predicting cyberbullying tendencies of adolescents with problematic ...

The Journal of Academic Social Science Studies

International Journal of Social Science Doi number:http://dx.doi.org/10.9761/JASSS3597 Number: 48 , p. 385-396, Summer II 2016 Yayın Süreci Yayın Geliş Tarihi / Article Arrival Date - Yayınlanma Tarihi / The Published Date 05.07.2016 15.08.2016

PREDICTING CYBERBULLYING TENDENCIES OF ADOLESCENTS WITH PROBLEMATIC INTERNET USE ERGENLERDE SİBER ZORBALIĞIN YORDAYICISI OLARAK PROBLEMLİ İNTERNET KULLANIMI Res. Assist. Kağan KIRCABURUN Düzce University Faculty of Education Uzm. İbrahim BAŞTUĞ MEB, Teacher / Konya Abstract Internet technology is evolving rapidly and developments on internet technology bring both helpful and harmful new facts into individuals’ lives. Connecting and communicating with peers by using internet is frequent in popular culture. With many individuals interacting via internet, seeing certain problematic use and bad behaviors are some of the inevitable consequences of this phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between problematic Internet use and cyberbullying attitudes among adolescents. This relational study was conducted on 205 high school students. In order to collect data, “Problematic Internet Use Scale-Adolescent”, “Cyberbullying Attitude Scale” and “Personel Information Form” have been used. Research data was analyzed by using frequency and descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation test and Regression analysis. Result of the study indicates that there are significant positive relationships between problematic internet use, daily time spent online, cyberbullying attitude and its sub factors which are disguisement, pleasure, approval, anxiety. Although gender had no significant relationship with the most of the variables, female students’ anxiety levels of being cyber-victim was significantly higher than male students. Another finding of this study is that problematic internet use was significant predictor of cyberbullying attitudes, disguisement, pleasure, approval and anxiety. Results were discussed with the existing literature. Keywords: Problematic Internet Use, Cyberbullying, Adolescent, Internet Öz Internet teknolojileri hızla gelişmektedir ve bu alanda yaşanan gelişmeler bireylerin hayatına olumlu ve olumsuz şekillerde etki etmektedir. Popüler kültürde internet kullanarak çevreyle iletişim ve etkileşim göstermek oldukça yaygındır. Fakat birçok insanın bu teknolojileri kullanması, problemli kullanımların ve kötü davranışların

386 Kağan KIRCABURUN & İbrahim BAŞTUĞ görülmesini kaçınılmaz bir sonuç haline getirmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, ergenlerde problemli internet kullanımı ve siber zorbalık tutumları arasındaki ilişkinin incelenmesidir. Bu ilişkisel tarama çalışması 205 lise öğrencisiyle gerçekleştirilmiştir. Veri toplama aracı olarak “Problemli Internet Kullanım-Ergen Ölçeği-Ergen”, “Siber Zorbalık Tutum Ölçeği” ve kişisel bilgi formu kullanılmıştır. Verilerin analizinde frekans yüzde, tanımlayıcı istatistikler, Pearson korelasyon analizi ve regresyon analizi kullanılmıştır. Elde edilen bulgulara gore, problemli internet kullanımı, günlük internet kullanım süresi, siber zorbalık tutumu ve kendini gizleme, keyif, onaylama ile endişe alt boyutları arasında anlamlı pozitif ilişkiler olduğu görülmüştür. Siber zorbalık tutumunun cinsiyete gore anlamlı farklılaşmamasına ragmen, endişe alt faktörüyle anlamlı bir ilişkisi olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Buna göre kız öğrencilerin siber zorbalığa maruz kalmaktan dolayı duydukları endişe erkeklere gore daha yüksektir. Çalışma sonucunda elde edilen diğer bir bulguya gore ise, problemli internet kullanımı siber zorbalık tutumu, kendini gizleme alt faktörü, keyif alt faktörü, onaylama alt faktörü ve endişe alt faktörlerini anlamlı şekilde yordamaktadır. Sonuçlar literatür ışığında tartışılmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Problemli İnternet Kullanımı, Siber Zorbalık, Ergen, İnternet

