Evaluation of cybersecurity awareness among high school students in Turkey before and after training

Abstract

The rapid expansion of digital technologies has increased young users’ exposure to online threats and has made the need for effective cybersecurity education at the secondary school level more apparent. This study examines cybersecurity awareness among high school students and evaluates a structured training program implemented in four different types of high schools in the Darica district of Turkey. Data were collected with a five-point Likert-type survey before and after the training. The 601 students who were present in both measurements formed the dataset used for the pre-post analysis. The awareness scale was examined through principal component analysis which yielded a five-dimensional structure with acceptable overall internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.86). Individual-level change was analyzed with paired-samples t-tests and Cohen’s d. Differences by school, grade and gender were tested with analysis of variance and independent-samples t-tests. Finally, students’ ability to distinguish genuine from fraudulent website screenshots was examined with McNemar tests. Before the training, male students and students in academically selective and technically oriented schools showed higher awareness on several dimensions. After the training scores for action-oriented protective behaviors rose, while self-reported scores on the conceptual-knowledge dimensions declined. One possible interpretation is that students formed a more realistic view of their own knowledge rather than losing it, though this was not tested directly. Recognition of several fraudulent pages improved, for example from 50.4% to 63.9% on one item, although accuracy on the genuine pages did not increase. On some dimensions differences between schools and between genders were smaller after the training, while on others they persisted. Since the study compared matched participants without a control group these results are interpreted as changes associated with the training rather than as definitive proof of cause. Overall, the findings indicate that standardized, school-wide cybersecurity training was associated with changes in students’ protective behavior and in their recognition of several fraudulent pages and they support integrating such programs into secondary education. Clinical trial number : Not applicable.