Cyberbullying victimization: a study of middle and high school students

Abstract

Abstract:Cyberbullying, a new growing phenomenon due to society's heavy reliance onadvanced technologies is an intricate and ever-evolving form of bullying. Little is knownabout how cyberbullying is perpetrated at the middle and high school levels. The currentstudy aims to investigate the prevalence, impact, and differential experience of cyberbullyingvictimization comprehensively. The participants of the study consist of 1752 middle and highschool students in İstanbul. The cyber victimization inventory and personal informationquestionnaire were used to gather research data. These surveys examined the relationshipbetween cyber victimization and technology use and students’ sociodemographicinformation. As a result of the research, it was observed that male students experiencedsignificantly higher cyber victimization than females. Also, the results demonstrated that 10thand 11th grade students have experienced more cyber victimization compared to 6th, 7th, 8th,and 9th grade students. When internet access was not supervised by the parents and students’time of internet usage increased, it was found that they have experienced cyber victimizationsignificantly higher. This research contributes to the literature in terms of revealing cybervictimization and related factors. Understanding the level of cyber victimization that childrenare exposed to and the factors related to victimization are important for reinforcing studiesto prevent bullying behaviors in the online environment