Internet Addiction, Cyberbullying, and Victimization Relationship in Adolescents

A Sample from Turkey

Abstract

The study is a descriptive and relational study carried out with an aim to analyze the effects of Internet use and Internet addiction on cyber victimization and cyberbullying among adolescents.

The universe of the study consists of the students (N = 3,978) studying at high schools in a city center located in the Black Sea Region. The students were determined by a stratified and simple random sampling method, whereas the sample of the study included 2,422 voluntary high school students. The data were collected through the Adolescent Information Form, Internet Addiction Scale, and Cyber Victim and Bullying Scale. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics such as number, percentage, average, and standard deviation were used, whereas independent samples t test, one-way analysis of variance, and correlation coefficients were used to compare the groups. The predictive effects of independent variables on cyber victimization and cyberbullying were investigated with multiple linear regression analysis. The average age of the adolescents participating in the study is 16.23 ± 1.11 years. The mean scores were calculated as 25.59 ± 15.88 for Internet addiction, 29.47 ± 12.65 for cyber victimization, and 28.58 ± 12.01 for cyberbullying. In our study, it was found that the Internet addiction, cyber victimization, and cyberbullying scores of the adolescents were low, but cyber victimization and cyberbullying were related to Internet usage characteristics and Internet addiction. Internet usage characteristics, cyber victimization, and bullying prevalence and relational studies should be done in adolescents. It is recommended to raise awareness of the harmful use of the Internet to families.