Examination of The Relationship Between Bullying and Screen Addiction among Primary School Students

Abstract

Bullying is defined as the intentional and persistent negative actions towards one or more individuals. The report of UNESCO in 2019 indicated that one out of every three students going to school is exposed to bullying. For overcoming this problem, most countries are conducting research, enacting laws and implementing prevention interventions. In order to develop the interventions related to bullying, it is important to know the causes and effects of the problems. Research has already indicated many factors such as demographic variables, school type, school environment and class and etc.. Recent studies have emphasized effects of negative content in technology usage on bullying. Screen addiction, which is called excessive and obsessive use of screen tools, is a current term that can be used for types of technology based addictions such as internet, computer-game, television, social media, smartphone addiction. The last few years with the Covid-19 pandemic, the technology usage has significantly increased among young people specifically children. Scholars believe that such a usage of technology may cause technology based addiction. The possibility of an increase in bullying among children has also been considered as a result of exposure to high usage of technology devices. For this reason, this study aims to examine the relationship between the level of screen addiction and bullying tendencies among primary school students. In order to examine the aim of the study, the correlational survey model, which is one of the quantitative research methods, was applied. Before conducting the study, ethical approval was obtained from the Scientific Research and Publishing Ethics Committee of Mardin Artuklu University. In addition, in March-2023, data were collected from both students and their parents after the necessary permissions were obtained from provincial directorate of national education in Mardin, three primary schools in Mardin and parent of the students. A total of 448 students, 226 boys and 222 girls, participated in the study. According to the findings of the study, positive and low correlation was found between students' bullying tendencies and screen addiction levels. This result may be a situation where the role and control of parents over their children of this age is more effective. Controlling contents of technology during usage may prevent children from negative outcomes of technology and this may reduce level of bullying among primary school children.