities in China, so the study findings cannot be extended to the entire university student populations in Canada and China. This study was conducted by the primary researcher only with no financial support for recruiting additional participants and the data collection and analysis process was limited to 116 responses. Thus, 60 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China even though this study revealed the phenomenon of school bullying at some current postsecondary institutions in BC, Canada and China, it cannot represent a precise sample on a national or international level. In addition, this study used a quantitative research method to analyze the data with a visualized and objective result, so in the future, a qualitative research strategy may help understand the in-depth participants’ thoughts that led to their responses to bullying at post-secondary institutions. 5.1.3. Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations for Further Study In conclusion, bullying behaviors have existed for centuries, and are deeply rooted in human society, regardless of cultural and historical backgrounds. Although different countries’ legal systems have evolved to address the flaws in dealing with more complex bullying incidents that occur in educational institutions, the harm and damage have not been lowered. Moreover, combined bullying methods, transformable bullying behaviors, and new types of bullying behavior and tools for bullying make bullying situations harder to investigate and handle efficiently. As a result, some cases are put on hold or end up with no result which does nothing for the victims, which can be life-threatening and lead to severe consequences for people connected to the victims. It is recommended that a future study be conducted with a larger sample size from different types of post-secondary institutions in both countries, with an emphasis on specific disciplines such as law schools and fine arts academies where academic programs are more specific compared to other general universities. Doing so would help the researcher determine if academic majors can impact school bullying rates. Also, involving more provinces in both countries can improve the diversity within the sample size. In addition, this approach would help the researcher address the relationships among diverse social identities and bullying incidents among diverse adult students in post-secondary institutions. This study was structured to discover post-secondary enrolled students’ circumstances towards school bullying incidents. Within the context of recent cases and the data from this study, it would be essential to learn more about the bullying circumstances among post-secondary employees and between students and post-secondary employees. Furthermore, Bill C-63 was introduced in Canada on February 26th, 2024, introducing heavier sentences regarding the fast development and spreading of online harm (Bill C-63, 2024; Canadian Heritage, 2024; Major, 2024; Wherry, 2024). As AI techniques gradually integrate 61 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China into people’s daily lives, bullying behaviors (especially in cyberbullying cases) are developing at another stage. When more students and university personnel access AI techniques, there will be more concerns and needs to be studied from the following perspectives: (1) a suspected increase in the frequency of bullying incidents in postsecondary institutions; (2) the duration of the bullying incidents might increase since the digital records can be kept longer on the Internet for the bullies and other Internet users to spread; (3) thanks to the Internet and AI technique’s broad accessibility, Internet users’ nationalities have become boundless, which also means the distance between personnel involved in cyberbullying incidents can be greater worldwide; (4) as previously referenced, since more random people can be involved in cyberbullying incidents, it also means a greater number of Internet users can be implicated. Bullies use high-end techniques to bully other people, which seems to be an inexorable trend which will continue in the near future. 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Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139410878.009 73 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Zhuang, A. (2023). Shanxi “Datong xiaoxuesheng zaoqiling” shijian weihe rending yanzhongbuliangxingwei, ruhe jiaozhi [Why “student was bullied at Datong primary school incident” was defined as severe misbehaving, and how to correct it? Guangming Net. https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1778177756590088451&wfr=spider&for=pc&searc hword=%E5%A4%A7%E5%90%8C%E5%B0%8F%E5%AD%A6+%E9%9C%B8% E5%87%8C%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6 74 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Appendix A Xiao Zhan’s apology announcement (Original Document) This is the original documentation of Xiao’s cyberbullying incident apology announcement. The author (Xiao) briefly described the background and consequences of his experience and apologized to the public and his sponsors for the damage and financial loss resulting from his powerlessness and the delayed response. This is the first time that a cyberbullying incident involved a hundred thousand social media users, caused a substantial economic impact, which lasted for a considerable period of time. (Please see the full text of the Xiao Zhan’s apology announcement on the next page, following the Chinese version.) 75 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China @X玖少年团肖战 DAYTOY 2021-2-27 15:02 一些想说的话 今天，我有一些话想和大家说。我想了很多种方式，最后，还是決定用最简单 的方式，把我这一年内的感受和认知讲给大家听。这些想法，也许不能代表什么，更 不一定能解决什么，但我还是希望在今天把这些话，说出来。 去年的这个时候，风波发生得非常突然，犹如一个突然爆炸的炸药桶，把我整 个人都炸懵掉了- 电话不断被打爆、微信提示音就没有间断过，每个人的意见和问题 齐刷刷地扑向我，我当时想说话，但是又不知道应该说什么心中顾忌很多，生怕一字 一句，都会被过度解读和放大，继而引发更多风波。所以当时，我选择什么都不说。 没有想到，后来网络舆论场中圈层与圈层间的对立情绪，像滚雪球一样越来越 大，牵扯得越来越广，逐渐失去了一个人的掌控，即便后来我一再发声想要去挽回， 可一切都不再能如我期望的那样发展了。 这样充满各种撕裂与喧器的生活，持续到了现在。而我的状态，在这一年内， 更像是经历了无数个漫长又昏沉的隧道。不安、反思、挣扎…我也质疑过我到底做错 了什么，为什么在那天之后所有事情就像一艘不受控制的船。我花了很长时间去消 化，后来更是花了很长时间去了解，理解大家的所言所行。慢慢地，我开始理解,大家 针对我个人的批评是什么。从我没有表达出态度的那一刻开始，我就已经错过了和大 家理性沟通的窗口，从一开始，我就错了。 那个时候，我还没能清晰地了解整个事件：没有理清楚大家情绪的方向，更加 没有明白作为一个公众人物，这时应当承担什么样的责任：因此，我错过了和大家沟 76 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 通的时机，也错过了承担疏导这种对立情绪的责任。我现在清楚而明白地认识到，在 这一年当中，大家针对我个人提出的关于“偶像失声”的质疑与批评，是正确的。在这 一年当中我不断反思，我作为公众人物除了不断提高自己的业务能力，更要有所担 当，承担起相应的社会责任，敢于去表达正确的价值观。在力所能及的范围内，去引 导那些喜欢我、关注我的人。尽管这一年里，我和我的工作室通过微博、采访表达过 一些态度但因我而起的这场风波，以及圈层对立之下给人造成的伤害，始终是难以疗 愈的。 自己的问题不论多晚都是要更正的。我希望在此作出我的第一个表态- 肖战， 为去年的“失声”向那些因我受到影响乃 至伤害的人郑重道歉。这是我应该面向公众承 担的第一个责任，正视问题，承认错误。同时，我也希望借这个机会，向我的粉丝朋 友们说一些话。这是我要承担的第二个责任。在去年的一个采访里，我曾经说过，不 太认同“管理”粉丝的说法，因为每一个人都是独立的个体，不管是我还是我的工作室 都没有资格去以上下级的管理关系来与他们相处。再后来我一直反复思考，也许我无 法用“管理”这样的词来定义与粉丝之间的关系，但我有“正确引导、积极提倡” 的义 务。所以在今天，我想和我的粉丝说，每个人都有喜欢和讨厌的权利，不管是喜欢或 讨厌，都应该被尊重、被允许在各自的表达空间里。当然这份权利应该是基于相对理 性，不去对他人造成伤害，并在符合正确价值导向的边际之内。希望我的粉丝朋友们 能懂得，不管处在哪个行业、哪个年龄阶段，自己的喜好或行为，都不应该越界、出 格，更不能做出违反职业规范、触犯道德底线的事情。不管是在网络世界还是现实生 活中，每一个人都应该为自己的言行负责。更希望我们每个人都不要被“某某的粉丝” 这个我们自己创造出来的标签所代表，不要以此形成泾渭分明的立场，更不要以这样 77 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 的立场去判定好坏。每个人都有自己的兴趣和偏好，充分尊重每一个个体的选择和发 声的自由，不论是喜欢我或讨厌我都是个体的权利。