Department of Survey Research and Data Analytics, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400088, India.
Department of Family & Generations, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400088, India.
BMC Psychiatry. 2022 Sep 9;22(1):599. doi: 10.1186/s12888-022-04238-x.
Cyberbullying victimisation is considered a global public health issue concerning the psychological development of adolescents that oftentimes persists into adulthood. The current study explored the longitudinal relationship between cyberbullying victimisation and depression and suicidal ideation among adolescents and young adults, given the scarcity of such studies in poor-resource settings like India.
Data were drawn from the "Understanding the Lives of Adolescents and Young Adults" (UDAYA- 2015-16 and 2018-19) surveys conducted in two most-populated Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Bivariate and logistic regression analysis was conducted to fulfil the objectives of the study using a sample of 4428 and 11,864 adolescent (aged 10-19 years) male and female cohorts, respectively.
The prevalence of cyberbullying victimization increased from 3.8% to 6.4% among female respondents and 1.9% to 5.6% among male respondents over three years. About 33% of females and 16.6% of males had depressive symptoms in their young adulthood. Nearly 7.5% females compared to 2.3% of males, reported that they have seriously considered attempting suicide in the past one year. Adolscents who experienced cyberbullying victimization were 2.07 times more likely to have depressive symptoms comapared to those who did not experience cyberbullying victimization. Similarly, adolescents who experienced cyberbullying victimization were 2.50 times more likely to have suicidal ideation than their counterparts with no experience of cyberbullying victimization.
The findings suggest that cyberbullying victims are at higher risk of depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts and these adverse effects persist for longer period. Therefore, cyberbullying and related mental health problems need to be addressed with more efficient strategies such as increased awareness of nuances of online harassments among adolescent and young adult population.
网络欺凌受害被认为是一个全球性的公共卫生问题，涉及青少年的心理发展，而且这种情况常常会持续到成年期。鉴于在印度等资源匮乏的环境中此类研究甚少，本研究探讨了网络欺凌受害与青少年和年轻成年人抑郁和自杀意念之间的纵向关系。
本研究的数据来自于在印度人口最多的两个邦北方邦和比哈尔邦进行的“了解青少年和年轻成年人的生活”（UDAYA-2015-16 和 2018-19）调查。使用分别包含 4428 名和 11864 名 10-19 岁男女性青少年队列的样本，进行了双变量和逻辑回归分析，以实现研究目标。
在三年期间，女性受访者的网络欺凌受害率从 3.8%上升至 6.4%，男性受访者的网络欺凌受害率从 1.9%上升至 5.6%。约 33%的女性和 16.6%的男性在年轻成年期出现抑郁症状。与男性相比，近 7.5%的女性在过去一年中曾认真考虑过自杀。与未经历网络欺凌受害的青少年相比，经历过网络欺凌受害的青少年出现抑郁症状的可能性高 2.07 倍。同样，经历过网络欺凌受害的青少年出现自杀意念的可能性是没有经历过网络欺凌受害的青少年的 2.50 倍。
研究结果表明，网络欺凌受害者面临更高的抑郁症状和自杀意念风险，而且这些不良影响会持续更长时间。因此，需要采取更有效的策略来解决网络欺凌问题及其相关心理健康问题，例如提高青少年和年轻成年人对网络骚扰细微差别的认识。
