Cyber Bullying Experiences of Adolescents and Parental Awareness: Turkish Example

This study investigates the experiences of adolescents with cyber bullying and the awareness of their parents regarding the problem of cyber bullying.

The descriptive cross-sectional research was carried out with 1129 secondary and high school adolescents and 776 parents in Turkey. Pearson Chi-Square and Mann Whitney U tests, as well as a Logistic Regression analysis, were used.

A statistically significant difference was noted between cyber bullying and experiences of victimization among adolescents and the time spent on the Internet, frequency of access, access to resources, use of social media, sharing of personal information, educational background of the parents and number of children (p < 0.05). Accessing the Internet in Internet cafes, having daily access to the Internet and the sharing of gender on social media increased the likelihood of cyber victimization, whereas male gender, age and having parents with a high level education increased the likelihood of cyber bullying.

Internet use by adolescents and the use of social media were found to be high in the present study, and parents were found to be unaware of the cyber bullying and cyber-victimization experienced by adolescents. Increasing the awareness of adolescents and parents pertaining to the issues of cyber bullying and cyber-victimization, and carrying out initial studies in the field of nursing is recommended.