Factor that Contribute to Cyberbullying among Student

in University Selangor

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.0 Overview

This chapter shows all items in introduction such as background of study, problem statement,

research objective, research question and significant of study.

1.1 Background
The growth of internet usage among Malaysian has been increasing past few decades. This

because the internet can help computer and smartphone users get variety required

information. The Internet can be defined as a network of computers internationally that

allows computer users worldwide to connect with one another and we can access information

in databases from around the world (Ryan & M.Lewis, 2017). The internet users can connect

and recognize each other through each other through social media like Facebook, Twitter,

MySpace and other media social. According to (Agger, 2015) the internet and mobile phones

are informational new technologies that can provide some benefits such as better

communication, provide a more in-depth and self-disclosure of individual information

establishing social relations between individuals and the outside community. Statistics show

that Malaysia has 35 million mobile customers and 23.4 million Internet users. And as of July

2016, there were 15.3 million Facebook users on Malaysia, (Malaysia-Social-Media-

statistics, 2015).

1
However, this use of social media is often abused by internet users especially the young.

(Allcott & Kessler, 2015) found that an adolescent shows aggressive behavior in cyberspace.

They argue through cyberspace aggressive action can be taken because it is considered a safe

place to respond revenge by using fake names on social sites (Siddiqui & Singh, 2016). It is

was also supported by (Falzone, et al., 2017) who stated that social sites, phones mobile and

other technologies are used to threaten someone by name designed to spread rumors, send

embarrassing messages or videos, sowing slander and more. This negative activity is called

cyber bully. It is can be defined as intentional use, repetition of information, publicity

information transmitted, ignorance about bullying and information technology dangerous

(Tarablus, Heiman, & Olenik-Shemesh, 2015). Cyberbullying includes using sentences that

look down on, threaten, click an unauthorized picture over a mobile phone, broadcast an

unauthorized picture, blackmail through chat sites, and the posting of pornographic images or

personal information on the internet (Rao, Bansal, & Chandran, 2018). In short,

cyberbullying is a reference to the behavior of people who are essentially intent on harming

others in terms of it psychology through the use of electronic tools (Sasson & Mesch, 2016)

and the use of technology information for communications such as email, mobile phones, text

messaging tool, instant messaging (WhatsApp, Line, WeChat etc.) as well as the personal

website that it is used for spreading slander over and over again (Singh, Radford, Huang, &

Furrer, 2017). This cyberbullying incident occurred with the presence of social sites through

the internet and explosion technology. According to (Baker, 2016) cyberbullying is a new

symptom of bullying emerged after the advent of communication technology today.

(Minocha & Minocha, 2017) also argues that internet addiction by technological advances is

a factor most important for the spread of cyberbullying especially for students, universities

and children young people have less interaction and social communication. Thus based on

above issue this study aimed to increase the understanding of the concept cyberbullying

2
among student in University Selangor. However, this study aimed to include aspects such as

chat room bullying, and bullying by phone calls among student and to examine awareness

generally of different forms of cyberbullying.

1.2 Problem Statement

Cyberbullying is a new phenomenon that is expanding abroad in parallel with today's

technological advancements. Cases that are notorious for crime cyberbullying is the case of

Amanda Todd and Tyler Clement who chose to kill self-induced stress. That's enough prove

that cyberbullying crime can have devastating effects on the victim bullying especially the

teenagers and society's perceptions of the individuals involved. As such, a study conducted

by Cybersecurity Malaysia and The Ministry of Education Malaysia found that in 2016, 23

per cent of respondents out of 9651 students from 459 adolescents across Malaysia admitted

are victims of cyberbullying while 26 percent of respondents have experienced bullying

situations cyber (Cybersecurity Malaysia, 2016). Additionally, the results of the 2017 cyber

report also found 250 complaints were filed in 2014 and it increased by 389 complaints in

2015 an increase of 55.6 percent. In fact, until November 2016 it increased 5I6 complaints

were reported. Through the results of the statistical reports generated by the Group Malaysian

Computer Emergency Action (MyCERT), it could indicate activity cyberbullying on social

media is an increasingly popular medium for activity bullying other than traditional bullying.

