Abstract:

Cyberbullying, a new growing phenomenon due to society's heavy reliance on advanced technologies is an intricate and ever-evolving form of bullying. Little is known about how cyberbullying is perpetrated at the middle and high school levels. The current study aims to investigate the prevalence, impact, and differential experience of cyberbullying victimization comprehensively. The participants of the study consist of 1752 middle and high school students in İstanbul. The cyber victimization inventory and personal information questionnaire were used to gather research data. These surveys examined the relationship between cyber victimization and technology use and students’ sociodemographic information. As a result of the research, it was observed that male students experienced significantly higher cyber victimization than females. Also, the results demonstrated that 10th and 11th grade students have experienced more cyber victimization compared to 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students. When internet access was not supervised by the parents and students’ time of internet usage increased, it was found that they have experienced cyber victimization significantly higher. This research contributes to the literature in terms of revealing cyber victimization and related factors. Understanding the level of cyber victimization that children are exposed to and the factors related to victimization are important for reinforcing studies to prevent bullying behaviors in the online environment.

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