Abstract
Advances in technology have made internet access easier, this has changed the way humans communicate with one another in life. Along with the advancement and development of technology, teenagers are internet users who spend more time in the virtual world than the real world. However, the use of the internet is widely blamed for use by teenagers, one of the phenomena of internet abuse is cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is a form of harassment or humiliation through social media. Factors that influence cyberbullying are empathy and self-esteem. This study aims to determine the relationship between empathy and self-esteem with cyberbullying in vocational high school students. This research design uses quantitative, with the subject of Vocational High School students in Pringsewu as many as 90 students. The measurement tool for this study uses three scales, namely the empathy scale, the self-esteem scale, and the cyberbullying scale. The data analysis technique uses multiple regression analysis to determine the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. The results of this study indicate that there is a significant relationship between empathy and self-esteem with cyberbullying in vocational high school students. That is, the higher the empathy and self-esteem, the cyberbullying behavior of low vocational high school students. On the other hand, the lower the level of empathy and self-esteem, the higher the level of cyberbullying among professional vocational high school students.
Introduction
Today's youth are a generation that grows and develops in an environment where advances in information and communication technology are an integral part of everyday life (Mawardah, & Adiyanti, 2014). The Association of Indonesian Internet Service Providers (APJII) conducted a survey in 2017, saying that adolescent social media users occupy the first position reaching 75.50% with an age range of 13-18 years (Pratama, 2017). This proves that teenagers are the largest group of social media users on the internet .
Advances in technology and internet access have changed the way humans communicate with one another in life (Hsieh, et al. 2016). Along with the advancement and development of technology, teenagers are internet users who spend more time in the virtual world than the real world. Communication through social media or cyberspace has both positive and negative impacts. The positive impact of using social media is the ease of accessing information from various parts of the world (Subrahmanyam & Smahek, 2011). However, there are also negative impacts from using social media, one of which is cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is a form of harassment or humiliation through social media or cyberspace (Vandebosch, & Van Cleemput, 2008; Juvonen, & Kotor, 2008).
According to Willard (2005) cyberbullying is a form of electronic communication using computers or mobile phones or other electronic media to threaten or bully individuals or groups. Cyberbullying is the use of technology to threaten, harass or target someone for the long term (Chadwick, 2014). Cyberbullying is a form of intimidation or harassment using social media or electronic media such as email, WhatsApp, messages or chat rooms (McCharty, 2010). Cyberbullying involves sending, harassing or threatening messages via text messages, email or other social media, posting derogatory comments about someone on social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram or other social media, physically threatening or intimidating someone on any social media (Burgess -Proctor, Patchin, & Hinduja, 2009; Kowalski & Limber, 2007; Lenhart, 2007).
Cases of cyberbullying have been widely discussed on social media in recent years. Some teenagers in America commit suicide as a result of cyberbullying. The most well-known case is the case of Megan Meier, who chose to hang herself in her bedroom because of the harassment and verbal abuse she received through social media accounts. Then a talented teenager named Tyler Clementi chose to end his life by jumping from the George Washington Bridge in Manhattan because without the victim's knowledge, his roommate exposed the victim's video via live-streaming regarding his personal activities with his gay partner. In addition, a survey conducted by the Board of Education in the Hyogo region of Japan showed that 10% of high school students had received threats via email, websites or blogs. A teenager from Japan, admitted that he often received terror through emails containing threats, mockery of photographs, and even many responses asking the teenager to end his life. So the teenager decided not to go to school, suffered from anorexia and twice attempted suicide (Wahyu, 2012).
The forms of cyberbullying according to (Willard, 2007; Wigati, Diponegoro, & Bashori 2020) are divided into eight, namely: Flaming, which is posting words in abusive, vulgar, insulting language and sometimes threats to someone via social media or other electronic means. Harrasment, which is malicious or derogatory messages sent repeatedly through private communication channels including email, instant messaging, and other text or electronic messages. Denigration, namely sending or posting gossip or rumors about someone that aims to damage someone's reputation or friendship. Impersonation, which is pretending to be someone else and sending material that makes someone look bad to damage one's reputation. Outing, namely posting and sending messages about other people that contain embarrassing personal information or confidential images online. Trickery, which is tricking someone into revealing personal secrets or embarrassing information which is then shared online. Exclusion, namely alienating / removing someone in an online group that is done on purpose. Cyberstalking is sending messages repeatedly through internet social media accompanied by threats that are dangerous or cause significant fear.
