Development of a causal relationship model for cyber bullying behaviors among public secondary school students in the three southern border provinces of Thailand

Abstract

This research aims to develop the causal relationship model for cyber bullying among secondary school students in the three southern border provinces of Thailand. The data is collected from a sample group of 660 students between the ages of 13 and 18 for path analysis. The study found that the cyber bullying of the sample was most influenced by frustration followed by group violence, violent media, and authoritarian parenting of which the path coefficient values were 0.57, 0.18, 0.18 and 0.04 respectively. While all five of the exogenous variables accounted for 66% of the occurrence of cyber bullying behavior, 61%.of the frustration variable was accounted for by the other four exogenous variables. Frustration, group violence, violent media and authoritarian parenting were found to influence cyber bullying behavior and students in the three southern border provinces of Thailand are therefore at risk of such behaviors. Moreover, frustration leads indirectly to poor mental health and physical weakness, and is considered to be a cause of depression. As a result affected students find it difficult to socialize with others and, may possibly be influenced to attempt suicide.