The relationship between loneliness, malicious envy, and cyberbullying in emerging adults

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between loneliness, malicious envy and cyberbullying perpetration of emerging adults. The research group was conducted by 580 emerging adults, aged between 18 and 25. Data was collected with Demographical Information Form, Revised Cyberbullying Inventory, Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale, Virtual Environment Loneliness Scale, Benign and Malicious Envy Scale. Results showed that there are only significant relationships between family loneliness, virtual loneliness, malicious envy, and cyberbullying. Only family loneliness and malicious envy significantly predicted cyberbullying positively. The results indicated that the cyberbullying level of males was higher than the cyberbullying level of females. Moreover, according to their parents' marital status, the results showed that cyberbullying level of emerging adults whose parents had been divorced was higher than emerging adults having intact families. There were no significant differences between the cyberbullying level of emerging adults regarding their demographical facilities such as having a sibling, income level of their family, their living space, relationship status and employment status.