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