Thus it is important to identify what is the extent of the cyberbullying problem. (Hebert,

Cenat, Blais, Lavoie, & Guerrier, 2016) says that cyber bullying is an extension of traditional

bullying that is not related to school responsibilities as they generally involve only personal

computers and phones student cell. According to (Whelan, 2016) in his study found the

method of bullying the most frequently used is to use cruel words through order, upload

images and videos as a medium of bullying in the cyber world. It is also supported by the

study performed by (Sprugnoli, Stefano, Tonelli, Oncini, & Piras, 2018) which states that the

3
distribution of pictures and videos intermediate clips are often used for cyberbullying crime.

(Mesch, 2016) state that the evolution of the electronic field makes adolescents spending

some of their time in cyberspace. Cyberspace enables language modified and adapted to 'net-

speak', identities can be hidden and personalities can be changed, and teens have no limits to

interacting and playing the role of choice in the cyber world. Various mediums of social

networking are readily available and available in use now. Some are picture-oriented like

Instagram, posting simple messages such as Twitter, and social media (uploading photos,

instant message, post status, etc) like Facebook. Therefore it is important to clarify does

Unisel students attitude contribute to cyberbullying behaviour.

The phenomenon of cyberbullying has a very negative effect on the victim especially from

psychological angle. It affects the emotions of the victim and causes them to suffer

sadness, depression, fear and anger. This is evidenced by the research done by (Ashktorab &

Vitak, 2016) showing that anger recorded the highest percentage and was followed by

depression, sadness and fear. Victims with high levels of anger will push themselves to

change became more selfish, threatened and started spreading bad rumors. Here shows that

cyberbullying has a very negative effect on students’ and society with the intent and objective

of inciting others to harm season (Edwards, Kontostathis, & Fisher, 2016). This is in line with

the findings of (Fisher, 2015) who found that cyberbullying greatly affects the overall

emotion of the bullying victim mood, appetite, energy levels, sleep and affect the academic

performance of the victim. Meanwhile (P.Hamm, et al., 2015) also found that cyberbullying

had a negative effect on the victim's emotions leading to the victim being sad, depressed,

scared and inability to deal with cyberbullying crime.

4
If this problem is not addressed and it is best resolved that it may cause the victim to take

action that doesn't sound like a suicide. This is reinforced by the research done by (Crosby,

2018) in which he finds that the victim cyberbullying is twice as likely to commit suicide as it

is teenagers who have never experienced cyberbullying. Thus it is important to clarify Does

subjective norm and perceived behaviour control influence Unisel students’ to cyberbullying

behaviour.

Most of them are involved seriously involved with cyberbullying an incident choosing to

commit suicide is among women. According to the study conducted by (Abbasi, Naseem,

Shamim, & Qureshi, 2018) found that 54 percent of women were most affected with mental

anxiety and suicide attempts compared to men. It clearly shows cyberbullying involvement

negatively affected adolescents with 61.3 percent compared to men's 38.7 percent (Martins,

Mares, & Nathanson, 2019). It is also supported by (Knopf, 2014) the study of who found 62

percent of women between the ages of 11 and the 18-year-old does not admit to being

involved as a bully or victim but they are tends to be involved in specific cyberbullying

activities. It shows that they tend to be involved in cyberbullying but do not define action

they are cyberbullying. In contrast, a study by (Limo, 2015) found that the percentage of men

higher was involved in cyber bullying of 58 percent, acting as a bully while the percentage of

cyberbullying victims is about the same between both sexes. Thus, to identify cyberbullying

crime phenomena that interfere with health society especially the involvement of young

people, a review of this phenomenon is necessary to clarify does students’ gender, age and

internet usage influence Unisel students’ cyberbullying behavior.

5
1.3 Research Objective

1. To identify the extent of the cyberbullying problem.

2. To examine does Unisel students’ attitude contribute to cyberbullying behaviour.

3. To clarify does subjective norm influence Unisel students’ to cyberbullying behaviour

4. To identify does perceived behaviour control influence the Unisel students’

cyberbullying behaviour.