INTRODUCTION Because of its easy accessibility and attainability features, computer and internet use have been increasing rapidly. Nowadays, individuals have difficulties functioning properly without internet technologies (Doğan, Işıklar & Eroğlu, 2008). Internet has become a frequently used tool in every part of human life. It is contributing human lives significantly and there are wide range of people who are using internet for entertainment, business, education and other purposes. However with the new developments in the world, internet technologies are also changing, individuals being exposed to increasing stimulating factors causes problematic behaviors (Cicioğlu, 2014). While there are positive effects of internet usage, various negative effects may be seen as well. Since it has become so much easier to reach new information, some users are having difficulties on making the necessary limitations on internet usage, which causes isolation from the society (Gönül, 2002). This situation may affect both educational and personal life as well as social life of the individual negatively. There are many statements used in order to define excessive internet use behavior. Some of them are Internet addiction (Young, 1996), pathological Internet use (Davis, 2001) and problematic internet use

(Davis, Flett & Besser, 2002). Young (1996) defines internet addiction term as individuals being addicted to internet in similar pattern as alcohol or gambling addiction that might cause academic failure, decrease on work performance, marital problems and divorce. On the other hand, Beard & Wolf (2001) defined problematic internet use as usage of internet that cause complications and nuisances in psychological, social, school or work life of the individuals. Researchers explain excessive usage of internet syndrome as extreme levels of time spent online, lack of control over time spent online, getting bored in life besides internet, getting irritated easily from disturbance while online, decrease of communication and interaction with real people and increase of depression and loneliness (Yellowlees & Marks, 2007). Due to the dramatic development and innovation in technology and communication tools, interactions among youth and adolescents on virtual platforms have increased drastically. As a result of this, a new type of bullying has emerged among adolescents called cyberbullying (Türkoğlu, 2013). In general, cyberbullying is identified as, separately or as a group, demonstrating intentional and repeated harmful behavior to vulnerable individuals by using electronic devices and internet which is widely common form of

Predicting Cyberbullying Tendencies Of Adolescents With Problematic Internet Use

online disturbance among adolescents and youth. Since use of computers and mobile devices widened among young people, probability of cyberbullying to be occured has increased (Smith et al., 2008). Similar to the traditional bullying, cyberbullying could be noticed easily by repeated threats, humiliating posts and mean messages (Patchin & Hinduja, 2015). However, it could be said that cyberbullying is worse and more harmful than traditional bullying because the assaults could be more intense, more unpredictible and hard to stop (Sabella, Patchin & Hinduja, 2013). Especially in recent years, studies about cyberbullying have been increased noticably (Antoniadou & Kokkinos, 2015). As the literature reviewed, it was seen that being cyber bully or cyberbullying victim have been increasing among early and late adolescents. In their research, Ayaz & Horzum (2012) reported that while 11% of the primary school students were cyber bullies, 18% of them were victimized by cyberbullying. Akça, Sayımer & Ergül (2015) stated that 9.5% of the students were cyber victims and 7% of the students were cyber bullies among secondary school students. Peker (2015) also reported that while ratio of cyber bullies 10%, cyber victims were 17%. As a result of their research that was conducted with high school students, Stys (2004) concluded that 33% of the students were involved in cyberbullying/victimization incidents. These results suggest that cyberbullying and cyber victimization among students are at serious levels. As the reasons of being cyber bully/victim investigated further, while some researchers have reported that male students had higher tendencies on being a cyber-bully (Akça, Sayımer & Ergül, 2015; Athanasiades et al., 2016; Ayas & Horzum, 2012; Calvete et al., 2010; Fanti, Demetriou & Hawa, 2012; Horzum & Ayas, 2011; Jung et al., 2014; Peker, 2015; Peker, Eroğlu & Ada, 2012); others stated that cyberbullying was not significantly

