Cyberbullying: relationship with developmental variables and cyber victimization^▪

Abstract

Background and objective: Cyberbullying is increasingly turning into a significant problem for children and adolescents due to its adverse psychological and academic outcomes. In the present study, the protective and risk factors for cyberbullying has been investigated. One of the aims of the study was to examine the relationship between peer relations, negative emotion regulation strategies, and cyberbullying. The successful identity development process is thought to influence both cyberbullying behaviors as well as adolescents' peer relations and emotion regulation. Also, cyber victimization is seen as a risk factor for cyberbullying. The second aim of the study is to investigate the causal relationship between cyber victimization and cyberbullying. Method: The study is a descriptive research in which both cross-sectional and longitudinal data were used. In the crosssectional part of the study, 1,151 adolescents have participated, and the data of the second wave was obtained from 322 of them four months later. Data were analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM) and hierarchical regression analyses. Results and conclusion: According to the results of SEM, good peer relations predicted less cyberbullying. The expressive repression explained the cyberbullying through peer relationships. For identity development, contrary to expectations, commitment dimension of identity seemed to be positively related to more cyberbullying and so did higher reconsideration of commitment. Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed that Time 1 cyber victimization predicted Time 2 cyberbullying. Given the pattern of cross-lagged relationships, it was tentatively inferred that cyber victimization was the temporal precursor to cyberbullying. The results of the study have implications for the prevention of cyberbullying.

The Difference in Mediated Effect between Cyberbullying and Cybervictimisation Under the Influence of Problematic Social Media Use

“…In another study across three time points, CV at a given time point marginally predicted CB at a subsequent time point (Chu et al, 2018). Results from hierarchic regression analysis and cross-lagged panel model also showed the significant prediction of CV at time 1 on CB at time 2 (Akgül & Artar, 2020). Despite the weak effects, these longitudinal findings provide some support to the directional effect from CV to CB.…”

“…But results from a structural equation model across three time points showed that CB at a given time point marginally predicted CV at a subsequent time point. In Akgül and Artar (2020), CB at time 1 also significantly associated with CV at time 2 but the effect was not significant after controlling for CV at time 1 in both hierarchic regression model and cross-lagged panel model. Similar to the findings for the effect of CV on CB, although not all findings provide clear causal evidence, most demonstrated that CV is longitudinally associated with prior CB.…”

“…The analyses were based on cross-sectional data. Importantly, literature showed that CB and CV are moderately correlated with themselves across different time points (e.g., Akgül & Artar, 2020;Chu et al, 2018). The cross-sectional measurements of CB and CV could therefore serve as their proxies at different time points, partially fulfilling the criterion of the temporal order of variables for causal analysis.…”

Cyber Bullying, Internet Addiction and Perceived Stress Among Adolescents

“…Siber zorbalık, başkalarını rahatsız etmek veya korkutmak amacıyla elektronik veya dijital medya aracılığıyla sürekli olarak düşmanca veya saldırgan mesajlar ileten kişi veya gruplar tarafından gerçekleştirilen davranışlardır (3,5,9,10). Türkiye'de ve uluslararası alanda yapılan çalışmalarda, öğrenciler arasında siber zorbalık ve mağduriyetin çok sık karşılaşılan bir sorun olduğu belirlenmiştir (3,7,8,(11)(12)(13). Gençler arasında yaygın bir sorun olan siber zorbalık, bireyin duygusal, sosyal ve psikolojik gelişimine zarar vermekle birlikte, toplumsal ilişkileri de olumsuz yönde etkileyebilmektedir (3,5,9,10,14,15).…”

“…Normal gelişimsel süreç, geleceğe ilişkin hayaller, sınavlar, akran ilişkileri, sevilen bir kişinin kaybı gibi yaşam olayları adölesanlar için stres yaratabilir (22). Adölesanlar stres ve öfkeleri ile baş etmek ya da çevrim içi ortamlarda kimlik araştırması yapabileceklerinden internet ile ilgilenebilirler (11). Bu nedenle adölesan dönem, stres ve öfke; internet bağımlılığı ve siber zorbalık ile ilişkilendirilebilir (11,18).…”