Cyber victimization: do resilience and posttraumatic stress play a role?

Abstract

Within adolescent populations, correlations between cyber victimization and posttraumatic stress have been found; however, it is unknown if these experiences also occur within the general adult population. Cyber victimization’s pervasiveness has led treatment planning towards developing resilience, rather than ending the perpetration of the individual. Thus, individuals from the adult population were surveyed to evaluate the occurrence of cyber victimization and then explore the relationships it may share with posttraumatic stress and resilience. Cyber victimization, posttraumatic stress, and resilience were measured via the CyberBullying Victimization Scale (CBV), the PTSD Checklist for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition (PCL- 5), and the Connors-Davidson Resilience Scale 25-item scale (CD-RISC-25), respectively. The data gathered yielded three significant findings in the adult population: 1) cyber victimization does occur; 2) perceived experiences of cyber victimization are positively correlated with posttraumatic stress; and 3) resilience does not share a relationship with cyber victimization.