5. To identify does students gender, age and internet usage influence Unisel students’
cyberbullying behaviour.

1.4 Research Question

1. What is the extent of the cyber bullying problem?

2. Does Unisel students’ attitude contribute to cyber bullying behaviour?
3. Does subjective norm influence Unisel students’ to cyber bullying behaviour?
4. Does perceived behaviour control influence the Unisel students’ cyber bullying
behaviour
5. Does students’ gender, age and internet usage influence Unisel students’ cyber
bullying behaviour?

6
Significance of study

1. “This study will give new awakening to the Malaysian researchers and public research

universities in conducting a further analysis to explore on factors affecting cyber bullying

problem among Malaysians university students.””

2. “The Private and government universities in Malaysia may use the results of this study as

a reference to taking immediate action in considers the issue of cyber bullying among

Malaysians university students.”

3. “This study will give an appropriate action as suggestions on how to enhance Unisel

Students willingness to overcome the cyber bullying issues.

4. “Academicians can use this study to explore further on the issue of factors affecting cyber

bullying among Malaysians university students and they can propose suggestion that

actually influence the student’s willingness to handle the cyber bullying issues.

5. “Besides that, all the researcher in Malaysia can take systematic steps in develop the

better knowledge in cyber bullying issues that can give greater impact among

adolescents.”

7
Scope and Limitations of Study

“This study was investigated on the factor that contributes to cyberbullying among student

in University Selangor in Malaysian context. On other hand this study also intent to clarify

the does UNISEL students’ attitude, subjective norm and perceive behaviour control

influence cyber bullying behaviour. The studies setting which will be conduct among

UNISEL students who study at Malaysians university were located in Shah Alam. The

results of this study are expected to identify the factor that contributes to cyber bullying

among UNISEL student in Malaysia. This issue is very important to be studied as it not

only has an interest in the cyber bullying aspects but it also involves 3 factors (attitude;

Subjective Norm and Perceive behaviour control) which influencing UNISEL Students to

cyber bullying behaviour.

“The limitation of this study is there are only one issue was examined in this study it was

factor that contribute to cyberbullying among student in University Selangor. Thus it was

advisable in future to explore further on the issue of what are the challenges that faced by

Malaysian university students. On other hand this study also intent to collect data using

questionnaire were the researcher only choose only one university (UNISEL) to collect

data. This phenomena reflect bias in data collection were the researcher only collect data

among the one particular location which is Shah Alam to explore the factor that contribute

to cyberbullying among student in University Selangor. Therefore in future it was

important to conduct a research all niversity in overall Malaysia in order to explore further

on the study in order to gain knowledge on this subject.””

8
 a. Definition of Terms

Cyber bullying

 “Cyber bullying is different from traditional bullying due to the anonymity of the

Internet.” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2018)

Attitude

 Attitude influences an individual's choice of action and a tendency to respond

positively or negatively towards a certain idea or object. (Ajzen, 2015)

Subjective Norm

 Is the perceived social pressure to perform or not to perform the behaviour (Ajzen,

2015)

Perceived Behaviour Control

 Perceived behavioural control refers to people's perceptions of their ability to perform

a given behaviour (Ajzen, 2015)

b. Organization of study

This study organized into five chapters.

Chapter One– Chapter one consists of general information about what is the study to be

conducted all about. There are overviews of factor that contribute to cyber bullying in

Malaysia. It is also covered research problem, research question and research objectives.

9
Chapter Two– For chapter two inclusive of extensive discussion on literature reviewed to

support my research framework. In chapter two also delves discussions on factor that

contribute to cyber bullying, the motivations factor including intrinsic and extrinsic

motivations, cyber bullying. There are also a discussion on the underlying theories that been

used to support my framework.

Chapter Three- Chapter three presents the conceptual framework applied in this research

and also details the research methodology used to carry out the study. The methodology

applied includes discussion of the pilot study, sampling procedure, research instruments, and

measurement of variables. This is followed by an explanation on the statistical analysis used

to analyse the data gathered for this study.

