Journal of Depression and Anxiety
Open Access

Abstract

The Relationship between Social Media Bullying and the Adolescent's Self Report of Emotional Health: A Study of Urban Youth on an Acute Inpatient Psychiatric Unit

Arunditi Xantus, Samantha B. Saltz and Jon A. Shaw

Background: Bullying through social media, known as cyberbullying, is increasingly prevalent amongst today's youth. There is little research on a wide range of internalizing symptoms in conjunction with a measure of selfconcept in relationship to cyberbullying. Methods: This prospective research study examined the cross-sectional relationship between cyberbullying victims in children and adolescents 10-17 years of age within an acute inpatient psychiatric unit. Participants completed four separate measurements of anxiety and depression (the Modified Cyberbullying Questionnaire, the Children's Depression Inventory, the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED), and the Piers-Harris Children's Self Concept Scale). Results: 51 subjects completed the study. Twenty-four of the 51 participants reported some form of bullying (47.1%.) Of the 24 bullied participants, bullying via Facebook was most commonly reported (63% of bullied participants), followed by text messaging (50% of bullied participants). The mean total score on the Children's Depressive Inventory for the group in which social media bullying was reported was significantly higher than those in which no bullying was reported (14.00 (±3.56) versus 9.07 (±2.34), (p=0.020)). The mean total score on the SCARED for the group in which social media bullying was reported was statistically significant (26.83 (±6.52) versus 14.33 (±3.98), (p=0.0015)). The mean total T-score on the Piers-Harris Children's Self Concept Scale (2nd ed) for the group in which social media bullying was reported was significant (42.75 (±5.20) versus 49.26 (±3.97), (p=0.043)). The Behavioral Adjustment domain was the only individual domain in which statistical significance was not achieved (bullied versus nonbullied (43.18 ± 4.21 vs. 44.41 ± 3.49), p=0.61)). Discussion: Results indicated significant differences between mean total depression scores, mean total anxiety scores, and mean total T-score for the self-concept scale. These findings indicate an association between depression, anxiety, and self-esteem/self-concept and the presence of cyberbullying.