Cyberbulling is not actually done, cyberbullying perpetrators disturb their victims via email, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, or other social media (Dooley, Pyzalski, & Cross, 2009). Usually cyberbullying perpetrators do things such as stealing passwords, tampering with victims' emails, sending texts, posting messages or pictures that will embarrass victims on social media pages, sexually harassing victims in virtual chat rooms or instant messages, spreading gossip through messages and other aggressions. conducted online through social media or communication technology (Holfeld & Grabe, 2012; Sezgin-Nartgun & Cicioglu, 2015). A teenager who is a victim of cyberbullying will have poor adjustment skills, depression and other somatic symptoms (Safaria, Tentama, Suyono, 2016). Cyberbullying victims are more at risk of mental health, especially suicide (Gradinger, et al, 2011).
Cyberbullying does not require the perpetrator to repeat his actions many times on social media, because once they do cyberbullying it will stay for a long time on social media (Gámez-Guadix, Borrajo, & Almendros, 2016), this can prolong the victim's suffering ( Slonje, Smith, & Frisen, 2013). There are still very few people who know the psychosocial risks of cyberbullying in the involvement of perpetrators and victims. There is a strong relationship between cyberbullying and the inability of an individual to adjust psychosocially, both as perpetrators and victims. (Finkelhor, Mitchell, & Wolak, 2006; Williams, Cheung, & Choi, 2000; Ybarra & Mitchell, 2004a; Ybarra, Alexander, & Mitchell, 2005). In addition, perpetrators of cyberbullying have low empathy, so perpetrators often cyberbully (Adiyanti, Nugraheni, Yuliawanti, Ragasukmasuci & Maharani, 2020).
Factors that can influence cyberbullying is empathy. According to Albiero et al. (2009) empathy is the tendency to experience the emotional states of others. Empathy is the act of understanding, experiencing, and responding to the emotional states and ideas of others (Baker, Bull, & Walsh, 2021). Empathy is a cognitive and emotional understanding of other people's experiences, producing an emotional response that is in accordance with the view that other people deserve love and respect and have intrinsic value (Barnett & Mann, 2013). According to Davis (Wigati, Diponegoro, & Bashori 2020) Empathy is an individual reaction to things experienced by other individuals including cognitive and emotional reactions such as a tendency to feel or care for other people.
Previous research conducted by Gunawan (2021) found a significant relationship between empathy and cyberbullying. Cyberbullying behavior that occurs in students is caused by students' low empathy, so they find it difficult to understand the psychological state of other people. Besides that, the factors that influence cyberbullying are self-esteem. Research conducted by Lokithasan, Chua, Joanna, Subramanian, Zaman, & Krishnan, (2020), namely high self-esteem can reduce cyberbullying behavior. Individuals who have high self-esteem form better relationships and have a very pleasant social life. Self-esteem and cyberbullying are mutually correlated, the lower the self-esteem, the higher the cyberbullying, conversely, the higher the self-esteem, the lower the cyberbullying (Utami, 2021).
The next factor that can affect cyberbullying is self-esteem. According to Coopersmith (Murk, 2006) self-esteem is a personal judgment about worth, which is expressed in the attitude that a person has towards himself. According to Alessandri, Vecchione, Eisenberg, and Łaguna (2015), self-esteem is an individual's positive evaluation of himself, individuals who have high self-esteem are able to respect themselves and consider themselves worthy. According to Abdel-Khalek, (2016) self-esteem is self-evaluation carried out by individuals to defend themselves.
Based on the explanation above, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between empathy and self-esteem with cyberbullying in SMK students in Pringsewu, Lampung. The hypothesis in this study is that there is a significant relationship between empathy and self-esteem towards cyberbullying in SMK students.
Methods
This research was conducted to determine the relationship between empathy and self-esteem towards cyberbullying in vocational students using quantitative research methods. The population of this study were students of class X and XI SMK in Pringsewu. The sampling technique in this study used cluster random sampling, namely sampling carried out on sampling units (individuals) by drawing lots, where the sampling units were in one group. Each unit (individual) in the selected group will be taken as a sample.
