The Investigation Relationships Among Contingencies of Self-Worth, Risky Internet Behaviors and Cyberbullying/Cybervictimization

The aim of this study was to examine relationships among risky internet behaviors, internal and external contingencies of self-worth, and cyberbullying and cybervictimization. 505 undergradute students from different departments of University of Sakarya participated in this study. The Sociodemographic Form, the Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale, the Risky Internet Behaviors Questionnaire, and the Revised Cyberbullying Inventory were applied to participants. The effect of risky internet behaviors, internal and external contingencies of self-worth on cyberbullying and cybervictimization were investigated via structural equation modelling. In structural equation modelling, internal contingencies of self-worth was generated using virtue and family support. External contingencies of self-worth derived from academic competency, approval, and competition. Also Pearson correlation coefficients were utilized to investigate relationships among contingencies of selfworth, risky internet behaviors, cyberbullying and victimization. The goodness of fit indices (?2/sd= 2.80, p=.000 RMSEA=.06, % 90 RMSEA CI= .055-.064, CFI=.92, TLI= .91, RMR=.06 and SRMR=.06) of model was well fit. According to path analysis, cyberbullying and cybervictimization were predicted positively by risky internet behavior and external contingencies of self-worth and negatively by internal contingencies of self-worth. The structural model explained 42 % variances of cyberbullying/cybervictimization. These results were discussed in the light of the literature.