A Study on Primary School Students’ Being Cyber bully and Victim based on Gender, Grade, and Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

One of the most important problems is the cyber bullying that occurs by using technological devices. Research on cyber bullying is mostly based on types of technological devices used for cyber bullying and the difference in the gender. Although these variables came to the forefront in researches, there is less research based on variables such as socioeconomic status, and grades. This research analyses whether the level of being the cyber bully and victim differs in terms of the variables “gender”, “grade”, and “socioeconomic status” of students in the primary schools. Research participants consist of 760 students; 279 students are estimated to be from the sixth grade, 243 students from the seventh grade, and 238 students from the eighth grade. The students ranged in age from 11 to 15 years, with an average age of about 12.3 years. Analysis showed significant effect on cyber bullying and cyber victim for gender and socio-economic status and significant two-way interaction effect on cyber bullying and victim for gender socio-economic status and grade socio-economic status. For cyber bullying and cyber victimization, no significant three-way interactions between demographic variables (gender, grade and socioeconomic status) were found.

Key words: Cyber bullying, Cyber victim, Gender, Grade, Primary school students, Refusal cyber bullying, Refusal cyber victim, Rumor cyber bullying, Rumor  cyber victim, Sexual cyber bullying, Sexual cyber victim, Socio-economic status, Three-way analysis of variance.