Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Education (Educational Psychology) in the Department of Educational Psychology & Special Education Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / Cyberbullying is a new form of bullying and harassment that is also referred to as
electronic or online bullying. It may involve the following: sending mean, vulgar or
threatening messages or images, posting sensitive or private information online, pretending
to be someone else online in order to make a person look bad or intentionally exclude a
person from an online group. Viewed as covert psychological bullying conveyed through
electronic means it has been identified as the most problematic form of emerging cruelty
among adolescents in schools.
Existing research studies on cyberbullying suggests that it is increasing at a phenomenal
rate and it is not clear whether online perpetrators and victims possess the same
characteristic behaviours and psychosocial profiles as their traditional bullying
counterparts. However in South Africa there is a paucity of research.
The present study seeks to examine the behavioural and psychosocial factors associated
with cyberbullying among Grade 8 to 10 learners, in a cross-section of schools, in
KwaZulu-Natal. The purpose of the research was to determine: the prevalence of
cyberbullying; the relationship between age, gender, rural and urban dichotomy and socioeconomic
status of victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying; school personnel’s
management of cyberbullying; and the relationship between psychosocial factors and
behavioural characteristics and cyberbullying. Two questionnaires were used. The first was
a 3-part psychosocial questionnaire and the other a cyberbullying questionnaire (Riebel,
Jager, & Fischer, 2008).
The data from this study confirms that cyberbullying is prevalent in various forms, in
secondary schools, in KwaZulu-Natal. The total sample was N=450. Of which 199
(44.22%) reported that they were victims or perpetrators of cyberbullying. There were 127
(28.22%) who identified themselves as victims and 72 (16.0 %) admitted to be
perpetrators. The most frequent form of cyberbullying experienced was rumours and
slander using the internet or cellular phone.
The electronic communication preferences of participants were: instant messaging (50%);
47% used social networking; about 44% used chatrooms and 32% used email. Females
spent more time in chatrooms and sent more instant messages than the males.
The results show that friends and fellow learners were responsible for the cyberbullying
most frequently. The victims rarely choose to reveal that they were cyberbullied to their
teachers. Participants chose their friends as the primary person to talk to about their
victimisation while the secondary person was their parents. Teachers were the last person
of choice to seek help.
Comparison of victims, non-victims, perpetrators and non-perpetrators of cyberbullying on
the Life Satisfaction Scale (LSS), indicated that victims of cyberbullying were the most
dissatisfied group (9.83%) while perpetrators reported high satisfaction. There was a
significant difference between victims and non-victims on their performance on the
psychological well-being scale and this was also the case for perpetrators and nonperpetrators
of cyberbullying. Victims did not like themselves; expressed a poor sense of
self, low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence and had more negative self-perceptions
which affected their psychological well-being. They expressed feeling of helplessness,
loneliness, sadness, despair, anger, and self loathing. Perpetrators also had strong feelings
of worthlessness, guilt, sadness and hopelessness. They were tearful and expressed a loss
of interest in daily activities, experienced difficulty cThe behavioural characteristics described by the groups showed considerable variations.
Victims of cyberbullying rated themselves highest on being serious and they rated
themselves lower on being friendly, emotional, stubborn and happy. Perpetrators of
cyberbullying rated themselves highest on being aggressive, nervous, stubborn, happy,
awkward and sad. Victims and perpetrators had experienced more difficulty learning to
read and were in trouble more often in school than the non-victims and non-perpetrators.
Cyberbullying is prevalent in South African secondary schools, among Grade 8, Grade 9
and Grade 10 learners and occurs among males and females, from rich and poor
backgrounds, rural and urban areas irrespective of racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Implications of these results are discussed with special focus on intervention and
management of cyberbullying concentrating on school work and
expressed a lack of enthusiasm and motivation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/1225 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Pillay, Cecilia L |
| Contributors | Govender, S., Nzima, D.R. |
| Publisher | University of Zululand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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