Teens who think their parents are loving are less likely to be cyberbullies
September 2, 2020
Science Daily/New York University
Adolescents who perceive their parents to be loving and supportive are less likely to engage in cyberbullying, according to a new study by researchers at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing.
The findings, published in the International Journal of Bullying Prevention, are especially relevant given changes in family life created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"With remote learning replacing classroom instruction for many young people, and cell phones and social media standing in for face-to-face interaction with friends, there are more opportunities for cyberbullying to occur," said Laura Grunin, a doctoral student at NYU Meyers and the study's lead author. "New family dynamics and home stressors are also at play, thanks to higher unemployment rates and more parents working from home."
More than half of U.S. teens report having experience with cyberbullying, or online behavior that may involve harassment, insults, threats, or spreading rumors.
"Understanding what factors are related to a young person's cyberbullying of peers is important for developing ways that families, schools, and communities can prevent bullying or intervene when it occurs," said Sally S. Cohen, clinical professor at NYU Meyers and the study's senior author.
Gary Yu, associate research scientist and adjunct associate professor at NYU Meyers, coauthored the study with Grunin and Cohen.
Using data from the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Behavior in School-Aged Children survey, the researchers analyzed responses from 12,642 U.S. pre-teens and teens (ages 11 to 15 years old) surveyed in 2009-2010, the most recent WHO data on school-aged children collected in the United States. The adolescents were asked about their bullying behaviors, as well their perceptions of certain family characteristics, including their relationship with their parents.
The researchers found that the more adolescents perceived their parents as loving, the less likely they were to engage in cyberbullying. When asked if their parents are loving, youth who said "almost never" were over six times more likely to engage in high levels of cyberbullying than those who answered that their parent is "almost always" loving. Other types of emotional support, including how much teens feel their parents help and understand them, also contributed to the likelihood of whether young people engaged in cyberbullying behavior.
"Our findings point to the importance of parental emotional support as a factor that may influence whether teens cyberbully -- and more importantly, it is how teens perceive the support they receive from their parents," said Grunin. "I would stress to parents it is not necessarily if they think they are being supportive, but what their adolescent thinks. Parents should strive to discern their teen's perception of parental emotional support as it might be associated with youth cyberbullying behavior."
Certain demographic factors were also related to teens' likelihood of cyberbullying. Girls were much less likely than boys to exhibit high levels of cyberbullying. Race also played a role: Asian American adolescents were the least likely to be cyberbullies, while African American teens were less likely than white teens to engage in lower levels of cyberbullying and more likely to engage in higher levels.
Cohen added, "Since 2010, when the survey was conducted, technology and social media have become increasingly ubiquitous in teens' lives; the increase in screen time during the current pandemic poses new challenges. Online access and anonymity in posts create widespread opportunities for cyberbullying."
The researchers note that educators, health professionals, social media experts, and others working in youth development should take family dynamics into account when creating programs to address cyberbullying.
"While our study doesn't prove that a lack of parental support directly causes cyberbullying, it does suggest that children's relationships with their parents might influence their bullying behaviors. These relationships should be considered when developing interventions to prevent cyberbullying," said Grunin.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200902101822.htm
Cyberbullying linked to post traumatic stress for victims and perpetrators
Children should be screened for symptoms, suggest researchers
June 23, 2020
Science Daily/BMJ
Cyberbullying -- bullying online rather than face to face -- is linked to various types of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, both for victims and perpetrators, suggests the first study of its kind, published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Their findings prompt the researchers to suggest that asking about cyberbullying should become a routine part of any children's mental health or psychological assessment.
The prevalence of cyberbullying among teens is thought to be between 10% and 40% and to pose specific risks because it can be done day and night, in various contexts, is rapid, anonymous, and reaches a wide audience, say the researchers.
It has been suggested that there may be some overlap between traditional bullying and cyberbullying.
To explore this further, and find out what the mental health impact of cyberbullying might be, the researchers questioned 2218 pupils aged between 11 and 19 from four secondary schools in London about their experiences of bullying.
They used The Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire to find out what type of bullying the teens had been involved with, how often this had happened, and for how long it had lasted.
And they screened for PTSD symptoms using the Children Revised Impact of Events Scale (CRIES), which has two dimensions: intrusive thoughts and avoidance behaviours.
