The cyberbullying behaviors in online video games and their relationship with emotion dysregulation, anger/aggression, violence, self-esteem, depression, and suicide

This PhD dissertation, which investigated cyberbullying behaviors of adults in multiplayer online games, included three separate studies. In the first study, 18 people took part in, and semi-structured interviews were conducted. As a result, nine themes, and 26 sub-themes were found. Findings showed that there was a process from the benefits of games to cyberbullying behaviors, and game experiences were very important for cyberbullying behaviors. In the second study, cyberbullying examples, derived from the first study were used to develop Cyberbullying Behaviors in Online Video Games Scale (CBOVGS), and the psychometric properties of the scale were analyzed with the sample of 1087 gamers. 21 item Victim and 23 item Perpetrator forms were developed as unidimensional. Both forms showed good psychometric properties, reliability, and validity. Lastly, the relationship of cyberbullying victimization with externalizing and internalizing problems, and the role of possible mediator and moderator variables in this relationship was analyzed via moderated-mediation process models. Findings indicated that anger/aggression played a mediator and emotion regulation played a moderated-mediator role in the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and tendency to violence, while the moderated-mediator effect of emotion regulation was insignificant in the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying perpetration. Besides, anger/aggression played a mediator, and self-esteem played a moderated-mediator role in the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and depression or suicide probability, while the moderated-mediator role of emotion regulation was insignificant in these relationships. Digital gaming addiction was added as a control variable in all of those models, in addition the relationship of digital gaming addiction with sociodemographic and study variables was investigated. All of these three studies should contribute to the prevention and intervention programs about digital gaming addiction and cyberbullying. In the adult population, cyberbullying behaviors in online video games were understudied, so that this dissertation should provide insights to the literature and future studies. Keywords: Online video games, Cyberbullying, Griefing, Anger/aggression, Tendency to violence, Self-esteem, Emotion regulation, Depression, Suicide, Digital game addiction