Bullying among teenagers still happens more often face-to-face than on-line, according to an analysis published today.
Somewhere between 25% and 40% of mental health problems among adolescents – such as depression and self-harm – might be caused by bullying, warn Dr Andrew Przybylski of Oxford University, UK, and colleagues.
But most of this takes place in person rather than on-line, they report.
They explain in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health today (11 July) that: "Much debate remains over whether cyberbullying might be more or less strongly associated with harmful outcomes than traditional bullying."
The researchers looked at figures from a nationally representative cross-sectional study of 120,115 school pupils aged 15 years. Well-being was defined as life satisfaction, fulfilling social relationships, purpose in life, and a subjective sense of flourishing.
This showed that 36% of girls and 24% of boys had been regularly bullied in the past two months. Of the total participants, 31% of girls and 24% of boys reported face-to-face bullying only. Less than 1% of both boys and girls reported cyber-bullying only, and 5% of girls and 2% of boys reported both forms of bullying.
Overall, cyber-bullying had a much weaker relationship with mental wellbeing than face-to-face bullying.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard of the Royal College of GPs commented: "What is most alarming about these results is not the different forms that bullying takes, but the huge amounts of bullying that does go on, and the large numbers of people affected.
"Given the health implications, GPs and our teams will be the first port of call for some of these people who have been more severely impacted, and it is clear we need a society-wide approach to tackle this."
Przybylski, A. et al. Cyberbullying and adolescent well-being in England: a population-based cross-sectional study. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health 11 July 2017; doi: 10.1016/S2352-4642(17)30011-1 [abstract]
Leave a Reply