Rabab Alqasry

Benha University, Egypt

Abstract Title: Cyberbullying and Its Relationship with Self-Esteem, Cognitive Distortions, and Psychological Adjustment Among a Sample of Female Victims in Early Adulthood

Biography:

Holds a Master's degree in Arts, specializing in Clinical Psychology, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Clinical Psychology at the age of 30 at Benha University. She is the director of Psychology Center for Psychological and Family Counseling and Addictions. Additionally, she is a member of the Egyptian Association of Psychotherapists and the Association of Psychological Specialists (RANM).

Research Interest:

The current study aims to identify the extent to which cyberbullying is linked to both self-esteem, cognitive distortions and psychological compatibility, and to what extent these variables predict self-esteem, cognitive distortions, and psychological adaptation to fall victim to cyberbullying. The sample led to 570 females in early adulthood, like the basic study sample, on study tools. Of these, 25 females were excluded because of a lack of answers to some of the study tools. The final sample was 545 females (with an average age of 30.02 ± 7.21), They are distributed at multiple educational levels (ranging from middle school to post-university degrees. The results indicates that cyberbullying and self-esteem are intrinsically linked to both cognitive distortion (with its various components) and psychological compatibility, while they themselves are not related to each other; and that psychological compatibility is linked to both cognitive distortion and self-esteem. In short, the lower psychological compatibility combined with greater cognitive distortion, the greater the chances of women becoming victims of cyberbullying as they perceive it from their point of view, While the higher self-esteem, the greater psychological compatibility and the lower cognitive distortion. The results also found that lower levels of awareness of cyberbullying performed better than higher levels of awareness on cognitive distortions and psychological conditioning in a very significant way. That is, those who are very familiar with cyberbullying often experience distortion in their knowledge and a decrease in their psychological compatibility. However, no significant differences were found between them in the case of self-esteem, which means that self-esteem is not a primary factor in explaining these perceptions.