Cyprus Turkish Journal of Psychiatry & Psychology Vol.3 Issue.4

Doi:10.35365/ctjpp.21.4.25

RESEARCH ARTICLE / ARAŞTIRMA YAZISI

The Effects of Childhood Trauma Experiences and Attachment Styles on Cyberbullying and Victimization among University Students

Üniversite Öğrencilerinde Çocukluk Çağı Örselenme Yaşantıları ve Bağlanma Stillerinin Siber Zorbalık ve Mağduriyete Etkisi

Burcu Türk1 , Aslı Yayak 2, Nurcan Hamzaoğlu3

Abstract:

The purpose of this research; to reveal the prevalence of cyberbullying and victimization among university students; to determine whether childhood traumatic experiences, attachment styles and cyber bullying and victimization levels differ in terms of some variables and to reveal the effects of childhood trauma experiences and attachment styles on cyberbullying and victimization. Personal Information Form, Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory-II (EII-II), Childhood Trauma Experience Scale (CTES) and Cyber Victimization and Bullying Scale (CVBS) were used as data collection tools in the study. A high level, positive significant relationship was found between the scores of the university students in the Cyber Victim subscale and the Cyber Bully subscale (r=.656; p=.000).  There was a low level, positive significant correlation between the scores of the Cyber Victim subscale and the Avoidant Attachment and Anxious Attachment subscale (r = .129; p = .004; r = .193; p = .000). As students’ avoidant and anxious attachment levels increase, their cyber victimization levels increase. In addition, a positive significant relationship was found between the scores of the students in the Cyber Victim subscale and Childhood Trauma scores (r = .286; p = .000). The results obtained in this study show that avoidant, anxious attachment styles and childhood traumatic experiences are predictive factors in terms of cyberbullying and cyber victimization. In this context, it is important for families to establish a healthy communication with their children in terms of preventing cyberbullying and victimization.

Keywords: Cyberbullying, Cyber-victimization, Attachment Styles, Childhood Trauma

1Assistant Professor, Haliç University, Department of Psychology, İstanbul, Turkey, [email protected], ORCID: 0000-0003-3290-5886

2 Assistant Professor, Bursa Technical University, Department of Psychology, İstanbul, Turkey, [email protected], ORCID: 0000-0002-1112-5103

3 Assistant Professor, Istanbul Yeni Yüzyıl University, Institute of Health Sciences, İstanbul, Turkey, [email protected], ORCID: 0000-0002-8471-0442.

Address of Correspondence/Yazışma Adresi: Burcu Türk, Haliç University, Department of Psychology, İstanbul, Turkey, E-mail: [email protected]

Date of Received/Geliş Tarihi: 26.07.2021, Date of Revision/Düzeltme Tarihi: 25.09.2021, Date of Acceptance/Kabul Tarihi: 19.10.2021, Date of Online Publication/Çevirimiçi Yayın Tarihi: 01.12.2021

Citing/Referans Gösterimi: Türk, B., Yayak, A. & Hamzaoğlu, N.  (2021). The Effects of Childhood Trauma Experiences and Attachment Styles on Cyberbullying and Victimization among University Students, Cyprus Turkish Journal of Psychiatry & Psychology, 3(4): 241-249

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Cyprus Mental Health Institute / Cyprus Turkish Journal of Psychiatry and Psychology (www.ktppdergisi.com). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/