Determination of Secondary School Students' Levels of Sensitivity towards Cyberbullying and Cyberbullying Behaviour

Authors : Şemseddin Gündüz, Fatma Akgün, Hasan Özgür

Pages : 70-89

Doi:10.17275/per.21.4.8.1

View : 29 | Download : 9

Publication Date : 2021-01-01

Article Type : Research

Abstract :The development of technology and especially the changes and innovations experienced in the development of mobile technologies have increased the use of such technological devices in the society. Mobile technologies and smart phones among them have positive effects both in social life and academic life, as well as situations that cause some negative use as a result of intensive use of such technologies. Cyberbullying behaviour, which aims to harm others' lives by using technological devices, comes to the forefront among these problems. Therefore, this study aims to investigate engagement in cyberbullying behaviour and the sensitivity towards cyberbullying, which is a common behaviour especially among secondary school students. The study was carried out with 747 secondary school students studying in the 5th and 6th grades of public schools in the fall term of the 2019-2020 academic year. "Cyberbullying Scale” and "Sensitivity towards Cyberbullying Scale” were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis H and Spearman rho tests were used to evaluate the data that were found not to show normal distribution. As a result of the study, it was determined that the students' levels of engagement in cyberbullying behaviour were "low”, whereas their sensitivity levels towards cyberbullying were "high”. In the study, it was revealed that the difference between students' engaging in cyberbullying behaviour and their sensitivity towards cyberbullying in terms of gender and grade variables, and the difference between their cyberbullying sensitivity levels and mother education level, father education level, computer ownership, tablet ownership variables, were found to be significant. However, it was determined that there was a negative and moderate relationship between their cyberbullying behaviour and their sensitivity towards cyberbullying.
Keywords : cyberbullying, sensitivity towards cyberbullying, secondary school, student