The Impact of Cyberspace on Students' Social Deviance

This study aimed to sociologically study the use of cyberspace and its impact on social deviance among secondary school students in Kermanshah in 2015-2016 school year through descriptive survey method.

The target population included all high school students in the city of Kermanshah. The sample consisted of 381 individuals who were selected through stratified random sampling method. The sample size was calculated by Cochran formula. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire which was developed using the theory of social deviations and research objectives and questions. After confirming the content validity of the questionnaire by the supervisor and experts, its reliability was calculated using Cronbach's alpha (α > .94). Findings and

The results of data analyses show that the daily use of students from the cyberspace was as follows: less than an hour (20%), between 1-3 hours (75%), 3-5 hours (4%), more than five hours (1%). The highest time use of cyberspace was communicative type (58%) and the lowest time use of cyberspace was cognitive type (9%) and the leisure time use was 33%. The other results also showed that in the prioritization of the components of social deviance, the desire to harm public places had the highest rate and the tendency to cheat on school tests had the lowest rate. There is a direct and significant relationship between the type of use and the use of cyberspace and social deviance.