Depression worse for victims of
cyber bullying than their tormentors
Young victims of electronic or cyber bullying - which
occurs online or by cell phone - are more likely to suffer from depression than
their tormentors are, a new study finds.
Traditional bullying, the kind that occurs in the school building or face-to-face,
is different. Victims and bully-victims - those who both bully and are bullied
- are more likely to suffer from depression than are those who are bullies, but
not victims.
"The type of bullying we're looking at peaks in middle school," said
study co-author Ronald Iannotti, Ph.D., researcher at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver
National Institute of Child and Human Health Development.
Cyber bullying is a relatively new area of study. Lead author Jing Wang, Ph.D.,
said the greater depression in victims alone compared to others involved in cyber
bullying was unexpected.
Jorge Srabstein, M.D., who has no affiliation with the new study, said the
findings "really highlight the toxicity of cyber bullying." He is medical
director of the Clinic for Health Problems Related to Bullying at Children's National
Medical Center.
In traditional bullying, "somebody writes an insult on the bathroom wall
and it's confined to the environment of the school," Srabstein said. But
with cyber bullying, "in the majority of victimization, there is a wider
resonance of abuse, to all corners of the world."
"Individuals can be more isolated when bullying occurs by cell phone or
computer," Iannotti said. "The mechanism for cyber bullying is 'I'm
making fun of you; I could have made a photo of you that's not even true and it
can go to Facebook.' The audience is much greater. That can be devastating - not
knowing how many people have seen that text message or photo."
Data from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children 2005 Survey (students
in grades 6-10, N = 7,313) showed that more than half of students either had bullied
others or experienced verbal bullying, like name-calling, at least once in the
past couple of months and more than half were involved in relational bullying,
like isolation from peers. About a fifth had either engaged in or experienced
physical bullying, like hitting, and about 14 percent were involved in cyber bullying.
Depression was associated with each of the forms of bullying. Cyber victims
reported higher depression than bullies or bully-victims, a result not observed
in other forms of bullying. For physical, verbal, and relational bullies, the
frequently involved group of victims and bully-victims reported a significantly
higher level of depression than the corresponding occasionally involved group.
For cyber bullying, differences were found only between the occasional and frequent
victims.
Gender was not a factor: boys and girls equally were vulnerable.
What was not clear is which comes first: "We can't be sure whether depressed
kids have lower self-esteem and so are more easily bullied or the other way around,"
Iannotti said.
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