热爱，本身应该是给大家带来力 量的源头，希望这个源泉不要给任何人以消耗甚至是伤害。也许整体环境我无法改 变，但至少从我和你们开始，今天能是一个新的起点。 最后，我想再和大家聊聊我自己。从踏入这个行业，走到今天，我一直被一些 标签所定义着。但让我走进这个圈子的初心是出于对表演和音乐的热爱。也正是因为 这样，我一直在努力成为更专业的演员和歌手，面对突如其来的“偶像失声”的批评， 才让我意识到，除了自己一直专注的业务能力，我还需要肩负起个公众人物、一个偶 像应该承担的责任和义务，我出生在重庆一个平常的家庭，跟很多人一样有着二十多 年平常的生活。今天也需要借这个机会，为自己素人时期曾经说过的不当言论，以及 无心却伤害到的所有人表达歉意。我会努力去学习如何在做好自己的同时，能成为一 个更好的 “公众人物”让这两个肖战互相接纳、融合，成为一个更好的自己。 过去一年，不管大大小小，因我而起的风波，我都需要为这些负责。我可以要 求自己：但无法强加意志于人，只是希望那些真正喜欢我的人，能再认真听我说，个 人的好恶之外请多加一份“理性”去过积极健康的生活，重心、精力更多地放在自己的 现实生活中，一些在网络世界、虚拟ID背后的撕扯、争执对立，多一些在现实生活中 的努力与向上。只是为了成为更好的自己。(Please see the full text of the Xiao Zhan’s apology announcement English translated version on the next page.) 78 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China @X Nine Xiao Zhan DAYTOY February 27th, 2021, by 15:02 Something I Want to Say Today, I want to talk about the recent incident with everyone. I have been thinking a lot, but I want to choose the simplest way to express and explain how I felt and what I have noticed in the past year. My words may not have the effort to do anything and not solve any current problem. However, I want to use this opportunity to present everything I want to say. At this time last year, the incident happened suddenly, like a dynamite barrel that suddenly exploded. I was completely shocked-my cellphone was ringing nonstop like my WeChat alert, and everyone's opinions and questions all rushed at me. I wanted to speak at the time, but I didn’t know what to say. Because my words and my explanations would be amplified and misunderstood, I chose to say nothing. However, the antagonistic emotions snowballed in the public and the online area, involving more people, and losing control, even I repeatedly spoke out and tried to restore it, but nothing worked. My life started filled with tears and noises. My situation just went through endless and drowsy tunnels throughout the year. I was reflecting, struggling... I asked myself what I did wrong and why everything was out of control. It took me a long time to absorb and understand what everyone had done. But gradually, I realized what the criticisms were about. From the moment I didn't express my attitude, I missed the chance to communicate; from the beginning, it was my fault. At that moment, I didn't totally understand the whole incident. I didn't understand everyone's emotions. I also didn't understand the responsibilities I had as a celebrity. Therefore, I missed the opportunity to communicate and missed the chance to lead the negative public atmosphere to a positive side. I clearly realized now that the public's doubts and criticisms and the voice raised against me-‘Idol's loss of voice’ was correct. Therefore, during this year, I have been reflecting on myself. As a celebrity, besides improving my professional abilities, I must also take responsibility to lead a positive social responsibility. Also, I need to have the courage to express correct values to guide my fans and those who pay attention to me. This year, my studio and I have described some attitudes through Weibo and interviews. But the harm is difficult to heal. 79 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China No matter how late, the problems need to be corrected. I would like to make my first statement here - I, Xiao Zhan, sincerely apologize to those who have been affected or hurt by my "lost voice" last year. The first social responsibility I have is that I should take the responsibility to face the problem and admit my mistakes. At the same time, I also hope to take this opportunity to say something to my fans and friends. The second responsibility is a celebrity needs to take charge of managing fans. In an interview last year, I said that I did not quite agree with the idea of "managing fans" because everyone is an independent person. Neither my studio nor I was qualified to treat the relationship between celebrities and fans with social class differences. We are equal. Later, I kept thinking that maybe I should not use the term "manage" to define the relationship with fans. Still, I should "guide and advocate positively." So today, I want to say to my fans that everyone has the right to show personal preference. People should be respected and allowed their personal expression. Of course, this freedom should be based on relative rationality, and not harm others, and be within the range of correct value orientation. I hope my fans and friends can understand that their preferences or behaviours are not supposed to cross the bottom line no matter what organizations or age ranks they are in. In this world, everyone should be responsible for their words and behaviors. I hope that everyone will not be labelled by the term "someone's fan," and the title of somebody's fan cannot define a person. Everyone has some personal interests and preferences. We need to respect each other's right to freedom and freedom of expression, whether they like or hate. Love should be the energy for everyone to be strong. I hope this emotion will not consume or hurt anyone. Maybe I can't change the prevailing circumstances, but we can make a new start from today. Finally, I want to talk about myself. From the day I started my entertainment career until today, I have been defined by many labels. But the original intention that brought me into this profession was the love of performance and music, which led me to become a professional actor and singer. Through this incident, I realized that I also need to have social responsibility as an idol and celebrity more than just improving my professional ability. I was born in an ordinary family in Chongqing, and like any other people, I have lived a common life for more than 20 years. Therefore, I also need to take this opportunity to express my apology for the inappropriate statement I once said and for everyone I hurt unintentionally. I 80 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China will work hard to learn how to be a better idol and celebrity without losing myself and become a better person. No matter how severe or mild the harm I caused in the past year, I need to be responsible for it. I will ask myself, even if I cannot impose my will on others, I hope fans can read through this announcement thoroughly. Please become more rational and live a positive and healthy life. Put more attention into your life, fewer tears and disputes behind the screen and electronic devices, but more effort and improvement in real life. I just want to become a better myself. 81 Appendix B Thompson Rivers University Respectful Workplace and Harassment Prevention This is the original document for TRU anti-bullying policy. It provides detailed definitions and procedures for managing university bullying incidents by responding to the BC University Act, BC College and Institute Act, and related laws. (Please see the full text of the TRU Respectful Workplace and Harassment Prevention Policy on the next page.) Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Thompson Rivers University RESPECTFUL WORKPLACE AND HARASSMENT PREVENTION POLICY NUMBER: BRD 17-0 APPROVAL DATE: March 26, 2021 AUTHORITY: Board of Governors PRIMARY CONTACT: General Counsel POLICY Thompson Rivers University promotes teaching, scholarship and research, and the free and critical discussion of ideas. The University is committed to providing a working and learning environment that allows for the full and free participation of all members of the University community. Discrimination undermines these objectives, violates the fundamental rights, personal dignity and integrity of individuals or groups of individuals and may require remedial action by the University. Harassment is a form of discrimination that is prohibited under this policy and may result in the imposition of disciplinary sanctions including, where appropriate, dismissal or permanent suspension. This policy responds to the University's responsibility under the Human Rights Code of British Columbia (the Human Rights Code) to prevent discrimination, to provide procedures to handle complaints, to resolve problems, and to remedy situations when a violation of this policy occurs. The University will offer educational and training programs designed to support the administration of this policy and to ensure that all members of the University community are aware of their responsibilities under the Human Rights Code and this policy. REGULATIONS 1. DEFINITIONS “Complainant” – Any person who believes that he/she has experienced or witnessed harassment or discrimination and who seeks recourse pursuant to this policy. The University may also be a complainant. “Complaint” – A statement of facts alleged by a complainant seeking recourse pursuant to this policy. 83 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China “Constituency organizations” – Association of Professional Administrators (APA) and other administrative staff of Thompson Rivers University, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE 4879), Thompson Rivers University Faculty Association (TRUFA), Thompson Rivers University Open Learning Faculty Association (TRUOLFA), and Thompson Rivers University Students Union (TRUSU). “Discrimination” – includes harassment and discrimination as defined by the BC Human Rights Code. Currently, “the grounds of discrimination” prohibited by the BC Human Rights Code are age, race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, political belief, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation gender identity or expression and, in the case of employment, unrelated criminal convictions. “Age” means an age of 19 years or more. The University is under a legal duty to accommodate individuals or groups protected from discrimination under the Human Rights Code unless it would create undue hardship to the University. “Harassment” – Any behavior that satisfies one or more of the following definitions of harassment: a. Harassment based on a prohibited ground of discrimination. Behaviour directed towards another person or persons that: i. is abusive or demeaning; and ii. includes a direct or indirect reference to a prohibited ground of discrimination under British Columbia's Human Rights Code; and iii. would be viewed by a reasonable person experiencing the behaviour as an interference with her/his participation in a University-related activity. b. Sexual harassment. Behavior of a sexual nature by a person: i. who knows or ought reasonably to know that the behaviour is unwanted or unwelcome; and ii. which interferes with another person's participation in a University-related activity; or iii. leads to or implies job- or academically-related consequences for the person harassed. 84 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China c. Personal harassment. Behavior directed towards a specific person or persons that: i. serves no legitimate purpose; and ii. would be considered by a reasonable person to create an intimidating, humiliating, or hostile work or learning environment. d. Workplace bullying and harassment. Any inappropriate conduct or comment by a person towards a worker (as defined in the BC Workers’ Compensation Act) that the person knew or reasonably ought to have known would cause that worker to be humiliated or intimidated, but excludes any reasonable action taken by the University or a supervisor relating to the management and direction of workers or the place of employment. “Reasonable person standard” – Whether or not a reasonable person in roughly the same position as the complainant would judge discrimination or harassment to have occurred as a result of another person’s behaviour or pattern of behaviour. “Respondent” – A person or persons against whom an allegation of discrimination or harassment has been made pursuant to this policy. “Responsible officer” – The University official who may carry out one or more of the following roles within the terms of this policy: a. decide whether the policy has been violated; b. make recommendations or decisions regarding remedies or discipline; c. assume the role of complainant to initiate an investigation; d. initiate interim measures. The responsible officers in a particular case are determined by the University positions of the complainant and respondent. For members of the TRUFA bargaining unit the responsible officer is the appropriate Dean/Director; for students the responsible officer is the Associate Vice-President, Students; for staff the responsible officer is the appropriate Director or Associate Vice-President; for Deans and Directors the responsible officer is the appropriate Associate Vice-President/Vice President; and for Vice Presidents the responsible officer is the President. “University community” – All students and employees of the University and the activities that arise directly out of the operations of the University, between people in their capacity as members of the TRU community are within the jurisdiction of this policy. Members of the 85 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China TRU Community include students, faculty members, teaching staff in the Open Learning Division, support and administrative staff, or any person holding a TRU appointment. “University-related activity” – Any type of activity operated under University auspices at any location. All activities on the University’s campuses are University-related unless they are within the exclusive control of constituency organizations or an organization/group external to the University. 2. PRINCIPLES 2.1 All members of the University community have the responsibility to respect the rights of others. Discrimination and harassment, will not be tolerated by the University. 2.2 This policy will not be interpreted, administered, or applied to infringe the academic freedom of any member of the University community. Academic freedom is the freedom to examine, question, teach, and learn and it involves the right to investigate, speculate, and comment without reference to prescribed doctrine as well as the right to criticize the University and society at large. The frank discussion of controversial ideas, the pursuit and publication of controversial research, and the study and teaching of material with controversial content do not constitute discrimination or harassment. 2.3 This policy will be interpreted, administered, and applied in conformity with the principles of procedural fairness and natural justice. 