The Effect of Assertiveness Skills Training on Cyber Bullying Female Students Victims in Second Grade High Schools

Cyber bullying is a phenomenon that has arisen with the advent and development of the Internet and demands its own challenges. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of assertiveness skills training on cyber bullying female students victims in second grade high schools.

In terms of its objectives this study is of an applied research, and in terms of type it is considered as a quantitative study, which was conducted using quasi-experimental design (pre-test-post-test with control group). The statistical population consisted of female high school students (2019-2020), of whom 30 individuals who had the highest score in the Cyber ​​Victim Questionnaire were randomly selected and assigned in two groups of control and experimental. The instruments of the present study were the Cyber ​​Victim Experience Questionnaire (Antonio et al., 2016) and the Schering' Self-Expression (Schering, 1980). The reliability coefficients of these questionnaires have been reported as 0.69 (Basharpour and Zardi, 2019) and 0.88 (Khalatbari et al., 2009), respectively. Then, the assertiveness skills training program was implemented in 8 sessions of 90 minutes for the members of the experimental group. Univariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data.

The findings of the present study showed that the training of assertiveness skills caused a significant change in cyber victim scores in the post-test phase (F = 80.68, P = 0.001). Follow-up of the results in a 6-month period also showed the persistence of the effect of assertiveness skills training.

According to the results of the study, it was found that assertiveness skills training to adolescents reduces the cyber victim experience in this age group and by using such training, social harms can be prevented