A model proposal regarding social skills, moral disengagement and cyberbullying behaviors in adolescents

The aim of the study is to reveal the relationship between adolescents' real life communication skills, electronic media communication skills, and moral disengagement levels and their cyberbullying roles. A mixed design was used in the study. Within the scope of the study, first quantitative data and then qualitative data were collected. In the quantitative part of the study, data were collected from 551 adolescents using the Real Life and Electronic Media Communication Skills, Collective Moral Disengagement, Cyberbullying Scales and Personal Information Form analyzed with structural equation modeling. In the qualitative part, 27 people were interviewed through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through content analysis. In the quantitative analysis findings, moral disengagement levels mediated the relationship between electronic media communication skills and cyberbullying levels in the roles of victim (β=.10, p<.05), bully (β=.14, p<.05) and observer (β=.13, p<. 05) and cyberbullying levels in the roles of victim (β=-.24, p<.05), bully (β=-.34, p<.05) and observer (β=-.31, p<.05). In the qualitative findings of the research, it was determined that the victimized individuals felt helpless in the face of bullying behavior, did not take responsibility and remained in the victim role in order not to cause bigger problems; individuals in the role of bullies carried out bullying behavior in order to take revenge on the victim, to punish the victim and to establish social superiority over the victim under the influence of their feelings of hatred, anger and ambition; individuals in the role of observer felt helpless against bullies and did not intervene in cyberbullying behavior in order not to become the target of bullies.