PERSONALITY TRAITS AND CYBERBULLYING OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study determined the prevalence of cyberbullying of undergraduate students in Osun State. It also examined the relationship between personality traits and cyberbullying of students. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The study population comprised all undergraduate students in Osun State. A total of 334 participants completed the questionnaire. A 4-section instrument titled: “Questionnaire on personality traits, social media and cyberbullying of students” was used to collect data from the participants. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression statistics. The result revealed that the most predominant trait among the respondents was neuroticism with a mean score of 8.4 while the least predominant trait of the respondents was agreeableness with a mean score of 7.0. The result revealed a negative weak and significant relationship between the perpetration scores and the extraversion and neuroticism scores of the respondents (R= 0.18, p<0.05; R=0.24, p<0.05, respectively), a significantly weak and positive relationship between the perpetration scores and the agreeableness of the respondents (R= 0.383, p<0.050). The study concluded that Instagram is mostly used for bullying as perceived by publicly owned undergraduates and the level of perpetration of cyberbullying by study participants was found to be low. Also, the most predominant trait among the respondents was neuroticism followed by extraversion and the least rated trait was agreeableness.