Self-Esteem and Social Interaction Anxiety in Cyberbullied Adolescents

The objective of the present study was to determine whether there is any relationship between self-esteem and social interaction anxiety in cyberbullied and non-cyberbullied adolescent boys and girls. This study also aimed to determine whether there is any effect of cyberbullying and gender on self-esteem and social interaction anxiety of the adolescents. Furthermore, the present research went on to explore whether there is any difference between the cyberbullied boys and girls with respect to self-esteem and social interaction anxiety. A randomly selected sample of 480 adolescents, between the age range of 16 19 years, were administered the Cyberbullying and Aggression Survey Instrument (Hinduja & Patchin, 2014) to screen those who were cyberbullied. Based on their responses, 60 cyberbullied (30 boys and 30 girls) and 60 non-cyberbullied (30 boys and 30 girls) were selected for the present study. Thereafter, the Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1963) and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (Mattick, & Clarke, 1998) was administered to them. Results indicated that there is a significant negative correlation between self-esteem and social interaction anxiety in the cyberbullied girls. Moreover, the findings revealed that the non-cyberbullied adolescents had significantly higher self-esteem than the cyberbullied adolescents, and the cyberbullied adolescents had significantly higher levels of social interaction anxiety than the non-cyberbullied adolescents. Furthermore, the study reported that the cyberbullied boys had significantly higher self-esteem than the cyberbullied girls. Thus, the outcomes of studies such as this are surely indicative of the need for some degree of adult guidance and supervision with regard to adolescents' online activities and engagements, as that may prove to be helpful in channelizing their interests in more constructive than destructive ways.