دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی رفتارهای مسئله دار آنلاین بین نوجوانان و جوانان در حال رشد - اشپرینگر 2018

Abstract

Over the past two decades, young people’s engagement in online activities has grown markedly. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between two specific online behaviors (i.e., cyberbullying perpetration, problematic social media use) and their relationships with social connectedness, belongingness, depression, and self-esteem among high school and university students. Data were collected from two different study groups via two questionnaires that included the Cyberbullying Offending Scale, Social Media Use Questionnaire, Social Connectedness Scale, General Belongingness Scale, Short Depression-Happiness Scale, and Single Item Self-Esteem Scale. Study 1 comprised 804 high school students (48% female; mean age 16.20 years). Study 2 comprised 760 university students (60% female; mean age 21.48 years). Results indicated that problematic social media use and cyberbullying perpetration (which was stronger among high school students) were directly associated with each other. Belongingness (directly) and social connectedness (indirectly) were both associated with cyberbullying perpetration and problematic social media use. Path analysis demonstrated that while age was a significant direct predictor of problematic social media use and cyberbullying perpetration among university students, it was not significant among high school students. In both samples, depression was a direct predictor of problematic social media use and an indirect predictor of cyberbullying perpetration. However, majority of these associations were relatively weak. The present study significantly adds to the emerging body of literature concerning the associations between problematic social media use and cyberbullying perpetration.

Discussion

The present study used the problem behavior theory (PBT) framework to examine among high school and university students how cyberbullying perpetration (CBP) and problematic social media use (PSMU) are associated with each other and to gender, age, depression, self-esteem, self connectedness (SC), and general belongingness (GB). According to model results, which were partially in line with the PBT, PSMU was (i) directly related to being female, being younger (only among university students sample), GB, and depression, and (ii) indirectly to self-esteem, SC, and GB via depression. Furthermore, CBP was (i) directly related to being male, being younger, GB, and PSMU, and (ii) indirectly to being male, being younger, GB, and depression via PSMU. Nevertheless, it should be emphasized that the majority of these associations, although significant, were relatively weak. Therefore, other factors—not included in the present study—are likely to play an important role in PSMU and CBP and need to be investigated in future studies. As expected, adolescents and young adults who demonstrated higher PSMU also showed higher CBP. This finding concurs with previous studies reporting that online problem behaviors such as problematic and addictive use of Internet and CBP are related (e.g., Casas et al. 2013; Eksi 2012; Gámez-Guadix et al. 2016; Kırcaburun and Baştug 2016) and is also consistent with PBT (Jessor 1991). When all these studies are considered together, there is supporting evidence that PBT is able to explain the risky online and offline behaviors of students. This finding is important because it presents evidence that lowering PSMU may be used as an intervention method in order to prevent students from engaging in CBP. Although the results of the present study suggests that university students’ problem online behaviors may be explained by the PBT, it should also be emphasized that, as expected, adolescent students’ CBP was related more strongly with their PSMU when compared to university students. However, this may be due to the fact that PBT was originally proposed for adolescents.