2.4 All parties will be advised of the provisions of this policy and of the procedures available to them under the terms of this policy. 2.5 All members of the University community will be treated equitably under this policy. All matters arising under this policy will be dealt with in a fair, unbiased and timely manner. 2.6 This policy is not intended to interfere with ordinary social or personal relationships among members of the University community. 2.7 In the University community, power differences exist between or among faculty, staff, and students. Where one person has implied or explicit power or authority over another, there is an increased potential for discrimination or harassment issues to arise. 86 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 2.8 Members of the University community have a responsibility for ensuring that the University’s working and learning environment is free from discrimination and harassment. Chairs, Directors and Deans bear the primary responsibility for maintaining a working and learning environment free from discrimination and harassment. They are expected to act on this responsibility whenever necessary, whether or not they are in receipt of a complaint and take steps to eliminate or otherwise minimize discrimination and harassment. All members of the University Community are expected to report experienced or observed incidents of discrimination or harassment that are within the scope of this policy. 2.9 Those responsible for interpreting, administering, and applying this policy will use a reasonable person standard. 2.10 This policy is not to be interpreted, administered, or applied in such a way as to detract from the right and obligation of those in supervisory roles to manage and discipline employees and students in accordance with collective agreements or applicable university policies and procedures. The exercise in good faith of management’s rights for operational requirements, performance management or progressive discipline does not constitute harassment. 2.11 Members of the University community have an obligation to participate in procedures under this policy. It is a ground for discipline for either party to refuse to participate in an investigation without reasonable justification. 2.12 Frivolous, vexatious, or malicious complaints of discrimination or harassment may result in discipline. 2.13 Either party to a complaint may object to the participation of a person in the administration of this policy on grounds of conflict of interest or reasonable apprehension of bias. Such objection should be submitted in writing to General Counsel whose decision will be final. Where the objection relates to the participation of General Counsel, the President will make the determination. 3. JURISDICTION Under this policy, a complaint of discrimination or harassment may only be made where the alleged discrimination or harassment involves a member of the University community and the alleged incident(s) arose from a University-related activity. 87 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 4. USE OF INFORMATION AND CONFIDENTIALITY 4.1 Allegations of discrimination and harassment, particularly of sexual harassment, often involve the collection, use, and disclosure of sensitive personal information. Confidentiality is required so that those who may have experienced discrimination and harassment will feel free to come forward. Confidentiality is also required so that the reputations and interests of those accused of discrimination or harassment are protected. However, either party may discuss the case in confidence with her/his supervisor, support person, and/or representative of her/his constituency organization. 4.2 Subject to any limits or disclosure requirements imposed by law or required by this policy, any and all information, oral and written, created, gathered, received or compiled through the course of a complaint is to be treated as confidential by both the respondent and complainant, their representatives, witnesses, and the officials designated by this policy. 4.3 All recorded personal information will be treated as "supplied in confidence" for the purposes of compliance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act of BC and responding to access requests under that legislation. 4.4 The office of record for all records documenting cases under this policy is the Human Rights Office. 4.5 Information concerning a complaint may be provided by the Human Rights Officer, to appropriate University officials on a need-to-know basis. Any person informed of an allegation of discrimination or harassment under this section will be informed of its disposition. 4.6 Any person breaching confidentiality may be subject to disciplinary sanction or other appropriate action. 5. ADMINISTRATION 5.1 The administration of this policy is conducted by the following persons or groups: a. General Counsel, or designate b. Human Rights Officer c. responsible officers d. investigators 88 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 5.2 The Human Rights Officer facilitates the implementation of the policy. The Human Rights Officer is responsible for coordinating a training and education strategy for students and employees on harassment and discrimination prevention. The goal of such training and education is to both prevent discrimination and harassment from occurring and to ensure members of the University community have a clear understanding of their responsibilities in connection with discrimination and harassment prevention. The Human Rights Officer is not an advocate for either party to a complaint. General Counsel supervises the Human Rights Officer. 5.3 Where a determination of reasonable apprehension of bias or conflict of interest has been made under section 2.13, General Counsel will make decisions concerning any replacement that may be required. 6. REPORTING AND COMPLAINT PROCEDURES 6.1 Any member of the University community who believes that he/she may have experienced or witnessed discrimination or harassment is expected to report or discuss the matter with the Human Rights Officer or the Dean/Director of the faculty/school/division in which the concern has arisen. If the Human Rights Officer or applicable Dean/Director is the individual alleged to have engaged in discrimination or harassment, then the conduct in question may be reported to General Counsel or to another responsible officer. 6.2 A complainant may bring a complaint to the Human Rights Office within six months of the last alleged incident of discrimination or harassment. A member of the Human Rights Office will discuss the complaint fully with the complainant, who will be informed of the procedures of this policy. 6.3 All complaints must be submitted in writing. 6.4 The Human Rights Officer may reject a complaint on the grounds that it is frivolous, vexatious, malicious, lies outside the jurisdiction of this Policy, or is beyond the time limits for laying a complaint. The decision to reject a complaint must include the reasons for the decision and may be appealed to General Counsel. General Counsel’s decision will be final. 