Experiences of Cyberbullied victims at the University of Zululand
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Date
2017
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University of Zululand
Abstract
This study examined the experiences of cyberbullied victims at the University of Zululand. Thirty-five students from the University of Zululand (UNIZULU) participated in the research. The age of the participants ranged from 17-28 years. The main objectives of the study were to gain deeper understanding to the issues related to cyberbullying, and to evaluate the impact of cyberbullying on victims. Most of the cyberbullied victims were cyberbullied on Facebook. The most frequent convention of cyberbullying experienced by victims was exposure and trickery. This is where emails, chatroom messages, or pictures are sent to embarrass and ridicule the victim. Exposure is a cyberbullying tactic that includes the general public show, posting or forwarding of personal verbal exchange, photos or video through the cyberbully this is non-public and private to the victim. Exposure turns into even extra damaging to the victim when the communications posted and publicly displayed incorporates sensitive personal information or photos and video which are sexual in nature. As cellular tool era, photos and video become extra common; the tactic of exposure is sure to emerge as standard as cell tool era expands. This was experienced by 45% of the victims of cyberbullying. This study has enabled us to determine some of the behavioural, social and psychological impact cyberbullying had on individuals. The students’ self-reports highlighted the psychological, behavioural and social impact on victims of cyberbullying. Victims of cyberbullying felt depressed and had higher levels of loneliness and social anxiety, poor academic performance, hopelessness and loss of interest in daily living.
Method: A mixed method research design that included both qualitative and quantitative was used with questionnaires and interviews respectively. For the qualitative study twenty students from the age of 18 and above were selected in the study. Purposive and snowball techniques which is a non-probability sampling was used to recruit participants. Participants were selected from University of Zululand Facebook page. A semi-structured interview was used to obtain information on views of cyberbullying. The follow-up questions were asked in order to gain deeper understanding on the information provided by the participant. A narrative story telling of cyberbullying, relating it to their personal experiences of cyberbullying were used as clear description of the subjective experience of students, assisting in meeting the overall aim in conducting this study. In this study snowball non-probability sampling technique was used to recruit victims of cyberbullying with the UNIZULU Facebook page. The name of the questionnaire Personal Experiences of Cyberbullied Victims(in the future alluded to as the PECVQ) which is specifically designed for the study by the researcher. A PECVQ was intended to investigate the personal experiences of cyberbullied victims as well as to evaluate the impact of cyberbullying on victims. Out of 20 participants approached, 15 agreed to participate in the study.
Data collection lasted for 2 weeks for the qualitative and quantitative phases of the study respectively.
Findings: The findings of the qualitative study showed that cyberbullied victims from their different personal experiences do experience and suffer from diverse behavioural, psychological, and social problems but that they are also resilient. The quantitative results showed that students’ self-reports highlighted the psychological, behavioural and social impact on victims of cyberbullying. Victims of cyberbullying felt depressed and had higher levels of loneliness and social anxiety, hopelessness and loss of interest in daily living. The results also showed that some level of resilience was evident which enabled them to cope with cyberbullying, despite adversity. They derive their strength from (1) personal resources, which refer to intrapersonal characteristics that enhances ways to cope, (2) interpersonal resources, which centres on their interaction with friends, peers and other significant people.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master Of Arts in Counselling Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Zululand, 2018
Keywords
cyber bullying --victims --universities --South Africa