Cyberbullying has a worse impact on its young teenage victims than ‘traditional’ bullying in person
Cyberbullying has a greater impact on young teen victims than “traditional” bullying in person, a new study has revealed.
Researchers from the US and Israel analyzed data collected between July 2018 and January 2021 from more than 10,000 US children ages 10 to 13 for the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.
They found that victims of online bullying in early adolescence are more likely to report suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts than those who have experienced offline bullying.
“At a time when young adolescents are spending more time online than ever before, this study underscores the negative impact virtual space bullying can have on their targets,” said senior author Dr. Ran Barzilay, an assistant professor at the Lifespan Brain. Institute. (LiBI) of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Cyberbullying has greater impact on young teen victims than ‘traditional’ bullying in person, new study has revealed
Graphs show the association between being a target of cyberbullying and suicidality in youth who are the target or perpetrator of high levels of offline peer aggression
The suicide rate among children is steadily increasing and in 2018 it became the second leading cause of death of people between the ages of 10 and 24 in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The factors that contribute to suicidality in children and adolescents are not fully understood, but research has shown that environmental stressors play a role.
Traditional bullying and peer victimization are known risk factors for youth suicide.
One of the surprising findings of the study by LiBI and the University of Pennsylvania, published in JAMA Network Open magazinewas that online bullying is a separate phenomenon, separate from offline experiences with bullying.
In modern times, and especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant amount of peer interaction, including bullying, takes place online, through texting or social media platforms.
However, prior to this study, it was not clear whether being a victim of cyberbullying was an independent risk factor for suicidality.
In modern times, and especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant amount of peer interaction, including bullying, takes place online, via text message or social media platforms.
The ABCD study defines cyberbullying as “deliberately attempting to harm or be mean to another person online, in texts or group texts, or on social media (such as Instagram or Snapchat).”
Offline bullying, meanwhile, is divided into three categories: overt aggression, such as threatening or hitting, relational aggression, such as not inviting or excluding someone, and reputational aggression, such as spreading rumors or gossip.
Of the children who participated in the survey, 7.6 percent responded that they had suicidal thoughts or actions, 8.9 percent reported being the target of cyberbullying, and 0.9 percent reported cyberbullying others.
The team found that being a cyberbullying target was associated with suicidality, while being a cyberbullying perpetrator was not.
That finding was different from traditional offline bullying, where being a target or perpetrator of bullying is linked to suicidality.
However, the report states that the association between experiencing cyberbullying and suicidality in early adolescence “was significantly above other risk factors for suicidality, including offline peer aggression or perpetration.”
This remained the case when demographics, environmental factors and psychopathology were taken into account.
Of the children who participated in the survey, 7.6 percent responded that they had suicidal thoughts or actions, 8.9 percent reported being the target of cyberbullying, and 0.9 percent reported having bullied others
The researchers also found that being bullied online only partially overlaps with being bullied offline.
This suggests that the young people affected by cyberbullying are different from those affected by offline bullying.
Screening for cyberbullying experiences can therefore help detect youth at risk of suicide that are not detected when screening for offline aggression experiences of peers
“Given these results, it may be prudent for primary care providers to routinely screen for cyberbullying, in the same way they might screen for other suicide risk factors such as depression,” says Dr Ran Barzilay.
“Educators and parents also need to be aware of the significant stress cyberbullying places on young adolescents.”
With the rise of cyberbullying as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the team warns that more research needs to be done to fully understand the effects of the phenomenon.
If you are struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, call The Samaritans 24/7 Helpline on 116 123 for help and support†