Research data collection methods have the aim of uncovering facts about the variables to be studied. This research uses three scales, namely cyberbullying, empathy, and self-esteem scale. The cyberbullying scale uses a scale made by Wigati, Diponegoro, & Bashori (2020), with a total of 30 items and a reliability of 0.948. The empathy scale uses the Mu'mina Kurniawati & Tentama scale (2020), with 30 items and reliability > 0.7. The self-esteem scale uses a scale compiled by Wilantika, Dahrul, Agustin and Akbar (2021), with 40 items and reliability > 0.7. There are four answer choices, namely SS (Highly Appropriate), S (Suitable), STS (Very Not Appropriate), and TS (Not Appropriate). The analysis in this study uses the SPSS software for Windows 23.0. This study uses multiple regression analysis, a statistical analysis technique to determine the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable by predicting the value or score of more than one other independent variable whose data are interval or ratio symptoms.
Results and Discussion
Normality test
The normality test aims to determine whether a sample has a normal distribution. The normality test using Kolmogorov Smirnov shows a significance level value of 0.05 (> 0.05), so the data is normally distributed. The results of the normality test can be seen in table 1.
| Variables | Kolmogorov Smirnov Z | P |
| Cyberbullying | 0,869 | 0,437 |
| Empathy | 0,940 | 0,340 |
| self- esteem | 0,878 | 0,424 |
Based on the results of the normality test, the normality index of the Cyberbullying variable is 0.869 with a significance level of 0.437, so the cyberbullying variable is normally distributed. In the empathy variable the normality index is 0.940 with a significance level of 0.340, the empathy variable is normally distributed. In the self-esteem variable the normality index is 0.878 with a significance level of 0.424, so the self-esteem variable is normally distributed.
Linearity Test
The linearity test aims to determine whether the independent variables and dependent variables can be connected with a linear line or not so that they can be correlated. The linearity test criterion is the significance value at the deviation from linearity p >.05. the results of the linearity test can be seen in table 2.
| Variables | linearity | Dev.From Linearity | ||
| Cyberbullying With empathy | F | P | F | p |
| 12,562 | 0,001 | 0,696 | 0,837 | |
| cyberbullying With dignity | 4,382 | 0,040 | 0,762 | 0,758 |
Based on the table above, it can be seen that the relationship between the cyberbullying variable and empathy has an F value of 12.562 with a significance level of 0.001, so empathy can predict cyberbullying. In the relationship between cyberbullying and self-esteem, the F value is 4.382 with a significance level of 0.040, so self-esteem can predict cyberbullying.
The multicollinearity test aims to test whether there is a linear relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. The multicollinearity results can be seen in table 3.
| Variables | Tolerance | VIF |
| empathy | 0,981 | 1,019 |
| self- concept | 0,981 | 1,019 |
Based on the results of the multicollinearity test above, it shows that the empathy variable with self-esteem shows a VIF value of 1.019 which is less than 10 and a tolerance value of 0.981 which is greater than 0.01 so that it can be concluded that there is no multicollinearity.
The results of multiple regression analysis, this study show that there is a very significant relationship between empathy, self-esteem, and cyberbullying. The results of the analysis can be seen in table 4.
| Dependent variable | Variable Independent | R | R2 | F | Sig. (P) |
| Cyberbullying | Empathy(X1) self- steem (X2) | 0,407 | 0,165 | 8,626 | 0,000 |
| Variabel | B | Beta | T | Sig. (p) |
| Empathy(X1) self - esteem (X2) | 0,385 0,224 | 0,343 0,177 | 3,465 1,792 | 0,001 0,077 |
Based on the table 4, it is known that the R test results obtained a value of 0.391 with a significance of 0.000 (P <0.01). These results can be concluded that the hypothesis in this study is accepted. Empathy and self-esteem together can predict cyberbullying in vocational students very significantly.
Based on the table 5, it can be seen that the relationship between empathy and cyberbullying is t = 3.465 with a significance of 0.001, meaning that there is a significant relationship between empathy and cyberbullying. The higher the student's empathy, the lower the student's cyberbullying, conversely the lower the student's empathy, the higher the student's cyberbullying. The relationship between self-esteem and cyberbullying is obtained by a value of t = 1.792 with a significance of 0.077 meaning that there is no significant relationship between self-esteem and cyberbullying.