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related to gender (Çivilidağ & Cooper, 2013; Özdemir & Akar, 2011; Şentürk & Bayat, 2016). According to some research, female students were exposed to cyberbullying behavior more than male students (Akbaba & Eroğlu, 2013; Ayas, 2014; Navarro, Serna, Martinez & Ruiz-Oliva, 2013) and female students were affected by these behaviors very badly. Ayas (2014) reported that being cyber victim was leading individuals to depression and increased anxiety levels. In a similar study, Bauman, Toomey & Walker (2013) have found that being a cyber-victim led students to depression and 74% of the suicide attempts were predicted by depression that was caused by cyberbullying. According to these results it might be said that gender is important factor regarding cyberbullying and cyber victimization. Time spent online was also thought to be significantly correlated with cyberbullying and cyber victimization by some researchers. As a result of their study, Özdemir & Akar (2011) concluded that participants who spend more than 5 hours per day on the internet had a high incidence of being a cyber-bully. Türkoğlu (2013) and Cicioğlu (2014) had similar results. They have found that as the daily time spent online increased cyberbullying and cyber victimization were also increasing. Result of their research, Navarro et al. (2013) also stated that as individuals stayed online longer, probability of being exposed to cyberbullying behavior was increasing. Research also indicates that individuals who spent longer times online will more likely to use the internet problematically (Cicioğlu, 2014; Çakır Balta & Horzum, 2008; Türkoğlu, 2013). In the literature there are some studies suggest that problematic internet use and cyberbullying attitudes are significantly correlated (Cicioğlu, 2014; Jung et al., 2014; Türkoğlu, 2013). Jung et al. (2014) conducted a study with 4531 students between age of 11-14. As a result of their study, a significant relationship

388 Kağan KIRCABURUN & İbrahim BAŞTUĞ

between problematic internet use and cyberbullying have been found. Athanasiades et al. ( 2015) and Özdemir & Akar (2011) also concluded that excessive use of internet was significantly positively affecting cyberbullying behaviors among adolescents. In other study, Touloupis & Athanasiades (2014) reported that internet addiction and cyberbullying was significantly correlated. Nartgün & Cicioğlu (2015) conducted a study with high school students and they stated that problematic internet use was an important predictor of cyberbullying by predicting %13 of the variance. In the literature, there are numerous studies and research on the problematic internet use and cyberbullying tendencies separately. However as the domestic studies examined, it was noticed that research mainly focused on the demographics of the participants and other variables. Studies that had examined the relationship between problematic internet use and cyberbullying were relatively fewer. Also, since cyberbullying and cyber victimization are common problems among adolescents, studies regarding this subject with more depth thought to be needed and beneficial for further understanding of this issue. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship of problematic internet use and cyberbullying attitude among adolescents. In this research these questions below were tried to be answered: 1. Are gender and daily time spent online causing significant differences on cyberbullying tendencies of the adolescents and its sub factors? 2. Is there a significant relationship between the problematic internet use and cyberbullying tendencies of the adolescents and its sub factors? 3. Is problematic internet use predicting cyber bullying tendencies of the adolescents and its sub factors?

METHOD Research Design In this research relational survey design has been used in order to investigate the relationship between problematic internet use and cyberbullying tendencies of the adolescents. Relational survey design enables the researchers to compare two or more different variables. Although the model does not provide an actual cause and effect relationship, it gives knowledge about the effect of the change in one variable depending on another (Karasar, 2015). Participants Population of this study is high school students. 205 students in 9, 10, 11th grades that are enrolled in an high school in city of Muğla constituted the study group of this research. In order to choose the participants, purposeful sampling method has been used. 6 students’ surveys were deducted since their responses were thought to be invalid. Participants’ demographic features are shown in Table 1. Instruments In order to collect data, “Problematic Internet Use Scale-Adolescent”, “Cyberbullying Attitude Scale” and “Personal Information Form” have been used. Problematic Internet Use ScaleAdolescent, was adapted by Ceylan & Ceylan in 2014 using the problematic internet use scale for university students that was developed by Ceylan & Ceylan in 2007. The scale consists of 27 statements and the top score of the scale is 135. As the result of the reliability and validity analysis, 3 sub factors were determined which are negative effects of internet, excessive use and social benefits/ease. The scale does not aim to measure internet addiction, it aims to determine whether internet usage levels of the adolescents are safe for their health or not. Thus, high scores of the scale indicate that the individuals’ internet usage levels are becoming irresponsible and problematic, internet is causing negative effects on their lives and there could be a pathological tendency such as addiction among


