Research Question: How are cyberbullying and depression related pertaining to college students?

Hypothesis: There is a positive correlation between cyberbullying and symptoms of depression in college students.

Background research: In a study conducted by Bauman, Toomey, and Walker (2012), results indicated that cyberbullying was not a significant predictor for depression. Instead of looking at the relationship between the two variables on a cause and effect level, Sutton (2015), conducted a study to see if there was a correlation between cyberbullying and psychological distress (e.g. depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and hostility) by surveying adolescents in grades nine to eleven.

The results indicated that there was a positive correlation between the two variables, as cyberbullying victims reported more psychological distress than non-victims did. In another study conducted by Goebert, Else, Matsu, Chung-Do, and Chang (2011), they looked at the relationship between cyberbullying and mental health problems by using multi methods approach.

The participants in this study were high school students in Hawaii, 677 students. The result in this study shows that more than the half of students experienced cyberbullying by other students in the past 12 months. According to Carpenter and Hubbard (2014), they conducted a study that looked at teaching psychiatric nurse practitioners about how cyberbullying got increased since there were more kids and teenagers using social media. Also the researcher considered the cyberbullying as a serious cause of mental health and affecting students in the school.

Another study by Bowman et al. (2017), examined the problematic social media use and depressive symptoms among young adults. This team coordinated a randomly selected group of people ranging from the ages of 19-32 to take part in an online survey measuring depressive symptoms with the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) and problematic social media use (PSMU) with Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale to encompass broader SMU.

After they measured each one individually and tested the association between the two, they found a significant association with an increased social media use (SMU) and increased depressive symptoms (Bowman, 2017). These findings suggest that it's not how much time that poses a risk, rather how people use it can increase depression.

Implications: If people who fall victim to cyberbullying continuously experience the effects of threat, then their symptoms of depression will increase. Victims of cyberbullying may experience great sleep problems and health problems given increased interactions with cyberbullies.

Theory:Findings might be explained by the Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen&Fishbein, 1975), which states that people's behavioral intent is based off of the approval or disapproval of others. This then leads to people basing their behavioral intentions on the outcomes of other individuals' expectations. Cyberbullying would be a form of peer disapproval, and therefore would have a direct influence on behavior.

Participants:

Those conducting the research are five students from a four-year public university in the South West enrolled in a psychology research course. Our guidelines are that the participants of the survey must be between the ages of 18 and 25, and must currently be attending a four-year university.

Any outliers of this bracket are able to complete the survey, but will be disqualified from our analyses. We will distribute the online survey pertaining to cyberbullying in college students and problems related to it via personal texts, emails, and/or social media with the goal of attaining at least 15 responses per person, with a total sample of approximately 60 participants.

Recruitment plan: We will recruit participants by using a convenience, volunteer sample. We will distribute an online survey pertaining to cyberbullying in college students and problems related to it via personal texts, emails, and/or social media with the goal of attaining at least 15 responses per person, with a total sample of approximately 60 participants.

Independent variable: Our independent variable will be the extent to which a participant is cyberbullied. This will be measured from scores which will be based off of a recognized scale of measurement for cyberbullying, known as the Cyberbullying Experiences Survey (CES).

Dependent variable: Our dependent variable will be the participants' level of depression, based off of a recognized scale of measurement for depression, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).

Procedure: We plan to distribute an online anonymous survey pertaining to cyberbullying and its relationship with depression on college students via personal texts, emails, and/or social media. Firstly, the survey will relay a brief consent form, letting anyone know that they are not required to start or complete the survey, and that they must be at least 18 years old to participate.

Then, we will request the participant's year of birth, gender, ethnicity, and ask to confirm that they are currently enrolled in a 4-year university.

The majority of the survey will consist of all the questions included in both the CES and the PHQ-9, divided into two separate sections. We will then analyze this data and see whether there is a significant relationship between these two variables, based on the results.