89 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 6.5 The Human Rights Officer will determine whether or not a complaint falls within the definition of discrimination and/or subsection (a), (b), (c) or (d) of the definition of harassment. If a complainant disagrees with this determination, the complainant may appeal this determination to General Counsel, whose decision is final. 6.6 A complainant will be informed of avenues for redress or resolution. 7. INVESTIGATION PROCEDURES 7.1 If a complaint is within the jurisdiction of this policy and proceeds, the Human Rights Officer will initiate an investigation that is appropriate to the circumstances. 7.2 At any time, and even if the complainant and respondent have reached a resolution through mediation or otherwise, a responsible officer may, in appropriate circumstances, decide to assume the role of complainant in a case in order to initiate or continue an investigation. 7.3 Investigations may be conducted by either an internal or external investigator, as deemed appropriate by General Counsel. 7.4 If more than one complaint has been made about a respondent, General Counsel may decide that the complaints will be investigated together. Each party will have the opportunity to make submissions on this matter and to comment on the other's submission. 7.5 If a complainant makes the request for an external investigation, the request will contain a full account of the alleged discrimination. If the respondent requests an external investigation, the request must explain the reasons why he/she seeks an external investigation. 7.6 General Counsel has power to authorize or refuse to authorize an external investigation; this decision will be guided by the following criteria: • the alleged discrimination or harassment may have had a serious impact on the complainant or respondent; • the complaint is important to the mission, values or goals of the University; or • the respondent has refused to participate in earlier efforts to address the complaint. 90 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China If General Counsel refuses to authorize an external investigation, he/she will give reasons for this decision. 7.7 When a request for an external investigation has been refused by General Counsel, a direct appeal to the President, meeting without General Counsel, may be made. The appeal must be made within three weeks of General Counsel’s refusal to authorize an external investigation. The appellant will make an initial submission; the other party may make a response to which the appellant will have a right of reply. After consideration of the reasons for the request for an external investigation and any submissions and comments from the parties, the President will decide whether or not to authorize an external investigation. 7.8 When an external investigation is authorized, General Counsel will appoint an experienced investigator with expertise in administrative law and trauma informed investigations who is external to the University. The investigator will be provided with terms of reference for the investigation, a protocol for conducting the investigation and a timeline for completing the investigation and report. 7.9 Whether internal or external, the investigation will conform to the principles of natural justice and procedural fairness and: 7.9.1 be undertaken promptly and diligently, and will normally commence within three weeks of its authorization; 7.9.2 be fair and impartial; and 7.9.3 be sensitive to the interests of all parties involved and maintain confidentiality to the extent reasonably possible. 7.10 The investigator will normally interview the complainant, respondent, and such other persons and/or review documents as he/she considers may have or contain relevant information pertaining to the complaint. 7.11 Any complainant who wishes the University to assist in the resolution of a complaint through investigation must be prepared to be identified to the respondent. 7.12 All parties must be given the opportunity to present evidence in support of their positions and to defend themselves against allegations of discrimination or 91 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China harassment. Where a party has the opportunity to make a submission, response or comment, it will normally be provided within two weeks. 7.13 All parties may be accompanied by legal counsel, a support person, and/or a representative of their constituency organization throughout the procedures set out in this policy. 7.14 A complainant may withdraw his/her complaint at any time. However, the University may nonetheless have an ongoing obligation to investigate the concerns raised. 7.15 If the complainant or the respondent refuses to cooperate with the investigator, the investigator will proceed with the investigation with the available evidence. 7.16 The investigator will normally prepare a report that conforms to the legislative requirements of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act of BC. The investigator‘s report will include an opinion on the facts of the case, disputed and undisputed, and whether, on a balance of probabilities, there has been a violation of the policy. 7.17 The report of the investigator will be sent to General Counsel. In accordance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act of BC, the report is not releasable to either the complainant or respondent unless the complainant or respondent makes a written request under the provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act of BC and all personal information about other individuals is severed. 7.18 The investigator may recommend that the investigation be adjourned, stayed, or terminated, or otherwise settled with the agreement of the parties. The decision on this recommendation will be made by whoever authorized the investigation after considering submissions on the recommendation, if any, from each party. 8. INTERIM MEASURES It may be necessary that interim measures be taken while a complaint is being resolved, investigated or decided. Such measures will be precautionary, not disciplinary. The responsible officer for either the complainant or the respondent may initiate interim measures in consultation with the Human Rights Officer. In situations where a member of the TRU community believes that their personal safety or the safety of others is an issue, the member 92 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China should immediately seek assistance through the Human Rights Officer, General Counsel or their excluded supervisor or the Manager, Student Affairs. 9. MEDIATION & ALTERNATIVE RESOLUTION OF COMPLAINTS 9.1 At any point in the investigative process, either party or the person responsible for the investigation, may request or initiate an informal complaint resolution process such as mediation. Any informal complaint resolution process must have the consent of both parties to proceed, and if a resolution is reached, it will be documented in writing. 9.2 The University may have an ongoing obligation to investigate or continue to investigate the Complaint even where the parties have agreed to participate in an informal complaint resolution process or have reached a resolution acceptable to both parties. 