them (Ceylan & Ceylan, 2014). Cronbach alfa co-efficient values was reported for total scale as .93, for negative effects of internet sub factor as .93, for excessive use sub factor as .76 and for social benefits/ease sub factor as.78. In this study, Cronbach alfa values of sub factors were lower than .70, because of that sub factors were not put in to the analyses. Cronbach alfa value of the total scale was .89 which means reliability of the scale is very strong. Cyberbullying Attitude Scale, was developed by Türkoğlu in 2013 in order to evaluate the cyberbullying tendencies of the adolescents. The scale consists of 42 statements and 4 sub factors which were defined as disguisement, pleasure, approval and anxiety. The scale aims to evaluate attitudes of the adolescents towards cyberbullying, which means higher scores taken from the scale means higher tendency for cyberbullying. Cronbach alfa co-efficient values was reported for total scale as .93, for disguisement sub factor as .88, for pleasure sub factor as .88, for approval sub factor as .84 and for anxiety sub factor as .82 (Türkoğlu, 2013). Cronbach alfa value of the

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total score of the scale calculated in this study was .90, suggesting that the scale is reliable. Data Analysis In this study, characteristic features of the participants, mean scores of the scales, correlation analysis of the variables and lastly regression analysis were given. Firstly, frequency analysis was used in order to determine the characteristics of the participants. Then descriptive analysis was conducted to designate the mean scores of the scales. Thirdly, Pearson correlation analysis was used for identification of the relationships between variables. Lastly, Simple Linear Regression analysis was used. Purpose of the regression analysis is to investigate the significance of the predictors on predicting the dependent variable (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001). In order to analyse the data Spss 23.0 package program was used. FINDINGS In this section results of the analyses are given.

Table 1 Characteristics of The Participants n

%

Female

42

21,0

Male

158

79,0

9. grade

86

43,0

10. grade

64

32,0

11. grade

50

25,0

Less Than 1 Hour

41

20,5

1-2 hours

70

35,0

3-4 hours

54

27,0

Gender

Grade Level

Daily Online

Time

Spent

390 Kağan KIRCABURUN & İbrahim BAŞTUĞ

More Than 5 Hours

35

17,5

39

19,5

Phone/Tablet

161

80,5

No

89

44,5

Yes

111

55,5

No

123

61,5

Yes

77

38,5

No

175

87,5

Yes

25

12,5

Movie/Music/

No

126

63,0

Entertainment

Yes

74

37,0

No

192

96,0

Yes

8

4,0

Internet Connection Computer Device

Social Media

Homework/Study

Gaming

Other

*While 55.5% of the students were spending time on social media; 38.5% of them used internet for homework and study. Ratio of the students who were online gamers was 12.5% and the ones got online for movie, music and entertainment purposes were 37%. Scores of The Variables The mean values of the problematic internet use, cyberbullying attitude and the sub factors of the scales are shown in Table 2. According to Table 2, scores of most of the variables were below average; score of approval and anxiety were above average. While score of anxiety ranked highest; disgui-

sement score was lowest among variables. According to these showings, it may be said that problematic internet use and cyberbullying attitude were around average levels among adolescents.

Table 2 Mean Scores of the Cyberbullying Attitude, Problematic Internet Use, Disguisement, Pleasure, Approval, Anxiety Score (mean ± sd) Cyberbullying Attitude

2.46±.62

Problematic Internet Use

2.39±.70

Disguisement

2.16±.81


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Pleasure

2.09±.73

Approval

2.72±.82

Anxiety

2.97±1.04

*Average score is 2.50. Abbreviations: sd, standart deviation. Relations Between Variables Demographics that are thought to be effective on cyberbullying and problematic

internet use were included into correlation analysis. Results of the correlation analysis are shown in Table 3.

Table 3 Result of the Pearson Correlation Analysis Between Variables Variables

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1.CBA

1

2.PIU

.59**

1

3.D

.73**

.59**

1

4.P

.77**

.56**

.70**

1

5.A

.82**

.38**

.32**

.45**

1

6.An

.66**

.25**

-.14

.19**

.63**

1

7.G

.10

-.05

-.01

.08

-.12

-24**

1

8.DIU

.22**

.39**

.13

.16*

.22**

.16*

-.03

8

1

** p