Chapter Four- This chapter was explain the analysis of data and the outcomes obtained

through statistical analysis. The researcher was use Smart SPSS to analysis data and results of

the study. Results of this study will be presented in Chapter 4. The hypotheses developed

earlier will also be analysed, tested and discussed here. Chapter four discusses the analysis

performed and result obtain.

Chapter Five- This chapter was be contain literature about discussion, conclusion, and

recommendation of this study. There also was the highlights and the implication from the

outcomes, limitation and recommendations for future research directions. . A discussion of

the study’s implications, limitations and suggestions for future research will also be provided.

Chapter five describes and explains the rationale behind the results and how it maps to the

hyphotheses and research objectives. In addition, the limitations, future and contributions

were also discussed.”

10
 CHAPTER 2

LITURATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This chapter will thoroughly discuss the related literature to provide a comprehensive

picture of this study‘s topic. The current study intends to clarify the factor that contributes

to cyber bullying among student in university Selangor.

2.2 Overview of Cyber Bullying

Symptoms of cyber bullying have started since the development of ICT technologies such as

the use of computers and smartphones is considered one of the most important gadgets by

everyone (Bauman and Meter, 2019). The existence of a world without boundaries and

boundaries through the use of the Internet exacerbating cyber security in the cyber world

especially among teenagers were bullying will abuse gadgets like smartphones and computers

for bullying in the cyber world (Limo, 2015). One of the most important types of cyber

bullying is sending messages that have an element of harassment and threats to the victim

that makes the victim unwell comfortable and safe (Holt, Green, et al. 2017). Bullying also

often misuses or hacks passwords or the screen name of the other person as well as the other

person. It is intended for conceals the true identity of the bully and will surely bring it about

misunderstanding of the victim whose account was hacked (Wang, Yogeeswaran, et al.

2019). Also, bullying is a problem pornography is also common on social media. For

example, bullies load pictures on social media.

11
There are also bullies who upload their comments sensitive and pornographic images of

victims uploaded on social media. Sexting symptoms like sending pictures, messages or

sexually suggestive videos Mobile phone use is also rampant among teenagers (Safaria,.

Tentama, et al. 2016). Today, the symptoms of new forms of cyber bullying are through viral

video transmission or pictures on social media like Facebook, Twitter and so on humiliating

the victim. Most come with a supposedly funny theme and entertaining, yet we often

overlook the consequences and consequences for the victims (Force, 2016). Although no

physical injuries were left but studies show Cyber bullying can have more serious physical

than physical consequences and can lead to serious mental health problems to depression and

the desire to commit suicide.

2.3 Cyber bullying Issue in Malaysia

Based on a study conducted by the Ministry of Youth and Sports in 2017 in collaboration

with the Malaysian Institute of Youth Development Research shows that, 62.3% of their

respondents were victims of cyberbullying compared to 37.7% have never been victims of

cyberbullying. The statistics from the study prove almost a majority of youths have been

involved in cyberbullying victims. This research conducted to look at cyberbullying scenarios

among youth in Malaysia. A total of 1382 youths aged 15 to 30 are respondents of 6 the

different zones are the North Zone, the East Zone, the Central Zone, the South Zone and

Sabah and Sarawak.

12
Figure 2.1 Percentage of Total Cyber bullying Case Based on Platform

Source: Malaysian Youth Development Research Institute, 2018

Social media is often used as a platform for cybercrime. Various effects can occur if the

individual is a victim of cybercrime. Studies conducted by the Malaysian Institute of Youth

Development Research, percent The highest impact on cyber bullying victims is that victims

will be sensitive to the environment, experiencing emotional changes or emotional stress such

as anger or rumble. In addition, victims of bullying will also feel unsafe when surfing the

internet, it can even look messy when it comes to text messages or emails. From physically

towards the individual, the victim will experience a change in sleep or gets sleepy during

sleep and will experience a change in appetite.