10. DECISION 1.1 When General Counsel receives the investigator's report he/she will meet with the responsible officer for the respondent and the responsible officer will decide whether or not to accept the investigator’s findings, and if a breach is found to have occurred, will decide what sanctions or corrective measures, if any, should be imposed. 1.2 The decision, with reasons, on whether the policy has been violated will be communicated to both parties within four weeks of receipt of the report. 1.3 If the responsible officer for the respondent finds that the complaint was frivolous, vexatious, or malicious he/she will take steps to appropriately address this conduct, which may include disciplinary action for the complainant. Except for complaints that are frivolous, vexatious, or malicious, there will be no retaliation by any member of the University Community against a complainant for bringing a complaint. 93 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 11. REMEDIES 11.1If there is a finding that this policy has been violated, the responsible officer for the respondent will act promptly to take corrective action to ensure that the discrimination or harassment ceases and to prevent future occurrences of similar activity. Such corrective action may include disciplinary action against the respondent, training for members of the university community, or amendments to university policies or processes. Any corrective measure will be documented by the responsible officer. 11.2 The complainant may request that measures be taken to correct damage. The responsible officer for the complainant will send a recommendation for remedy to the appropriate Vice President and President for a decision. 11.3 In cases where it is determined that there has not been a violation of the policy the University will, if requested to do so by the respondent, issue a statement that there was no violation of the policy by the respondent. Whether or not there has been a violation of the policy, the University will document the incident and take any appropriate action to help prevent discrimination and harassment in the future. Such action may include, but is not limited to: providing direction and supervision to affected employees or students, providing specific training to employees or students on managing difficult situations, imposing arrangements that minimize the risk of discrimination and harassment. 12. DISCIPLINE 12.1 Where there is a finding of discrimination or harassment by a member of the University community, the responsible officer for the respondent will decide on appropriate discipline. 12.2 Where the respondent is covered by a collective agreement with a bargaining unit, any discipline will be imposed consistent with the terms of that agreement. 94 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 12.3 Where the respondent is a student, the responsible officer will, after taking all the circumstances of the case into consideration make a recommendation regarding discipline to the President. At that point, the provisions of the University’s applicable policy with regard to student discipline will apply. 12.4 If the respondent is not covered by either section 12.2 or 12.3 of this policy, the responsible officer will create an analogous process. 12.5 Each party will be informed of the final decision. The final decision will be placed in the appropriate personnel file or student file of any party found to have violated the policy. 13. REPORTING The Human Rights Officer is responsible for preparing and distributing an annual report. This responsibility requires that information on activity under this policy be collected by the Human Rights Officer. The annual report will summarize the activities of the Human Rights Office in administering this policy and will provide information on the number of complaints, and the number of resolutions through informal procedures, mediation activities, and investigations. The report will also contain the progress made in providing education to employees and students in regard to harassment and discrimination prevention. This annual report will be provided to General Counsel, the President and the Board of Governors of TRU and made available through the office of General Counsel. 14. REVIEW This policy will be reviewed annually. 15. INTERPRETATION Questions of interpretation or application of this policy shall be referred to General Counsel, whose decision shall be final. 16. OTHER PROCESSES If the complaint is an alleged violation under the BC Human Rights Code the complainant may, at any time, make a complaint to the Human Rights Tribunal. In 95 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China accordance with the Human Rights Code, a complaint must be filed within 6 months of the alleged contravention. 17. CONTRACTORS AND OTHER VISITORS TO CAMPUS The University will not tolerate harassment or discrimination on its campuses or at University events. As the University is not able to impose disciplinary sanctions directly on employees of contractors engaged by the University or compel contractors to engage in the processes under this policy, the University will rely on its contractual and other rights with regard to contractors alleged to have committed harassment or discrimination; in doing so the University will require contractors to hold their employees to the same standards applicable to members of the University Community. Similarly, other visitors to campus found to have breached this Policy may be excluded from University campuses and/or events. ************ This policy is reproduced, in part, with permission from Simon Fraser University. 96 Appendix C Symptom Checklist 90-R Symptom Checklist 90-R is a self-report questionnaire with 90 questions for measuring psychological and psychiatric symptoms. It had been used in the psychological study and psychiatric treatment field for many years. Moreover, this instrument is used worldwide in that there are translated versions in different languages, such as Chinese. Although the results might vary based on local conditions, the trend in the questionnaire scores remains the same (Dang et al., 2021, p. 5). The SCL-90-R aims for 13 years and older participants, which meets the requirement in this study. The participants will answer the questions by scoring from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely) according to their current mental status (Derogatis & Savitz, 2000). This questionnaire focuses on exploring the mental condition regarding bullying experiences, which will collaborate with the open-closed questionnaire, Bullying by Your Side, to study the mental consequences and internal circumstances related to bullying behaviors. (Please see the full Symptom Checklist 90-R questionnaire on the next page.) Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Symptom Checklist 90-R Below is a list of problems and complaints that people sometimes have. Please read each one carefully and enter the number that best describes how much you were bothered by that problem during the past week. Please enter only ONE. FOR THE PAST WEEK, HOW MUCH WERE YOU BOTHERED BY: Not At A Little All Bit 1. Headaches 0 1 2 3 4 2. Nervousness or shakiness inside 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 3. Unwanted thoughts, words, or ideas that won't leave your mind 4. Faintness or dizziness 5. Loss of sexual interest or pleasure 6. Feeling critical of others 7. The idea that someone else can control your thoughts Moderately Quite A Bit Extremely 8. Feeling others are to blame for most of your troubles 9. Trouble remembering things 10. Worried about sloppiness or carelessness 11. Feeling easily annoyed or irritated 12. Pains in heart or chest 13. Feeling afraid in open spaces or on the streets 98 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 14. Feeling low in energy or slowed 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 19. Poor appetite 0 1 2 3 4 20. Crying easily 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 26. Blaming yourself for things 0 1 2 3 4 27. Pains in lower back 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 29. Feeling lonely 0 1 2 3 4 30. Feeling blue 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 32. Feeling no interest in things 0 1 2 3 4 33. Feeling fearful 0 1 2 3 4 34. Your feelings being easily hurt 0 1 2 3 4 down 15. Thoughts of ending your life 16. Hearing words that others do not hear 17. Trembling 18. Feeling that most people cannot be trusted 21. Feeling shy or uneasy with the opposite sex 22. Feeling of being trapped or caught 23. Suddenly scared for no reason 24. Temper outbursts that you could not control 25. Feeling afraid to go out of your house alone 28. Feeling blocked in getting things done 31. Worrying too much about things 99 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 35. Other people being aware of 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 39. Heart pounding or racing 0 1 2 3 4 40. Nausea or upset stomach 0 1 2 3 4 41. Feeling inferior to others 0 1 2 3 4 42. Soreness of your muscles 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 48. Trouble getting your breath 0 1 2 3 4 49. Hot or cold spells 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 your private thoughts 36. Feeling others do not understand you or are unsympathetic 37. Feeling that people are unfriendly or dislike you 38. Having to do things very slowly to insure correctness 43. Feeling that you are watched or talked about by others 44. Trouble falling asleep 45. Having to check and doublecheck what you do 46. Difficulty making decisions 47. Feeling afraid to travel on buses, subways, or trains 50. Having to avoid certain things, places, or activities because they frighten you 51. Your mind going blank 52. Numbness or tingling in parts of your body 53. A lump in your throat 100 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 54. Feeling hopeless about the 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 59. Thoughts of death or dying 0 1 2 3 4 60. Overeating 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 future 55. Trouble concentrating 56. Feeling weak in parts of your body 57. Feeling tense or keyed up 58. Heavy feelings in your arms or legs 61. Feeling uneasy when people are watching or talking about you 62. Having thoughts that are not your own 63. Having urges to beat, injure, or harm someone 64. Awakening in the early morning 65. Having to repeat the same actions such as touching, counting, washing 66. Sleep that is restless or disturbed 67. Having urges to break or smash things 68. Having ideas or beliefs that others do not share 69. Feeling very self-conscious with others 101 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 70. Feeling uneasy in crowds, such 0 1 2 3 4 71. Feeling everything is an effort 0 1 2 3 4 72. Spells of terror or panic 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 as shopping or at a movie 73. Feeling uncomfortable about eating or drinking in public 74. Getting into frequent arguments 75. Feeling nervous when you are left alone 76. Others not giving you proper credit for your achievements 77. Feeling lonely even when you are with people 78. Feeling so restless you couldn't sit still 79. Feelings of worthlessness 80. Feeling that familiar things are strange or unreal 81. Shouting or throwing things 82. Feeling afraid you will faint in public 83. Feeling that people will take advantage of you if you let them 84. Having thoughts about sex that bother you a lot 85. The idea that you should be punished for your sins 86. Feeling pushed to get things done 102 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 87. The idea that something serious is wrong with your body 88. Never feeling close to another person 89. Feelings of guilt 90. The idea that something is wrong with your mind 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 103 Appendix D Open-closed questionnaire “Bullying by Your Side" questionnaire is designed to explore participants' hidden thoughts regarding bullying behavior. The questionnaire will be anonymous to help reduce participants' apprehension and embarrassment when answering sensitive questions. The questionnaire will be divided into three major parts: Traditional bullying, Cyberbullying and multiple bullying; each part will focus on one particular bullying behavior to observe the elements that cause or effect bullying behaviors. In addition, each part will contain a section asking about relevant university policies and procedures to study the efficiency of currently anti-bullying laws and university policies and regulations. Finally, this questionnaire collaborates closely with the Social-Identity Wheel and the Symptom Checklist 90-R to discover and analyze the factors and the relationship that impact the rate of bullying in universities. (Please see the full Bullying by Your Side questionnaire on the next page.) Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China Bullying by Your Side Section 1. Traditional bullying 1. Have you experienced or witnessed any form of bullying perpetration on campus or during class hours? a. Yes. b. No. 2. If you have, what was your role in the bullying incident? a. Perpetrator. b. Victim. c. Witness. 3. Did you recognize the type of bullying incident while it was occurring? a. Yes. b. No. 4. If you did, what kind of bullying was it? (Multiple choice, you must choose one from a & b, and one from c - e) a. Individual bullying. b. Collective bullying (Mobbing). c. Physical bullying. d. Verbal bullying. e. Cyberbullying. 5. Did you tolerate the aggressive behavior? a. Yes. b. No. 6. If you did not, what did you do? If you didn’t have the experience, what would you do? a. Support the victim. b. Call your peers to defend the victim. c. Report to professors or university authority. d. Tell your family and ask for their opinion. e. Discuss with your peers. f. Call university security or th police. 