Comparison of Psychological Problems and Sleep Quality in Two Groups of Cyberbullying Victims and Normal People

Cyberbullying, harassment of others through new technologies, is a growing phenomenon that has important consequences for its victims. The purpose of this study was to compare psychological problems (depression, anxiety & stress) and sleep quality in two groups including victims of cyberbullying and a normal group using a causal-comparative design. The design of this research was causal comparative. The statistical population of this research included all male adolescents in Zanjan City, Iran during the 2020 year. The participants of this study were 100 male adolescents (50 victims of cyberbullying & 50 normal people), who were selected by multi stage random sampling. The instruments used in this study were Cyberbullying Experiences Questionnaire (CEQ), Depression- Anxiety- Stress Scale (DASS) and Petersburg Sleep Quality Questionnaire (PSQI). Results indicated that index of F in Quality of sleep was equal to 28.54, in Depression, 15.82, in Anxiety, 22.71, and in Stress, 34.87. The results of Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) showed that there were significant differences (p<.01) between Quality of Sleep, Depression, Anxiety and Stress in victims of cyberbullying group and the normal group. The results of the current study showed that there were differences between victims of cyberbullying adolescents and normal adolescents in quality of sleep, depression, anxiety and stress. In fact, victims of cyberbullying group had higher scores on depression, anxiety and stress than the comparison group and also they had lower quality of sleep than the comparison group.