PRIMARY ASSESSMENT OF CYBERBULLYING IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

Cyberbullying, along with other risks associated with the use of social networks, is an emerging problem of the 21st century. The purpose of the research was the primary evaluation of the cyberbullying phenomenon and the determination of its specificity in the context of the Republic of Moldova. To achieve the purpose of the research and confirm or reject the research hypotheses, a cross-sectional study was carried out in 4 high schools in the country. The 489 students (56.2% girls and 43.8% boys), aged between 10-17 years, were recruited from these locations. The results of the study reflected a high rate of victimization among children of 53.4%, significant differences according to the gender of the victim were not identified, there was little variation between the victimization of boys (54.7%) and girls (52.4%). Social networks are the environments where students were most often victims of the phenomenon, receiving annoying or offensive messages, in 67.3% of cases from people they know, including: friends, colleagues or friends of their friends. The primary assessment of the phenomenon will allow the present study to be used as a reference for future research.