Evaluation of Cyber Victimization and Self-Esteem Level in High School Students

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of cyber victimization among high school students, to examine some possibly related variables and to evaluate the relation with level of self-esteem in Sivrihisar district of Eskişehir.
 Method: This is a cross-sectional study conducted between May-June 2018. The study group consisted of 712 students. The questionnaire used in the study includes The Revised Cyber Bullying Inventory-II and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Chi-square test, Mann Whitney U test and Logistic Regression Analysis were performed to analyze the data. It was considered significant if p≤0.05.
 Results: The 60.1% of the students were female, and the mean value of ages was 16.3±1.2 in years (ranged 13-20). The prevalence of cyber victimization was 51.3% (n=365). When compared to other groups in same subtitle, the risk of being cyber victim was 1.66 times higher in the 9th and 10th grades (CI: 1.20-2.30), 4.56 times higher in individuals with poor family income (CI: 1.18-17.64), 1.53 times in the middle ones (CI: 1.10-2.16), 3.15 times in individuals with social media accounts (CI: 1.00-9.85), and 2.80 times higher in individuals having problems with anyone on the internet (CI: 1.96-4.02). Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale scores were higher in cyber victims (p=0.027).
 Conclusion: It was concluded that cyber victimization is an important problem among high school students in Sivrihisar, and cyber victimization is observed higher in the group with low self-esteem.