An analysis on the relation of exposure to traditional and cyberbullying with classroom climate and school alienation

The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between high school students' being exposed to traditional and cyberbullying with their perception of classroom climate and school alienation. The study adopted a convergent parallel-triangulation design, one of the mixed type research methods in which quantitative approach is dominant. In the quantitative part which is designed through relational survey, survey research was conducted to determine the frequency of high school students' exposure to traditional and cyberbullying, their perception of classroom climate and level of school alienation. In the study, T-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Mann Whitney U-Test, Kruskall Wallis H-Test were used to determine whether the frequencies of students' exposure to traditional and cyberbullying, their perception of classroom climate and level of school alienation differ in terms of gender, frequency of social media usage which are independent variables. To determine the relationship between the variables, Pearson and Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient and to explain the casuality and structural features Path Analysis model, which is one of the Structural Equation Models was used. In the qualitative part of the study, volunteer students who expressed that they were exposed to bullying were interviewed during the data collection for the quantitative part. In these interviews, it was aimed to identify what kind of bullying they were exposed to, the effects of the experienced victimization on the students, the views of the students regarding classroom climate and the factors which alienate students from the school. For the data obtained from the qualitative part, descriptive and content analysis methods were applied. The population of the quantitative part of the study includes high school students in Yeşilyurt and Battalgazi, central towns of Malatya, in the 2018-2019 Academic Year. The sample of the study was determined with proportional group sampling. The sample of the study consists of 1367 students from different types of high schools. The quantitative data of the study were collected through "Personal Information Form, "Adolescent Peer Relations Scale Victim Form", "Cyberbullying Victimization Scale", "Classroom Climate Perceived by Students Scale" ve "School Alienation Scale". The study group for the qualitative aspect of the study consists of 31 students from different types of high schools. The purposeful sampling method has been used to determine the participants for the qualitative part. The qualitative data of the study were collected by using the Semi-Structured Interview Form. As a result of the analysis, the traditional victimization level of the students since the beginning of the school year was "never-once a month" and at low level while their level of cyber victimization within a week were "never-once" and at low level. In the study it was found out that the levels of students' traditional and cyber victimization differ significantly. In terms of the frequency of social media usage, the levels of students' cyber victimization differ whereas there is no significant difference in terms of the level of their traditional victimization. In the qualitative part of the study, students who expressed that they were exposed to cyber and traditional bullying experienced the following victimizations mostly: in terms of verbal victimization which is considered as one of the traditional types; japing, mocking, nicknaming, in terms of emotional victimization; slander, rumor, envy and gossip, humiliation, repression, in terms of physical victimization; beating and threatening. In terms of cyber victimization students experienced the following situations respectively; threatening, swearing and insulting, friendship requests from fake accounts and disturbing. The students' perceptions regarding classroom climate are above average as "I agree" and positive. Their classroom climate perceptions do not differ significantly in terms of gender and social media usage. Students' school alienation is "slightly agree" and at a low level. Students' school alienation differs significantly in terms of gender and frequency of social media usage. As a result of the analysis, a moderate positive significant relation between traditional and cyber victimization, a low-level negative relation between traditional victimization and classroom climate, a moderate level positive relation between traditional victimization and school alienation, a low-level negative relation between cyber victimization and classroom climate, a low-level positive relation between cyber victimization and school alienation and a moderate positive relation between classroom climate and school alienation were found. In accordance with the analysis, to determine the casuality and structural features among the frequency of exposure to traditional and cyberbullying, perception of classroom climate and the level of school alienation, it was concluded that traditional victimization effects the students' perception of classroom climate negatively and causes school alienation, and cyber victimization has no significant effects on classroom climate and school alienation. From this aspect, three out of five hypotheses developed within the study were accepted and the other two were rejected. It was found out that the classroom climate has a partial mediation role between traditional victimization and school alienation. To the qualitative findings of the study, it was found out that the views of students who were exposed to traditional and cyberbullying about classroom climate differ in classroom climate themes. The perceptions of students regarding classroom climate are positive for a theme while it can be negative for another. Students who were exposed to traditional and cyber bullying were seen to alienate to school in weakness, normlessness and social distance theme. It was understood that students' views regarding classroom climate resemble to the factors that alienate students.