The mediator role of alexithymia in the relationship between childhood traumas and cyberbullying/victimization in university students

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to examine the mediator role of alexithymia in the relationship between childhood traumas and cyberbullying/victimization, to investigate the distribution of these variables according to demographic variables, and to test other hypotheses of the study. Method: 402 undergraduate students aged between 18-62 participated in the study. 54.7% (N=220) of the participants stated their gender as female and 45.3% (N=182) as male. Informed Consent Form, Personal Information Form, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-33), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Cyber Victim and Bullying Scale (CVBS) were used to collect data in the study. Results: According to the analysis findings obtained from the research, although alexithymia did not play a significant mediating role in the relationship between childhood traumas and cyberbullying, it has been concluded that alexithymia had a significant mediator role in the relationship between childhood traumas and cybervictimization. It was also found that, childhood traumas significantly predicted alexithymia, cyberbullying and cybervictimization. Moreover, it has been concluded that alexithymia had significant predictive effects on cyberbullying and cyberbullying also predicted cybervictimization. The results of the analysis on sociodemographic variables showed that, men scored significantly higher than women for childhood traumas and cyberbullying. There was no significant difference in the cyberbullying and cybervictimization levels of the participants according to age and daily internet use. It was observed that cybervictimization scores were significantly higher in the group that got psyhological support before compared to the group that had not received psychological support before. Conclusion: It was revealed that childhood traumas and alexithymia had predictive effects on cyberbullying and cybervictimization and cyberbullying also predicted cyber victimization. According to the mediation test results, it was determined alexithymia did not significantly mediate the relationship between childhood traumas and cyberbullying, but alexithymia played a significant mediating role in the relationship between childhood traumas and cyber victimization. It was thought that the problem of bullying in online platforms might be prevented or reduced by studies on the factors that predict cyberbullying and cybervictimization. Thus, it can be also argued that, this study will contribute to the literature in understanding the predictors of relatively new concepts of cyberbullying and cyber victimization problems. Keywords: Childhood Traumas, Alexithymia, Cyberbullying, Cybervictimization