Pattern and correlates of cyberbullying victimization among Egyptian university students in Beni-Suef, Egypt | ||
| Journal of Egyptian Public Health Association | ||
| Article 6, Volume 92, Issue 2, June 2017, Pages 107-115 PDF (511.45 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/EPX.2018.8948 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Ahmed Arafa; Shaimaa Senosy* | ||
| Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Background: The expansion of the online environment has unveiled many cyber risks and potentials for abuse such as cyberbullying. Cyberbullying carries many negative psychological impacts that affect mainly young people. Aim: The objective of our study is to explore the of cyberbullying victimization among Egyptian university students in Beni-Suef and investigate factors correlating with it. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a multi-stage random sampling was used to include a total of 6740 students from all grade levels in all faculties (n=28) of Beni-Suef University. After 4 focus group discussions, a self-administered questionnaire was designed for data collection. The questionnaire comprised three sections including questions about selected socio-demographic characteristics, exposure to cyberbullying in the past 6 months, and factors associated with victimization. Results: Almost half of our students (48.2%) reported experiencing cyberbullying victimization in the past 6 months. Female students, students living in urban areas and those who spent more hours using the internet reported more exposure (p<0.001). Harassment was the main type stated by females (79.8%) while flaming was excessively reported by males (51.8%). Students responded mostly by anger (63.1%), hatred (23.2%) and sorrow (22.6%) towards the worst victimization incidents. Conclusion: Cyberbullying victimization is highly prevalent amongst university students in Beni-Suef and female students are more vulnerable to exposure, Implementing anti-cyberbullying programs tailored for university students will be a major step. Such programs should include anti-cyberbullying policies and materials, and provision of guidance for students, their parents and their teaching staff. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Cyberbullying; victimization; Harassment; university students; social networking | ||
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