Relationships between Problematic Smartphone Use and Victimization, Vulnerability to Cyberbullying and Manipulation

Study of problematic smartphone use is relevant because of manifestation in its direct links with various signs of psychological ill-being. The purpose of the research is to discover the hypothesized relationships between(In Russ.)problematic smartphone use and victimization, vulnerability to cyberbullying, and vulnerability to manipulation. The data were obtained through an online survey of 697 Russian-speaking respondents from Belarus, Russia and Armenia, including 490 women and 202 men: 342 respondents from Belarus, 243 from Russia, and 113 from Armenia. The authors’ questionnaires were applied: on smartphone addiction, social network addiction, victimization, vulnerability to cyberbullying, and vulnerability to manipulation. It has been shown that problematic smartphone use is directly related to victimization, vulnerability to cyberbullying, and social media addiction, and is negatively related to vulnerability to manipulation. The direct relationship between problematic smartphone use and victimization occurs through the direct relationships between their factors. The negative relationship between problematic smartphone use and vulnerability to manipulation is also realized by negative correlations of all their factors. Vulnerabilities to manipulation and to cyberbullying are fundamentally different, since cyberbullying is an open expression of a hostile attitude towards the target, whereas manipulation is a hidden impact on it. It is recommended to use the results obtained in the study when explaining to schoolchildren and students the dangers of becoming smartphone-addicted.