GROUP COUNSELING USING A BEHAVIORISTIC APPROACH TO REDUCE CYBERBULLYING IN GRADE IX C STUDENTS AT SMPN 3 TALANG IN THE 2025/2026 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

Cyberbullying is aggressive behavior in the form of oppression, bullying, harassment, or humiliation directed at a victim through digital media with the intent to intimidate, hurt, humiliate, take revenge, or dominate the victim. This study aims to identify the level of cyberbullying before and after the provision of group counseling services using a behavioral approach, as well as to determine whether these services can reduce cyberbullying among high-risk students in Class IX C at SMPN 3 Talang. The study employed a quantitative descriptive method with a one-group pretest-posttest pre-experimental design.  The population consisted of 30 ninth-grade students in Class IX C at SMPN 3 Talang. Sampling was conducted using purposive sampling, targeting 5 students in the high cyberbullying category. The results of the paired-samples t-test showed that the post-test mean score was lower at 33.20000 (indicating a decrease in cyberbullying) compared to the pre-test, yielding a t-value of 13.738. This value was then compared to the t-table using (df) = N – 1 = 5 – 1 = 4. Significance (two-tailed) = 0.000 < 0.05, meaning: Since the p-value = 0.000 < 0.05, the null hypothesis (H₀) is rejected and the alternative hypothesis (Hₐ) is accepted. This indicates a statistically statistically significant disparity between the baseline and follow-up conditions of the study, demonstrating that the intervention was statistically proven to reduce cyberbullying.