An analysis of the Attitude Towards Cyberbullying and Cyber Victimization Among the University Students of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Cyberbullying is a form of bullying that occurs through technological means, such as social networking, instant
messaging and through mails. It can be constant, and at other times may occur in isolated incidents, but despite the
timeline of progression, some scholars argue that the effects are almost always catastrophic (Kowalski, Limber, &
Agatston, 2012). With the emergence of internet and sophisticated cyber technologies, real words bullies have been
applied to cyberspaces by those who tend to be aggressive without being aware of the potential harm they cause to
another person. This has become an intriguing area for academics and practitioners. The present study aims at
explaining the attitude towards cyberbullying and cyber victimization among the university students in Sri Lank in
terms of their personality factors. A short form of Eysenck personality Questionnaire, Rank scale for cyberbullying
indexes were given for 113 university students. The frequency statistics and person correlation of coefficients were
carried out in analyzing data. The most important findings of the study is that, the attitude towards cyberbullying and
cyber victimization was related to psychoticism and extraversion dimensions of personality. Regarding the cyber
victimization levels, it was found that most of the participants were subjected to cyber victimization at least in one
occasion in their life. Results indicate that Female participants were more likely to be subjected to cyber
victimization than the males. Further, it was found that anonymous calls, creating fake profiles or web pages are the
most popular methods used by university students for cyberbullying.