Psychological Needs as a Predictor of Cyber Bullying: A Preliminary Report on College Students

Abstract Recent surveys show that cyber bullying is a pervasive problem in North America. Many news stories have reported cyber bullying incidents around the world. Reports on the prevalence of cyber bullying and victimization as a result of cyber bullying increase yearly. Although we know what cyber bullying is it is important that we learn more about the psychological effects of it. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to investigate the relationship between psychological needs and cyber bullying. Participants of the study included 666 undergraduate students (231 males and 435 females) from 15 programs in the Faculty of Education at Selcuk University, Turkey. Questions about demographics, engagement in and exposure to cyber bullying, and the Adjective Check List were administered. 22.5% of the students reported engaging in cyber bullying at least one time, and 55.3% of the students reported being victims of cyber bullying at least once in their lifetime. Males reported more cyber bullying behavior than females. Results indicate that aggression and succorance positively predict cyber bullying wheras intraception negatively predict it. In addition, endurance and affiliation negatively predict cyber victimization. Only the need for change was found as a positive, but weak predictor of cyber victimization. In light of these findings, aggression and intraception should be investigated further in future research on cyber bullying. Key Words Cyber bullying, Cyber victims, Psychological Needs, College Students Over the past decade, technology has become increasingly important in the lives of adolescents. Adolescents are heavy users of electronic communication such as instant messaging, e-mail, and text messaging. They are also heavy users of communication-oriented internet sites such as blogs, social networking, and sites for sharing photos and videos (Subrahmanyam, & Greenfield, 2008). The internet offers connectivity to friends and family and access to important information. However, as with other social environments, the potential to meet and interact with others in harmful ways exists (Ybarra, Diener-West, & Leaf, 2007). One such interaction of growing concern is cyber bullying (Hinduja & Patchin, 2008). Cyber bullying has recently emerged as a new form of bullying and harassment. Cyber bullying is defined as individual or a group willfully using information and communication involving electronic technologies to facilitate deliberate and repeated harassment or threat to another individual or group by sending or posting cruel text and/or graphics using technological means (Belsey, 2008; Berson, Berson, & Ferron, 2002; Finkelhor, Mitchell, & Wolak, 2008; Mason, 2008; Patchin, & Hinduja, 2006; Willard, 2007; Ybarra, & Mitchell, 2004a, 2004b). Recent surveys show that cyber bullying is a pervasive problem in North America (Agatston, Kowalski, & Limber, 2007; Beran and Li, 2005; Ybarra, & Mitchell, 2007) and many news stories have reported cyber bullying incidents all over the world (Aricak, Siyahhan, Uzunhasanoglu, Saribeyoglu, Ciplak, Yilmaz & Memmedov, 2008; Li, 2007a; Slonje, & Smith, 2008; Smith et al., 2008). Reports on the prevalence of cyber bullying and victimization have been increasing regularly every year. Finkelhor, Mitchell, and Wolak reported that six percent of young people were exposed to cyber bullying (threats, rumors, or other offensive behavior) during the past year. Six and a half percent of young, regular internet users in Ybarra's study reported at least one form of cyber bullying in the previous year. In Patchin and Hinduja's (2006) study, almost 30% of the adolescent respondents reported that they had been victims of cyberbullying-operationalized as having been ignored, disrespected, called names, threatened, picked on, or made fun of or having had rumors spread by others (Patchin, & Hinduja, 2006). In a study conducted in 2007 with an online panel of youth ages 13 to 17 years old, 43% had experienced cyber bullying in the past year, defined as use of the internet, cell phones, or other technology to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person (Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2007). …