AN INVESTIGATION OF ADOLESCENTS’ CYBERBULLYING ACCORDING TO SOME VARIABLES
Journal Name:
- Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi
Key Words:
Keywords (Original Language):
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Abstract (2. Language):
In a rapidly developing world, even though positive relations between people have been going on increasing parallel to development, there have been negative relations that cannot be ignored. This negative relations increasing rapidly between adolescents occurs as bullying.
Today, in parallel with the development of technology a new type of bullying has emerged: Cyber bullying .Cyber bullying is the new face of bullying. It has been defined differently by various people. Willard (2005) defined cyber bullying as using the internet and other communication tools, intentionally sending harmful and unpleasant messages or photos to others. Smith et al (2008) defined cyber bullying as using electronic communication tools intentionally and in a damaging way to the persons that cannot preserve himself from others. Cyberbullying is defined as "harassing others by sending harmful or offensive messages through information and communication tools (Patchin and Hinduja, 2006). Arıcak (2009) defined cyber bullying as in order to harm other people, repeated and supporting hostile behaviors created by e-mail, cell phone, pager, short message service and involving the use of information and communication technologies such as web sites deliberate, by an individual or a group of people.
Self-compassion was studied in this research as another factor. Self-compassion is defined as in cases of pain and failure without criticizing himself, treating himself thoughtful and insightful, percepting negative experiences as a part of his life, seeking rational solution ways much more than standing on the negative emotions and thoughts (Neff, 2003). There are three basic components of self-compassion. These components, a. self-kindness (being very very insightful instead of being critical to oneself, b. sense of common humanity (seeing his own experiences as an experiences of all people instead of as an individual experience), and c. mindfulness, (balancing negative feelings by escaping from excessive identification).
When the effects of cyber bullying on its victims are taken into consideration, how serious psychological problems caused by cyber bullying are seen and the negative results make it necessary to investigate all aspects of cyber bullying. When looked at the researchers on how cyber bullying have effects on cyber victims, it is discussed in many ways. However, few studies of this type on individuals engaged in cyber bullying. In this respect, it is thought that it is important to provide psychological supports on what the reasons are that push individuals to the cyber bullying, what the feelings and thoughts are that exhibit cyber bullying behavior. In this case, it is thought that it is important to define what cyber bullies' feelings and thoughts are about themselves and their environment. In this study, people's feelings and thoughts about themselves in another words self-compassion and adolescents who have self-compassion at different levels and their cyber bullying situations are examined. Furthermore, in the study it is examined that if adolescents cyber bullying levels differentiate according to gender and grade level.
The study group of the research consists of 357 adolescents who are studying at high school in spring semester of 2011-2012 in İstanbul. The 169 adolescents (47.4%) are female and 188 (52.6%) are male. Working group of adolescents aged between 15-21
(mean = 16.6, SD = 1.2). Furthermore, 98 of adolescents (%27,5) are participated in
the survey continue to ninth grade, 82 of adolescents (%23)continue to tenth grade,
93 of adolescents (%26,1) continue to eleventh grade and 84 of adolescents (%23,4)
continue to twelfth grade. In the research, to define the cyber bullying of adolescents,
the scale of cyber-bullying developed by Arıcak, Kınay and Tanrıkulu (2011) was
used; to define self-compassion level, the scale of self-compassion which was adopted
to Turkish language by Deniz, Kesici and Sümer was used.
In this research, self-compassion levels of students were defined as medium and high
by taking into consideration the mean and standard deviation values of points
obtained from the scale of self-compassion. Students 'average scores on the scale selfcompassionis
65.8, while the standard deviation is 14.4. One standard deviation
below the average point indicates low self-compassion, one standard deviation above
the average point indicates self-compassion. In this study, those under the average
level of 51 is called low level self-compassion, between 52-80 is called medium level
self-compassion, scores above 81 is called as high level self-compassion. To analyze
the data in the research, percentage, frequency, mean, standard deviation, one-way
analysis of variance and t test were used.
When adolescents' cyber bullying is examined according to self-compassion (F=.158,
p>.05) and grade level (F=2.350, p>.05), there were not significant differences but
according to gender (t=-2,011, p<.05) a significant difference was obtained.
According to the analysis obtained as a result of gender differences male adolescents (
X =39,4, Ss=19,5) were more cyber bully than female adolescents( X =35,4,
Ss=18,1).
In this research, a significant difference was not found between cyber bullying and
self compassion. There is no research related to self compassion of adolescents in
context of cyber bullying. In this regard, the study is thought to be important to
related literature. When the literature is examined victims that had been subjected to
cyber bullying experience like exclusion, disrespect, threatened, ridiculed
(Patchin&Hinduja, 2006) and have serious problems like sadness, anger, anxiety,
academic failure, absenteeism, loneliness, low self-esteem, suicide (Beran & Li, 2005;
Hinduja&Patchin, 2009; Raskauskas&Stoltz, 2007; Willard, 2007, cited in Peker et
al., 2012). A lot of studies examined the effects of cyber bullying on the cyber victims
in many ways. However, few studies examined the effects of cyber bullying on
individuals engaged in cyber bullying. In this context, it is thought to be important
to define the reasons that push people to the cyber bullying and feelings and thoughts of cyber bullies about themselves to provide them psychological support. Furthermore, if the reasons that push persons to the cyber bullying and individuals' self-feelings and thoughts about themselves may be defined, based on these informations preventive guidance can be offered, especially for young people. In this context, it is thought to be important to define adolescents’ feelings, thoughts and behaviors about themselves and their environment. In this study, adolescents’ cyber-bullying was examined according to self-compassion. Self-compassion is that a person sees the negative experiences as a part of his life and instead of focusing negative feelings and thoughts, she/he searches sensible solutions (Neff, 2003). In this context, self-compassion of individuals engaged in cyber bullying can be done in the future experimental studies to develop to defeat behaviors to cyber bullying. Because according to Deniz et al.(2008) to save people from negative emotions and to make their lives more livable and more understandable, it is necessary to develop their self-compassion. Because compassion requires be sensitive to others' suffering to be aware of the suffering of others, not to be disconnected and the ignored about anguishes and sufferings of other people, to be compassionate to others, the desire to alleviate the afflictions, to understand ones who fail and make mistakes without judging.
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Abstract (Original Language):
Bu araştırmada ergenlerin sanal zorbalıklarının öz-anlayış düzeylerine, cinsiyete ve sınıf düzeyine göre incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Araştırma verileri, İstanbul'da liseye devam eden 169'u kız, 188'i erkek toplam 357 ergenden sağlanmıştır. Araştırmada ergenlerin sanal zorbalıklarını belirlemek amacıyla Arıcak, Kınay ve Tanrıkulu (2011) tarafından geliştirilen siber zorbalık ölçeği; öz-anlayış düzeylerini belirlemek amacıyla Türkçeye Deniz, Kesici ve Sümer tarafından uyarlanan öz-anlayış ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda ergenlerin sanal zorbalıklarının öz-anlayış düzeylerine(F=.158, p>.05) ve sınıf düzeyine (F=2,350, p>.05) göre anlamlı düzeyde farklılaşmadığı, cinsiyete(t= -2,011, p<.05)göre ise erkeklerin lehine anlamlı düzeyde farklılaşma olduğu bulunmuştur. Araştırmalardan elde edilen bulgular doğrultusunda tartışma yapılmış ve önerilerde bulunulmuştur.
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