Veronese Guido, Mansour Shahd, Mahamid Fayez, Bdier Dana
University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine.
Discov Ment Health. 2024 Oct 28;4(1):48. doi: 10.1007/s44192-024-00100-6.
Studies have shown that COVID-19 negatively impacted mental health by increasing depression and anxiety. Additionally, bullying might deteriorate children's psychological functioning. Nevertheless, social support has been studied as a positive buffer for mental well-being.
Thus, our study aimed to examine the consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak on children's mental health when they are a victim of bullying and cyberbullying. Moreover, we tested the effect of social support as a mediating variable. A sample of 141 children (63 boys and 78 girls) 9 to 13 years old (M = 10.31, SD = 2.26) who reported having experienced bullying participated in the research. All were Palestinians living in Israel, attending primary schools.
Data was collected using the following measures, the Multidimensional Bullying Victimization Scale (MBVS), the Adolescents Cyber-Victimization Scale (CYBVICS), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), a questionnaire measuring the effect of COVID-19 on mental health outcomes, the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS), and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). Structural equation modelling was applied to test the association between variables and mediating effects.
A positive correlation between Fear of COVID-19 and traditional bullying, cyberbullying, depression, and anxiety were found. Moreover, social support was negatively correlated with traditional forms of bullying and cyberbullying. Also, statistically significant differences between traditional bullying, cyberbullying, depression, and parents' difficulties emerged from parental marital status.
findings might help victims of bullying by training teachers and guiding parents to construct intervention plans to empower the social networks of children victims.
研究表明，新冠疫情通过增加抑郁和焦虑对心理健康产生了负面影响。此外，欺凌行为可能会使儿童的心理功能恶化。然而，社会支持已被视为心理健康的积极缓冲因素。
因此，我们的研究旨在探讨新冠疫情爆发对遭受欺凌和网络欺凌的儿童心理健康的影响。此外，我们还测试了社会支持作为中介变量的作用。141名9至13岁（平均年龄M = 10.31，标准差SD = 2.26）报告曾遭受欺凌的儿童（63名男孩和78名女孩）参与了该研究。他们均为居住在以色列的巴勒斯坦人，就读于小学。
使用以下量表收集数据：多维欺凌受害量表（MBVS）、青少年网络受害量表（CYBVICS）、优势与困难问卷（SDQ）、一份测量新冠疫情对心理健康影响的问卷、修订版儿童焦虑与抑郁量表（RCADS）以及多维感知社会支持量表（MSPSS）。应用结构方程模型来检验变量之间的关联和中介效应。
发现对新冠疫情的恐惧与传统欺凌、网络欺凌、抑郁和焦虑之间存在正相关。此外，社会支持与传统形式的欺凌和网络欺凌呈负相关。而且，父母的婚姻状况导致传统欺凌、网络欺凌、抑郁和父母的困难之间存在统计学上的显著差异。
研究结果可能有助于通过培训教师和指导家长制定干预计划来增强儿童受害者的社交网络，从而帮助欺凌受害者。
