Cyberbullying among Middle School Students in Turkey

With the increase of internet and social network use, it has been observed that cyberbullying among adolescents has risen and an increasingly greater number of studies have focused on this concept in Turkey. But when studies on cyberbullying in Turkey are searched, it is seen that inclusive cyberbullying research on adolescents has not yet been done. Therefore, this research aims to examine the prevalence of cyberbullying among adolescents in Turkey. This research was carried out with the participation of 1400 middle school students (7th and 8th grades) from seven regions of Turkey. In this research the relationship between cyberbullying and cyber victimization is also investigated. Moreover this study examines whether cyberbullying and cyber victimization experiences differ according to gender, school grade, city, computer ownership, Internet access, meeting new people online and social media use. The findings indicated that the participants got the highest scores from the cyber imposture subscale of either cyber bully and cyber victim scales. Additionally a significant positive correlation was found between cyberbullying and cyber victimization. Findings also revealed that there was no significant gender differences in cyber victimization, but male students reported to more likely be a cyberbully. Moreover students who were in eighth grade, who had Internet access, who used social media, and who met new friends online were significantly more likely to be cyberbullies and cyber victims. In addition, the data revealed that the highest cyberbullying and cyber victimization rates were in İstanbul, and the lowest rate was in Gaziantep.