Cyber Bullying:Experiences, Impacts and Coping Strategies among Young Adults

Cyber bullying is defined as an actions that use information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group that is intended to harm another or others. The purpose of the study was to explore the nature of cyber bullying, its impacts and the use and effectiveness of online coping strategies used by young adult. The information was collected from those male and female who used communication technologies. The sample consisted of 80 young adults, female (N=60) male (N=20), age range 18 to 26years. Responses were obtained in 2 sections. Section 1 consist general information regarding name, age, educational qualification and in section 2 responses were obtained on cyber bullying by open-ended questions were asked regarding like experiences of cyber bullying, frequency of cyber bulling, and coping strategies. Result showed that numerous adults repeatedly fall victim to cyber bullying through name calling, abuse, harassment, exclusion, and impersonation. More than 75% of participants had used a form of online intervention to try to stop the cyber bullying (e.g. blocking, removing friends, changing own account name). Among them, blocking was found to be most effective, followed by removing the bully from their friends list. Although the study revealed a high proportion of female victims compared to males.