The moderating role of psychological flexibility on affect and self-efficacy levels in young adult individuals exposed to cyberbullying

This study aims to investigate the moderating role of psychological flexibility on the affect and self-efficacy levels of young adult individuals exposed to cyberbullying. For this purpose, 107 participants (88 female, 17 male) aged 18-25 were asked to choose an subject they considered themselves knowledgeable about and to write an innovative idea related to that subject. Participants were informed that their ideas would be sent to artificial intelligence, which would predict the number of views, comments, and likes these comments might receive if shared on social media. Seven different social media comments, five negative and two neutral, containing generalizable statements were created by artificial intelligence; however, contrary to what participants were told, these comments were not specifically generated based on their ideas. Before and after showing the social media comments to the participants, their current affect and self-efficacy levels related to their chosen subject were measured using the Visual Analog Scale. In this regard, the Psychological Flexibility Scale, Self-Efficacy Scale, Demographic Information Form, and Visual Analog Scale were used to gather data from the participants. Before gathering data, expert opinions were obtained, and pilot studies were conducted to evaluate and finalize the applied procedure. The analyses revealed a statistically significant decrease in the self-efficacy levels of participants exposed to cyberbullying, but no significant change in affect levels. There was no significant moderation effect of self-efficacy and affect. The findings were debated in the context of related studies in the literature, and the contribution of the study to the literature and clinical practices was discussed.