13
 2.4 Theory Planned Behavior

“Ajzen (1988) developed the Theory of Planned Behaviour as an off-shoot of the Theory of

Reasoned Action. Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behaviour uses attitudes, subjective

norms and perceived behavioural control to predict “intention” with relatively high accuracy.

The theory assumes that a person’s intention, when combined with perceived behavioural

control, will help predict behaviour with greater accuracy than previous models (Ajzen,

1991). Ajzen’s (1988) Theory of Planned Behaviour can be broken down into three

conceptually independent antecedents leading to behavioural intention (BI): Attitude toward

the Behaviour (AAct), Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC) and Subjective Norms (SN)

(Ajzen, 1991). Attitude toward the behaviour measures the degree to which a person has a

negative or positive evaluation toward his/her performance of the behaviour. Perceived

Behavioural Control refers to people’s perceptions of whether or not they can perform that

specific behaviour and how easy it is to perform. Subjective Norms refer to what individuals

believe other key people in their lives think about whether or not the individual should

perform the behaviour.”

14
 CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

1.1 Introduction

This chapter will discuss on the data collection method were the researcher will discuss on

the all the procedure will be used to collect the data among Unisel Students regarding

factor that contribute to cyber bullying.

1.2 Research Design

“The intention of this study is to examine the factor that contributes to cyber bullying in

Malaysia context. This study mainly used quantitative approach to collect evident,

whereby the data will gathered based on the answer from the respondent to the

questionnaire. The reason behind the structured questionnaire was using for collect data

from Unisel Students in Kuala Lumpur to assess the (Does Unisel Students attitude;

Subjective Norm; Perceive behaviour control influence cyber bullying behaviour)

variables under investigation and to test the multiple hypotheses of this study. Sekaran

(2009) described that a research design is used to measure the relationships among

variables in order to explain, predict, and manage the phenomenon.”

15
 3.3 Measurement of Variables / Instrumentation

“Surveying is one of the sources that will be used to collecting data from respondents \ to

achieve the research goal. In supporting that Sekaran (2009) postulated that, survey

method is a suitable method in conducting quantitative study, it save time, immediate

response and cheap and reliable method in terms of cost if compared to other data

collection method. The design of research instrument was described in table 3.1:””

Table 3.1

Summary of Research Instrument

Content/ No of
Title/Variable Question
 Gender
Section A Demographic details  Age
 Internet usage
 Question

Section B Attitude (ATT) 5 Question

Section C Subjective Norm (SN) 5 Question
Section D Perceive behaviour control (PBC) 5 Question
Section E cyber bullying behaviour (CBB) 5 Question

“Based on above table 3.1 the researcher was listed the summary of research instrument that

used to collect data. The researcher was using five point likert scale from section 1 till 5 to

measure the perception of the respondent. The questionnaire was adopted form various

studies and some modification was done to the item to applicable in this study. To measure

the listed variables from section two till seven the researcher as used the five point linkert

scales which anchored at “1” Strongly disagree “to Strongly disagree “5” will be used to

measure factor that contribute to cyberbullying among student in university Selangor.

16
3.4 Population and Sample size

“According to Sekaran and Bougie, (2013) Population refers to a group of people in of

organization that are chose by the researcher. Moreover Sekaran (2013) postulated that

population of a study should contain entire group of people, events, or things of interest

to be used by researcher in the investigation. The population for this study is private

Unisel students. The total population were choose for this study was 300 and the sample

size was choose base on Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sample size diagram. The sampling

procedure that was adopted in this study for data collection was convenience sampling

method through questionnaire survey with a pre-planned sample size of 300. The

questionnaire survey was distributed in all Unisel students.

3.5 Techniques of Data Analysis

There are various statistical techniques that conducted by many researcher to draw

accurate conclusion about their research interest. However for this empirical study the data

was analyzed by using (SPSS) for further analysis.

