A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY TO ASSESS THE PREVALENCE AND COPING STRATEGIES OF CYBERBULLYING AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY STUDENTS STUDYING IN SELECTED SCHOOLSOF DEHRADUN, UTTARAKHAND IN A VIEW TO CREATE AN AWARENESS PROGRAM ON CYBERBULLYING

Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyberbullying can occur through SMS, Text, and apps or online in social media forums or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content. Cyberbullying includes sending, postingor sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation. The national cyber bullying foundation recommends that senior students of any gender between 16 to 19 years suffer from cyber bullying. A descriptive study was conducted on 100 senior secondary students to assess the prevalence and coping strategies regarding cyber bullying in selected senior secondary schools of Dehradun. The sample were selected through random convenience technique. Data was collected through self-structured socio-demographicttool, Standardized tool Cyberbullying online aggression survey and Coping with cyberbullying questionnaire were used to assess the prevalence and coping strategies. It was found that 41% students were male who are suffered from cyber bullying and 59% students were female.The senior secondary who were previously cyberbullied were found with only 20%. It was found in the study that most of the senior secondary students were adopting technical competence as coping strategy to deal with cyberbullying scenarios. Only Source of internet usage was found significant with the prevalence of cyberbullying. Research study found that area of residence, socio-economic status, source of internet usage and screen time per day were significant with the adopted coping strategies for cyberbullying. Researchers conducted an awareness program regarding cyberbullying among senior secondary school students, which contributed to create an awareness regarding the cyberbullying negative impact on them and to cope with the scenarios of cyberbullying victimization.