Discusiion
The findings of this study are significant where empathy and self-esteem are positively correlated with cyberbullying. Empathy can increase positive emotions thereby blocking the input of negative symptoms. This is very useful for reducing cyberbullying. Because cyberbullying has a considerable effect on the psychological and mental growth of students. The impact is that individuals can behave in certain situations with changes in mood (Ferreira et al., 2021). Individuals feel a change in the mood so it is easy to sympathize with cyberbullying victims.
When the offender wants to post harsh words, greater attention will arise regarding the impact of using harsh words so that they reduce their harsh words and speak in a softer tone (Graf et al., 2019). If an individual expresses gentle words, the individual tends to send good messages such as motivation for today, optimism, readiness to live today, and so on with positive goals (Auriemma et al., 2020). Individuals want to grow together in a peaceful atmosphere. When the atmosphere is peaceful, there tends to be no strange news or hoaxes being spread. Individuals express honesty and serve others wholeheartedly. Individuals do not dare to send or post other people's disgrace or weaknesses because they respect others more (Donat et al., 2022).
Empathy for the problem of cyberbullying must continue to be strengthened. In a sense, everyone has a perception of keeping other people's secrets (Marin-Lopez et al., 2020). In this millennial era, there are still people who are able to keep other people's secrets. They store information they don't want published. Individuals maintain close relationships with one another, for example by chatting, telephone or video call. Of course, this is a circle of communication that can become a positive community. Good friendship starts with good communication as well as according to the findings. The impact is that everyone benefits from each other. However, this is different from the study of Schultze-Krumbholz et al., (2018), which did not find significant empathy with cyberbullying. The obvious causes are lower levels of social competence and higher levels of aggression. The perpetrators do not have a sense of togetherness in a social context so rely on their ego and aggression towards others.
On the other hand, cyberbullying will not spread in the presence of strong self-esteem. Individual strength comes from within himself so this can indicate that the individual is strong and resilient to the bad behavior of others (Lei et al., 2018). In accordance with the findings of Adiyanti et al., (2020) that self-esteem affects cyberbullying to become smaller. Individuals are not affected by what other people have or say, this is called strength. His strength strengthened along with the significance he felt. Individuals feel that their presence is beneficial to the people around them, for example teachers, parents, principals, peers, and so on. Non-material and material assistance is something that we value and others see so that we feel happy and not hopeless. Individuals who have self-esteem are characters who don't give up easily and don't compare their level of life with others (Palermiti et al., 2022).
Individually thinking everyone has different feelings, thoughts, solutions, to problems. This perception is attached to those who have high self-esteem so they are not easily fragile or carried away by problems. In addition, individuals try to improve their quality and competence either from training, courses, or other supports (March & Steele, 2020). The effort goes into increasing positive emotions and benevolence. When individuals are able to balance religion, work, family, friendships then it makes them wiser. Many good things and wise decisions accompany people with high self-esteem (Quynh Ho et al., 2022). Of course, self-esteem contributes points to reducing cyberbullying. However, unlike the findings of Kowalski et al., (2012) and Jankauskiene et al., (2008) self-esteem cannot affect cyberbullying. The existence of self-esteem in both perpetrators and victims of bullying both have low self-esteem.
Self-esteem makes individuals able to prove good stress coping. Because in self-esteem, individuals can manage, reduce, minimize or tolerate stressful events that are being faced. Self-esteem and empathy in this study characterize that cyber bullying can be handled well. However, sometimes a study is not without flaws. As in this study, the sample used was small so it did not represent cyberbullying widely. Observation and interviews as methods to support data collection are less accurate due to limited time. For future researchers, they can add variables that are commensurate with the broader research context.
Conclusion and Recommendation
Based on the research results, there is a significant relationship between empathy, self-esteem and cyberbullying in vocational students. This means that the higher the empathy and self-esteem, the lower the cyberbullying behavior of SMK students, conversely the lower the empathy and self-esteem, the higher the level of cyberbullying among SMK students. So Empathy and self-esteem can predict cyberbullying in students. There is a negative relationship between self-esteem and cyberbullying. There is a positive relationship between empathy and cyberbullying, so the higher the empathy the lower the cyberbullying, conversely the lower the empathy the higher the cyberbullying of students.
This research is limited only to see the relationship between empathy and self-esteem with cyberbullying. The results of the minor hypothesis regarding the relationship between self-esteem and cyberbullying did not show significant results. Therefore, for future researchers this research needs to be followed up with further research on self-esteem with cyberbullying so that it can more clearly see the relationship between the two variables.
References
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