Original article
Longitudinal Associations Between Cyberbullying Involvement and Adolescent Mental Health

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.06.006Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

Cyberbullying differs from face-to-face bullying and may negatively influence adolescent mental health, but there is a lack of definitive research on this topic. This study examines longitudinal associations between cyberbullying involvement and adolescent mental health.

Methods

Participants were 2,480 teenagers taking part in the Olympic Regeneration in East London study. We collected information from participants when they were 12–13 years old and again 1 year later to examine links between involvement in cyberbullying and future symptoms of depression and social anxiety, and mental well-being.

Results

At baseline, 14% reported being cybervictims, 8% reported being cyberbullies, and 20% reported being cyberbully-victims in the previous year. Compared to uninvolved adolescents, cybervictims and cyberbully-victims were significantly more likely to report symptoms of depression (cybervictims: odds ratio [OR] = 1.44, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.00, 2.06]; cyberbully-victims: OR = 1.54, 95% CI [1.13, 2.09]) and social anxiety (cybervictims: OR = 1.52, 95% CI [1.11, 2.07]; cyberbully-victims: OR = 1.44, 95% CI [1.10, 1.89]) but not below average well-being (cybervictims: relative risk ratio = 1.28, 95% CI [.86, 1.91]; cyberbully-victims: relative risk ratio = 1.38, 95% CI [.95, 1.99]) at 1 year follow-up, after adjustment for confounding factors including baseline mental health.

Conclusions

This study emphasizes the high prevalence of cyberbullying and the potential of cybervictimization as a risk factor for future depressive symptoms, social anxiety symptoms, and below average well-being among adolescents. Future research should identify protective factors and possible interventions to reduce adolescent cyberbullying.

Section snippets

Study design and participants

The Olympic Regeneration in East London (ORiEL) study was designed to evaluate the impact of urban regeneration associated with the London 2012 Olympic Games on a prospective cohort of adolescents in East London [15]. Twenty-five schools participated (61.0% of those invited). No schools dropped out across the three waves. Information was available for 3,088 year 7 students (aged 11–12 years) across 25 randomly selected schools in four East London boroughs in 2012, a response rate of 86.8%.

Loss to follow-up

Females were less likely than males to be lost to follow-up (odds ratio [OR] = .77, 95% confidence interval [CI] [.65, .91]). Participants who reported their ethnicity as black Caribbean (OR = 1.59, 95% CI [1.08, 2.34]) were more likely to be lost to follow-up than white UK students, as were those who received free school meals (OR = 1.32, 95% CI [1.12, 1.57]). No other sociodemographic, social media, or mental health factors were associated with loss to follow-up.

Sociodemographic characteristics

The longitudinal sample

Discussion

Consistent with the study hypothesis, cybervictims and cyberbully-victims were significantly more likely to report depressive symptoms, social anxiety symptoms, and below average well-being at follow-up, after adjusting for covariates, than their uninvolved peers. The associations were sustained after adjusting for baseline mental health with the exception of associations with well-being. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find evidence to suggest that cyberbullies report significantly

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the support of the schools, parents, and students involved in this study. The authors also thank Daniel Lewis, Claire Thompson, Ellen Flint, the wider ORiEL research team, and the field team, including Vanathi Tharmaratnam, Danielle House, Bukola Thompson, Shaneka Foster, Lianne Austin, and Rebecca Evans. A presentation based on this paper was presented at the “A New Look At Young People's Health Conference” hosted by the Association for Young People's Health (AYPH;

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    Conflicts of Interest: The funders of the study had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report. The corresponding author had full access to the data, wrote the first draft of the paper, and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.

    Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed therein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Public Health Programme, NIHR, NHS, or the Department of Health.

    1

    Current address: National Centre for Social Research, Policy Research Centre, 35 Northampton Square, London, EC1V 0AX, United Kingdom.

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