Just over half the teens were girls (55%). Around a third (34%) were of white ethnicity; two thirds were of black, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds. Most of the children (80%) had been born in the UK.
The survey responses showed that nearly half (46%) of all the pupils reported a history of any type of bullying: 17% as victims; 12% as perpetrators; and 4% as both.
But involvement in traditional bullying (1 in 3 of the teens) was more common than involvement in cyberbullying (1 in 4).
Some 13% of the teens had been cyberbullied; 8.5% had bullied others online; and 4% had been both victim and perpetrator. Some 16% of the teens had been bullied in person; 12% had bullied others in person; and 6.5% had been both victim and perpetrator.
There was some overlap between both types of bullying, although pure cyberbullies were less likely to also be traditional bullies.
Half of those involved in a specific role in cyberbullying were also involved in the same role in traditional bullying: 52% of cyber victims were also traditional victims; 45.5% of cyber victims were also traditional bully victims; and 48% of the cyberbullies were also traditional bullies.
Around 72% (1516) of the teens completed the CRIES assessment. More than a third of cyber victims (35%), more than one in four (29%) of the cyberbullies, and a similar proportion (28%) of those who were both, scored above the threshold for clinically significant PTSD symptoms.
Further analysis indicated that cyber victims displayed significantly more PTSD symptoms than did cyberbullies, and they experienced more intrusive thoughts and avoidance behaviours.
Cyberbullies also had significantly more PTSD symptoms than teens who weren't involved in any form of bullying.
This is an observational study, so can't establish cause and effect. It also relied on subjective reports, and it didn't include a full clinical assessment of suspected PTSD symptoms.
And while the sample was representative of UK urban teens, the findings may not be applicable to other regions or countries, caution the researchers.
Nevertheless, they suggest their findings have important implications. "Parents, teachers and health professionals need to be aware of possible PTSD symptoms in young people involved in cyberbullying," they write.
And they note: "Despite cyberbullying being less frequent than traditional bullying, it is noteworthy that more than a third of the cyberbullies were not involved in traditional bullying, whereas a huge majority of the cyberbully victims were involved in traditional bullying, mainly as traditional victims or [as both victim and perpetrator].
"This suggests that the anonymity provided to perpetrators online may constitute a new platform for bullying to occur, though this finding requires further study."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200623185242.htm
Cyberbullying Linked to Increased Depression and PTSD
January 22, 2020
Science Daily/University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Cyberbullying had the impact of amplifying symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in young people who were inpatients at an adolescent psychiatric hospital, according to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. The study addressed both the prevalence and factors related to cyberbullying in adolescent inpatients.
"Even against a backdrop of emotional challenges in the kids we studied, we noted cyberbullying had an adverse impact. It's real and should be assessed," said Philip D. Harvey, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, who co-authored the paper "Cyberbullying and Its Relationship to Current Symptoms and History of Early Life Trauma."
He says children with a history of being abused were found to be more likely to be cyberbullied, suggesting that assessments for childhood trauma should also include assessments for cyberbullying. Likewise, children who report being cyberbullied should be assessed for a history of childhood trauma.
"Cyberbullying is possibly more pernicious than other forms of bullying because of its reach," Dr. Harvey says. "The bullying can be viral and persistent. To really be bullying, it has to be personal -- a directly negative comment attempting to make the person feel bad."
The study helped to confirm other facts about cyberbullying:
Being online regularly or the amount of time spent on social media weren't determining factors in who was cyberbullied.
Cyberbullying cuts across all economic classes and ethnic backgrounds.
Adolescents who have been bullied in the past had a higher risk of being bullied again.
Studying Cyberbullying's Impact on an Inpatient Psychiatric Population
The study of 50 adolescent psychiatric inpatients ages 13 to 17 examined the prevalence of cyberbullying and related it to social media usage, current levels of symptoms and histories of adverse early life experience.
Conducted from September 2016 to April 2017 at a suburban psychiatric hospital in Westchester County, New York, the study asked participants to complete two childhood trauma questionnaires and a cyberbullying questionnaire.
Twenty percent of participants reported that they had been cyberbullied within the last two months before their admission. Half of the participants were bullied by text messages and half on Facebook. Transmitted pictures or videos, Instagram, instant messages and chat rooms were other cyberbullying vehicles.
