Awareness, perception and perpetration of cyberbullying by high school students and undergraduates in Thailand

Abstract

The modern online society requires everyone, especially children and young people, to learn how to use the Internet. Cyberbullying is one misuse that can be detrimental to the cyberbullied individuals' mental health and lifestyle, and it often ends up with the victim becoming depressed, fearful of society, and in the worst cases, suicidal ideation. The aim of this study is to investigate the awareness, perception, and perpetration of cyberbullying by high school students and undergraduates to find ways to prevent cyberbullying in the future. For this cross-sectional study, data were collected in 2020 from 14 schools throughout Thailand and 4 universities in Chiang Mai, Thailand, using two-stage sampling. Chi-squared tests were used to compare differences between the groups. Of the 2,683 high school students, girls perceived cyberbullying more than boys (81.6% vs. 75.4%; p <0.001), with those from the later academic years being more aware of cyberbullying (p = 0.033) and more likely to conduct cyberbullying behavior (p = 0.027). Of the 721 undergraduates, women were more aware of cyberbullying than men (92.1% vs. 82.7%; p <0.001). The most common cause of cyberbullying was aiming to tease the target (67.6% of high school students vs. 82.5% of undergraduates). The most commonly cyberbullying victimization was sending mocking or rebuking messages (29.6% of high school students and 39.6% of undergraduates). The most popular solutions for cyberbullying were to avoid leaving a trace on social media and be with friends who accept who you are. Our findings show that most of the cyberbullying perpetrators did not consider that their actions would have serious consequences and only carried out cyberbullying because of wanting to tease their victims. This is useful information for the cyberbullying solution center, teachers, and parents to recognize how to make the students realize the effects of cyberbullying on the victims.