The relationship of cyber-bullying and academic achievement, general health, and depression in adolescents in Thailand

Abstract

This descriptive study aimed to correlate cyber bullying with academic achievement, general health, and depression among adolescents in Thailand. The participants in the study were composed of 400 senior high school and vocational certificate students aged 14 to 20 years. The results revealed that one-third of the participants were found to have been bullied (39.0 %). Furthermore, cyberbullying was correlated with academic achievement, general health, and depression among adolescents with a statistical significance of 0.01 (rpb = 0.858, p < 0.01; rpb = 0.584, p < 0.01; rpb = 0.532, p < 0.01). Based on the findings, the following recommendations are suggested. As cyberbullying can be seen as a significant factor correlated with academic achievement, general health, and depression among adolescents, all people involved (families, schools, communities, and society) need to have awareness of, and place importance on, protecting and caring for children in the use of online social media within proper boundaries. Beginning with families, parents should place importance on speaking with adolescents about the problems or issues confronted by them at home and in school, and they should know how to observe the positive and negative changes in behavior among adolescents in order to help them search for guidelines to provide suitable and timely help for them. Most importantly, adolescents should be taught to be aware of the positive and negative impacts of their cyberbullying actions.