Those who had been bullied had significantly higher severity of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anger, and fantasy dissociation than those who were not bullied.
Links to Childhood Trauma
Participants who reported being cyberbullied also reported significantly higher levels of lifetime emotional abuse on the study's Childhood Trauma Questionnaire than those who were not bullied. These same young people did not report a significantly higher level of other types of trauma (physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect or physical neglect).
Further studies are needed to establish whether there may be some unique consequence of childhood emotional abuse that makes troubled teens more likely to experience or report cyberbullying.
Conclusions
While all of the participants in this study were psychiatric inpatients, those who had been bullied had significantly higher scores on PTSD, depression, anger, and dissociation scales than those who were not bullied. Dr. Harvey says this finding is consistent with past research.
Dr. Harvey encourages psychologists, psychiatrists and other counselors to routinely ask young people if they were abused or traumatized when they were younger and whether they are being bullied now.
He says adding these questions to the clinical evaluation of adolescents may bring to light symptoms that may have otherwise been ignored. Additionally, factors that may be causing or contributing to those symptoms can be targeted for specific intervention.
Parents and adolescents can take action to discourage bullying, Dr. Harvey says. "It's not hard to block someone on the Internet, whether it's texting, Facebook, Twitter, or sending pictures. Ask why are people choosing you to bully? If it's something you're posting, assess that and make a change."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200122080526.htm
Social media use by teens linked to internalizing behaviors
September 11, 2019
Science Daily/Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
A new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media are more likely to report high levels of internalizing behaviors compared to adolescents who do not use social media at all.
The study, published online September 11 in JAMA Psychiatry, examined the time adolescents reported spending on social media and two types of behaviors that can be indicators of mental health problems: internalizing and externalizing. Internalizing can involve social withdrawal, difficulty coping with anxiety or depression or directing feelings inward. Externalizing can include aggression, acting out, disobeying or other observable behaviors.
The study found the use of social media for any amount of time was associated with both a greater risk of reporting internalizing problems alone and concurrent symptoms of both internalizing and externalizing problems. The study found no significant association with social media use and externalizing problems alone. Teens who spent at least three hours on social media a day had the greatest risk for reporting internalizing problems alone.
"Many existing studies have found a link between digital or social media use and adolescent health, but few look at this association across time," says lead author Kira Riehm, MSc, a doctoral student in the Department of Mental Health at the Bloomberg School. "Our study shows that teens who report high levels of time spent on social media are more likely to report internalizing problems a year later. We cannot conclude that social media causes mental health problems, but we do think that less time on social media may be better for teens' health."
Social media use among teens is widespread. Recent polls have found that 95 percent of teens in the U.S. have access to a smartphone and close to 75 percent of teens have at least one social media account. The use of social media has both health risks and benefits. These platforms often provide ways to connect with peers and information and resources on causes important to them, but there are risks of cyberbullying and other digital aggressions.
For their study, the researchers used a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents ages 13 to 17 from the federally funded Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study (PATH) between 2013 and 2016. The study collected data over three years and the analysis involved 6,595 respondents. Each year, participants were asked how much time they spent on social media as well as questions pertaining to symptoms of internal and external mental health problems.
The study found that less than 17 percent of adolescents did not use social media. For those who did report using social media, 2,082 or 32 percent, reported spending less than 30 minutes; 2,000, or about 31 percent, reported spending 30 minutes to three hours; 817, or 12 percent, reported spending three to six hours; and 571, or 8 percent, reported spending more than six hours per day.
Researchers also found that 611 respondents, or about 9 percent, reported experiencing only internalizing problems, while 885, or 14 percent, reported experiencing externalizing problems only; 1,169, or about 18 percent, reported experiencing both internal and external problems; and 3,930, or about 59 percent, reported no/low problems. The study found no links between social media use and mental health problems and gender.
"Social media has the ability to connect adolescents who may be excluded in their daily life. We need to find a better way to balance the benefits of social media with possible negative health outcomes," says Riehm. "Setting reasonable boundaries, improving the design of social media platforms and focusing interventions on media literacy are all ways in which we can potentially find this equilibrium."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190911142733.htm