In the population of university students, previous research has consistently shown that cyber victimization is negatively related to the victim's self-esteem (Butt, 2019, Prihadi, 2019). (Butt, 2019) conducted a study to investigate the impact of cyberbullying on young people's self-esteem and interpersonal trust. Based on the findings, the results indicated that cyber victimization is significant in predicting low self-esteem among young adults. Meanwhile, the finding by Prihadi (2019) also suggested that perceived cyber-victimization negatively impacts the state of self-esteem, and positively leads to perceived depression
Overall, the findings from previous studies support the statement that cyber victimization is a significant predictor of low self-esteem. Recent research on cyberbullying not only found that cyber victims have lower self-esteem than non-victims, but the cyber-bullies also found that suffer from low self-esteem (Kowalski & Limber, 2013; Patchin and Hinduja 2010, Aliyev).
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In a study by Kowalski and Limber (2013) targeting sixth- to twelfth-grade students, the study found that students who were highly involved in cyberbullying tended to show lower self-esteem. This finding is consistent with the research by Patchin and Hinduja (2010), who found that cyber-bullies have lower self-esteem than those who do not participate in cyberbullying. Aliyev (2019) also found that the tendency of cyberbullying is significantly negatively associated with self-esteem, that is, when cyberbullying behavior increases, self-esteem decreases. In addition, the results of the study also show that female students have lower self-esteem than male students (Aliyev, 2019).
Among the population of university students, previous research has also shown that cyber perpetration is associated with the low self-esteem of cyber-bullies (Varghese, 2017; Butt, 2019). According to an online survey on the impact of cyberbullying on self-esteem, loneliness, depression, and attachment among university students, cyber-bullies were found that compared with non-bullies, they reported lower self-esteem and higher maternal attachment anxiety (Varghese, 2017). Moreover, Butt’s (2019) research also found that participating in cyber perpetration is observed to linked to low self-esteem among university students, and males also more likely to be involved in cyber perpetration than females. This study also found that there was a significant positive relationship between cyber perpetration and cyber victimization (Butt, 2019).
In summary, most of the results indicate that cyberbullies have low self-esteem. These results contrast with the assumption that cyber-bullies are more likely to obtain satisfaction and superiority from their aggressive behavior because the anonymity of cyberspace protects their Identity, so they tend to show higher self-esteem (Pulfey, 2013). There's a possible reason on explaining why cyber-bullies have low self-esteem. According to the literature reviewed by (Butt, 2019), there was a cyclic relationship between the cyber-bullies and cyber-victims, which is cyber-bullies also tend to be cyber-victims. The internet platform is not anonymous as the perpetrators could be detected by victims. In most cases, the online platform is just one of the channels for bullies to bully the victims, and they are also bullying the victims in real life (Price et al, 2010). Therefore, in turn, as the victims retaliate, cyber-bullies may become future victims, thus leading to a sense of inferiority (Butt, 2019).
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