3.6 Reliability and Validity

“Reliability and validity are of vital importance in the measurement scales. Reliability

analysis is a measure of the internal consistency of indicators for a construct (Hair et.

al,1998). The purpose of reliability analysis is to determine how well a set of items taps

into some common sources of variance (Viswanathan, 2015), and is frequently measured

with Cronbach’s coefficient alpha. Cronbach’s coefficient alpha is “the ratio of the sum of

17
 the covariance’s among the components of the linear combination (items), which estimates

true variance, to the sum of all elements in the variance-covariance matrix of measures,

which equals the observed variance” (Bernstein and Nunnally, 2014).Validity is the extent

to which a scale or set of measures accurately represents the concept of interest. Content

validity (Sireci, 1998) was established during preparation of the questionnaire by using

scales already validated in the literature, carefully analysing the items.”

“All the traditional measures are based after previously validated steps (Hoeh, Venkatesh

and Morris, 2015), and their reliabilities were considered acceptable. Then, construct

validity test was performed which contains discriminant abilities and convergent validity.

Discriminant validity reflects the level to which two conceptually similar constructs are

specific, and the correlation here should be low. Connection analysis can be used to

determine this type of validity. If the relationship result indicated that the correlation

between variables were not higher than 0.8 (Bagozzi, 1994), this would conclude that the

various constructs are certainly not measuring the same thing.”

“Convergent abilities refer to the level to which the steps of the same construct are

correlated, and the correlation here should be high. It can be accessed via confirmatory

factor analysis (CFA) the common accepted method for this test (Netemeyer et al., 2016).

CFA allows the researcher to verify the factor structure of a group of observed variables

based on the existing knowledge of the theory, empirical research, or both. If the

measurement items of each build have individual factor charge at least 0.50 and

everything measurement items are significant (level of. 01) for Bartlett's test of sphericity

18
 (Sanzo et al., 2014) and index for Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) is at least 0. 6 (Pallant,

2015), the scale is concluded has convergent quality.”

3.6 Factor Analysis

“Factor analysis is commonly used to identify the validity of factors or dimensions of

each of the variables in order to reduce the large number of observed variables on a

small set of fundamental factors. In addition Emory and Cooper (1991) defines factor

analysis technique as to reduce a large number of variables to a smaller number, by

addressing which variables is belonging to which variables seems to say the same thing.

In other hand (Hair, 1998) stated that factor analysis can often be conducted on rotated

or is not rotating basis. This is where if a factor analysis conducted on a rotating basis,

it is has various technique but one of the popular techniques that widely used in

research is varimax rotation technique that tend to be give a clear separation (Hair et

al.2015).”

3.7 Sampling Adequacy

“Kaiser Meyer-Olkin (KMO) will be used in this study in order to measure the adequacy

of sampling among proposed variables. According to Verbeke and Viaene (1999) (KMO)

value should be greater than 0.60, while the value of 0.90 or higher is considered to be

excellent. Meanwhile, Kinnear grey (1994) classifies the (KMO) value and its

acceptance level; If KMO value was greater than 0.50 it can be good factors.”

19
 3.8 Measurement of Reliability

“Carmine Zeller (1979) defines reliability analysis as a measure of freedom from errors

and at the same time, producing consistent results, in which the degree of validity is

defined as structural measures are unbiased, consistent measurements across time and

across various items in the instrument. Sekaran (2009) pointed that if the reliability

analysis result for the proposed variable is less than 0.50 it considered as poor and if in

range of 0.60-0.80 it was at acceptable or good level.”

3.9 Regression Analysis

“In the regression process, R indicates the bivariate correlation between the detected values of

the dependent variable and expected values based on the regression equation, while, the (r) in

lower case, is indicating partial regression coefficient in the coefficient table that gives the

regression equation of the model. R² (R square) in table of regression model summary is

representing the coefficient of multiple determinations. Adjusted R² indicates the goodness of

fit of the research model and the number of independent variables involved.

20
3.10 Research Framework

Attitude

Subjective norm

Perceived behaviour Cyber bullying behaviour

control among Unisel Students

 Gender,
 Age
 Frequency internet
usage

Figure 3.1 Research Frame work

Based on figure 3.1 above we can found that there are three independent variables (ATT; SN;

PBC). It can be found that there is only one dependent variable it was Cyber bullying

behaviour among Unisel students.

21
22