Teenagers who are bullied online suffer from higher levels of depression than those are involved in traditional kinds of bullying, according to a new article in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Traditional bullying involves physical or verbal taunting, teasing, or torment, or relational bullying, which is the exclusion of a person from a group. Cyberbullying is tormenting someone via computer or cell phone, such as by broadcasting lewd pictures of the person, repeating or creating harmful gossip, and so forth.
- Previous research has shown that traditional bullies and their victims have higher than average levels of depression.
- This new study found that cyberbullying is the hardest for victims.
- Dr. Jing Wang and his colleagues at the National Institute of Health analyzed data on 7313 students in grades six to ten who took part in the Health Behavior in School Aged Children 2005 Survey.
- The percentage of children involved in physical, verbal, relational, and cyberbullying was 21%, 54%, 52%, and 14% , respectively.
- Victims of cyberbullying had the highest levels of depression among the four groups, although all groups suffered higher than average levels of depression.
"Notably, cyber victims reported higher depression than bullies or bully-victims, which was not found in any other form of bullying," said Dr. Wang. "This may be explained by some distinct characteristics of cyberbullying. For example, unlike traditional victims, cyber victims may experience an anonymous attacker who instantly disperses fabricated photos throughout a large social network; as such, cyber victims may be more likely to feel isolated, dehumanized or helpless at the time of the attack."
Labels: depression, bullying, cyberbullying
Posted By: Jane St. Clair