Problematic Internet use and cyberbullying in university students

INTRODUCTION: Problematic Internet use can have a negative impact on the daily lives and communications of teenagers, who constitute the most active user base of the Internet, and can be accompanied by issues such as cyberbullying.
METHODS: The quantitative descriptive method was used in this study to examine the relationship between problematic Internet use and cyberbullying among university students. The study group of this research consisted of 883 students studying in the faculty of health sciences of a university in Ankara city center during 2018–2019 academic year. The data were collected using a sociodemographic features data form, Problematic Internet Use Scale (PIUS), and revised cyber bullying ınventory-II (RCBI-II). Mann–Whitney U, Kruskal–Wallis H test statistics, and Spearman correlation analysis were used to evaluate the data.
RESULTS: The research found that the problematic Internet use of the participants is on the medium level. Furthermore, it was discovered that 56.4% of the participants participated in cyberbullying, and 66.5% were victims of cyberbullying. There was a positive, middle level, significant relationship between cyberbullying and cyber victimization, as well as a positive, weak, significant relationship between PIUS total score and cyberbullying and cyber victimization. The RCBI-II index score increased in parallel with the participants’ PIUS index score.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: It is seen that the increase in the duration of Internet use increases the problematic Internet use, and the problematic Internet use increases the frequency of cyberbullying and victimization.