Personality Antecedents and Consequences of Cyberbullying among youth at Higher Educational Institutes in India

Cyber bullying has emerged as a serious issue in today virtual /
technical environment. With the emergence and advancement
of technologies where technology has touched every sphere of
our life thus making our living comfortable, the flip side of it has
grown in a level where we are witnessing an increase number of
cases of cyber bullying or cyber teasing among the undergraduates
of university while attending the online classes. In recent times,
organizations are witnessing an increase in the bullying behavior at
the virtual workplace or technical space which has several negative
consequences such as increase in the number of psychological
problems, absenteeism from classes and mental stress.
This study is an earnest attempt towards examining personality
antecedents and consequences of cyber bullying among university
graduates. For the study , the data was collected through electronic
questionnaire medium, from 299 undergraduate’s university students
in southern India. Studies reveals that the Big Five personality
dimensions helps to understand and explain victimization from
cyber bullying. Neuroticism was found to be positively related
with cyberbullying. Cyber bullying reveals that it strengthens the
intention to remain absent, develops mental pressure and reduces
attendance. The most important consequence was found to be the
victims’ intention to be absent from the class or avoid the group .
The implications of this study will help the educational universities
in the identification of individual traits which will help them to
predict the victim who are likely to get bullied and to suggest anti –
victimization efforts to effectively protect students in the virtual set
up of the institution