Cyberbullying has emerged of late as a serious issue, especially among the most active internet users in Malaysia – youths. As the number of related studies is still lacking, the present study aims to determine the predictors of cyberbullying among youths in Malaysia. The study is quantitative in nature and in total had involved 400 youths aged between 18 to 40 years old. The findings suggest that predictors such as age, loneliness, self-esteem, and empathy yielded significant relationship with cyberbullying, while males were predominantly reported to perpetrate cyberbullying than females. Several recommendations were highlighted and hopefully, it can assist any concerned parties in developing concrete strategies to reduce cyberbullying cases among youths in Malaysia further.
This study sought to develop and validate an instrument measuring cyberbullying among
Malaysian youths. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was employed to determine the best
sub-factors and items for the instrument, while confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was
performed to test and validate the measurement model. Results from EFA on 38 items
showed that the items were pooled into four sub-factors. Meanwhile, results from CFA
indicated that eight items had to be discarded in order to confirm that the model was fit.
Overall, the final version of the instrument consisted of four cyberbullying sub-factors,
namely, impersonation (13 items), cyberstalking and harassment (nine items), flaming (four
items), and elimination (four items).