105 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China g. There’s nothing can be done. 7. If you reported to the school or legal enforcement officer, what was their attitude? a. Took it seriously and managed it according to the university regulations and related laws. b. Took it seriously but did not solve the problem properly or with no result. c. Did not take it seriously but reported the incident to a higher university authority. d. Did not take it seriously, ended up with no result. e. Did not take it seriously and punished the victim. f. Incident was ignored. 8. What was the reason causing the bullying perpetration? (Multiple choice, you must choose one or more from the list. If other reasons available, please select “other”, and specify your answer in simple language) a. GPA. b. Sex identity. c. Sexual orientation. d. Part-time/ intern job. e. Spare time activity. f. Socio-economic status. g. Nationality. h. Other: _____________ i. No reason. 9. Who was the perpetrator? a. Peers. b. Family. c. Neighbor. d. Student from higher grade (university employee). e. Random person from the Internet. f. Other: __________ Section 2. Cyberbullying 10. Do you use social networks? 106 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China a. Yes. b. No. c. If you do not, why? __________ 11. If you use social networks, what is the platform(s)? a. Facebook. b. Instagram. c. Twitter. d. Tumblr. e. Snapchat. f. Reddit. g. YouTube. h. Weibo. i. WeChat. j. QQ. k. LINE. l. Tik Tok. m. Bilibili. n. Other: __________ 12. What is your frequency for using social media? a. Daily. i. Less than an hour. ii. Between 2-3 hours. iii. 4 hours above. b. Monthly. c. Annually. d. Never. 13. What is your purpose of using these social networks? a. Internet surfing for interest. b. Learning new things/ explore sight. c. Fun but privacy concerns. d. Filled with immaterial violence. 107 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China e. Hatred. 14. Have you experienced or witnessed cyberbullying on these platforms? a. Yes. b. No (Please go to question 21). 15. If you did, what was your role in the cyberbullying incident? a. Perpetrator. b. Victim. c. Witness. 16. What do you think was the reason for the victim being cyberbullied? (Multiple choice, you must choose one or more from the list. If other reasons available, please select “other”, and type your answer in simple language) a. GPA. b. Sex identity. c. Sexual orientation. d. Part-time/intern job. e. Spare time activity. f. Socio-economic status. g. Nationality. h. Other: _____________ i. No reason. 17. What was the form(s) of the cyberbullying perpetration? (Multiple choice- one or more) a. Spreading rumors. b. Stalking privacy on electronic devices. c. Stalking privacy on social media. d. Hacking into personal account. (Social media account, bank account, traveling app account etc.). e. Prank calls. f. Malicious slander and libel statements. 18. How long did the cyberbullying process last? a. Less than a day. 108 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China b. Around a week. c. Many months or more. 19. What would you do when experiencing or witness cyberbullying? a. Support the victim. b. Call your peers to defend the victim. c. Report to Report to instructors or university authority. d. Tell your family and ask for their opinion. e. Discuss with your peers. f. Call university security or the police. g. There’s nothing can be done. 20. If you reported to the school or legal enforcement officer, what was their attitude? a. Took it seriously and managed it according to the university regulation and laws. b. Took it seriously but did not solve the problem properly or with no result. c. Did not take it seriously but reported the incident to a higher university authority. d. Did not take it seriously, ended up with no result. e. Did not take it seriously and punished the victim. f. Incident was ignored. 21. Are you allowed to use electronic devices in the classroom? a. Yes. Cellphone, laptop etc. b. Yes. Only laptop. c. Yes, electronic devices provided by the school. d. No. 22. Are you allowed to use electronic devices outside of the classroom during class hour? a. Yes. Cellphone, laptop etc. b. Yes. Only laptop. c. Yes, electronic devices provided by the school. d. No. 23. When does cyberbullying occur most frequently? a. During class hours. 109 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China b. Before/after class. c. All of the above. 24. What are the difficulties when facing to cyberbullying? (Multiple choice- one or more) a. Cannot give physical reaction. b. Self-abasement. c. Public opinion. d. Desolation. e. No support from the law. f. Other. (Please specify) _____ 25. Do you think social media is a fine platform to express those emotions that cannot be exposed to the public directly? a. Yes. b. No. 26. When was the first time you experienced/witnessed cyberbullying? a. Primary school. b. Secondary to high school. c. Not until university. d. Never. 27. Who was the perpetrator? a. Peers. b. Family. c. Neighbor. d. Student from higher grade (university employee). e. Random person from the Internet. f. Other: __________ Section 3. Multiple bullying 28. Did the cyberbullying incident transform from other types of bullying? a. Yes. i. Physical bullying. ii. Verbal bullying. 110 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China b. No. 29. Do you think that the cyberbullying would transform into other types of bullying once it being stopped? a. Yes. i. Physical bullying. ii. Verbal bullying. b. No. 30. Due to COVID-19, students and employees are studying and working from home. Have you experienced/witnessed any type of bullying as a result? a. Yes. Verbal and cyberbullying. b. Yes. Cyberbullying only. c. Yes. All types. d. No. The rate is significantly reduced. e. I am not aware. 31. Due to COVID-19, everyone was forced to be isolated and avoid direct contact with other people. Do you think it helped people to remain calm and self-sufficient? a. Yes. People have more time for self-examination. b. Yes. People have more time for themselves. c. No. People are overwhelmed due to the threats from the pandemic. d. No. Human is social animal, they need company and to interact with others. 32. Have you experienced or witnessed any type of bullying perpetration due to COVID19? a. Yes. i. Physical bullying. ii. Verbal bullying. iii. Cyberbullying. b. No. 33. Cyberbullying vs. traditional bullying (physical/verbal), in which type do you think the injury (mental/physical) will last longest? a. Cyberbullying b. Traditional bullying. 111 Bullying Behavior at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada and China 34. Do you know any laws related to bullying? a. Yes. b. No such law. c. Don’t know. 35. Do you know any procedures of violent threats risk assessment towards bullying behavior? a. Yes. b. No such procedure. c. Does it exist? 36. If you are being bullied, would you seek revenge on impulse? a. Yes. Eye for an eye. b. No. It’s not appropriate. 37. Have you ever considered bullying others? a. Yes. b. No. 38. What type of bullying would you choose if you wanted bully others? a. Physical bullying. b. Verbal bullying. c. Cyberbullying. 39. Would you feel guilty if you bullied others, especially in the cyberbullying case and you are not the principal criminal? a. Yes, of course. b. No, it’s fun. c. No, I know I won’t be punished. d. No feeling, just following other people. 112