EXAMINATION OF ADOLESCENTS’ COPING WAYS WITH CYBERBULLYING

Abstract

With the rapid development in information and communication technologies, increase in quality and quantity of various tools that are compatible with Internet also augments interpersonal communication and interaction opportunities on the Internet. This increase in interpersonal communication and interaction on virtual platforms, however, brings a set of problems along, too. One of these problems is the use of the virtual platform technologies by the young to bully (cyberbullying) their peers. Considering 12 to 20 years of adolescents, being the most engaged people with virtual platforms, and who are called the digital natives; ascertaining adolescents’ coping ways with cyberbullying is thought to be important. The purpose of this study is to examine 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades high-school adolescents’ coping ways with cyberbullying on the basis of gender, high-school type and Facebook membership variables. Survey model was used as the research method. The study was conducted with 301 adolescents from two different high-schools in a city in the centre of Turkey. “Coping with Cyberbullying Scale towards Adolescents” consisting of 17 items and 4 subscales was used to obtain research data. Findings obtained from the research show that adolescents’ coping ways with cyberbullying are generally elevated. Additionally, while there is a significant difference in favour of female adolescents in coping ways with cyberbullying in terms of gender; there is, on the other hand, a significant difference in favour of adolescents studying from public high-schools in terms of school type. Finally, coping ways with cyberbullying according to whether the adolescents are members of Facebook, differentiated on a significant level in favour of the ones that are not members of Facebook.