Bullying Perpetration and Victimization: A Test of Traditional and Cyber-Behaviors as Latent Constructs

The current investigation hypothesized and tested latent bully/victim traits for physical, verbal, or relational bullying/victimization, both cyber and traditional behaviors. Data were collected from 1,356 German students who attended Grades 5 to 10: 48.4% males, 49.3% females from eight different schools in Northern Germany. Based on two samples for cross-validation (N_{training set} = 525, N_{validation set} = 525), study findings provided strong evidence of adequate model fit, both for traditional and cyber behaviors. Consistent with the current state of knowledge, bullying and victimization latent traits highly associated, more so for cyber behaviors than traditional ones. Thus, both the theoretical plausibility as well as statistical evidence support the application of latent modeling to these behaviors. Further research is needed to replicate the applied measurement models proposed in this work and to reveal moderators or measurement invariance across diverse populations. Nevertheless, the current evidence substantiates the importance of the application of a latent modeling approach to overcome known psychometric challenges of reliability and validity in bullying research.

Associations between self-injury and involvement in cyberbullying among mentally distressed adolescents in Scania, Sweden

AIMS

To investigate associations between self-injury and involvement in cyberbullying as a bully, victim or bully-victim among mentally distressed adolescents.

METHODS

Data from the public health survey of children and adolescents in Scania, Sweden 2016 were used. A questionnaire was answered anonymously in school by 9143 students in 9th grade compulsory school (response rate 77%) and 7949 students in 2nd grade of upper secondary school (response rate 73%). Students with past year (broadly defined) mental distress at least 2 weeks in a row (33% of boys and 63% of girls) were asked if they had performed self-injury (i.e. cut, superficially cut or otherwise injured themselves) past year, and those with data on self-injury and cyberbullying were included in the present study ( n=6841). Associations between self-injury and cyberbullying were investigated by multiadjusted logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

Among mentally distressed students, self-injury was reported by 11.7% of boys and 25.9% of girls. Age-adjusted analysis showed increasingly higher odds of self-injury among cyberbullies, cybervictims and cyberbully-victims, using non-involved as reference group (OR boys: 1.8, 2.3, 3.0; girls: 2.1, 3.2, 4.8). Associations weakened after adjustment for several potential confounders but remained significant for all cyberbullying groups except male cyberbullies, among whom significance was lost after adjustment for smoking, alcohol and narcotics.

CONCLUSIONS

Peer victimization in cyber space is associated with self-injury, especially among victims and bully-victims. Decreasing peer victimization is a priority, and school and health professionals need to be aware of the associations between cyberbullying and self-injury among mentally distressed adolescents.