SMARTPHONE ADDICTION AND CYBERBULLYING VICTIMIZATION: PREVALENCE OF SOCIAL ANXIETY AMONG FEMALE UNDERGRADUATES

Abstract

Smartphone pervasiveness is a global issue among teenagers, and the continual presence of smartphones has a negative impact on their well-being. With the extensive, daily use of the Internet and smartphones, young people are at increased risk to be exposed to some form of cyberbullying (Ljepava, & Tomic, 2019). Cyberbullying is a public health issue that affects mostly women and causes them grief and anxiety. Cyber-victimization has the ability to inflict serious harm as well as increased social anxiety. Cyberbullying is a common social maladjustment that has negative repercussions on the wellbeing and development of adolescents, but numerous questions remain as to the relationship between cyberbullying and social anxiety in adolescence (Martínez-Monteagudo et al, 2020). The primary purpose of the present study is to explore the relationship between social anxiety and cyberbullying victimization among female undergraduates and to establish if smartphone addiction moderates the above relationship. Ex-post facto research design and purposive sampling technique were adopted in the present study. Data was collected from samples (69 female undergraduate students) through self-reported questionnaires covering smartphone addiction, cyber bullying victimization, and social anxiety as variables. Moderator analyses were performed using SPSS 22.0. The results revealed higher the social anxiety, the higher the cyberbullying victimization, and the higher the smartphone addiction, the higher the cyberbullying victimization. Understanding the relationship between social anxiety and cyberbullying victimization and the impact of smartphone addiction could help the researchers to develop effective coping strategies, to prevent or combat the progression of social anxiety