Cyberbullying Teenagers and Adolescents

Cyberbullying Teenagers and Adolescents

Introduction

The growth and development of the Internet as a communication channel have greatly shifted the manner of its utility in the current society. Currently, adolescents and teenagers in the United States have shifted from partially using the Internet for daily communication to using it as a necessity (Casas et al., 2020). This shift has exposed both teenagers and adolescents to cyberbullying and Internet harassment. In general terms, cyberbullying is a term that refers to hurting another person through the use of social media platforms (Casas et al., 2020). Cyberbullying includes sending harassing messages through either text or the Internet, posting humiliating images of another person, threatening or humiliating an individual online, or disparaging comments on social media pages. Contrastingly, cyberbullying behaviors have been accepted and expected among teenagers and adolescents (Mindrila, 2019). Cyberbullying differs from traditional bullying because it reaches an unlimited audience, and there is hardly any supervision. This paper enumerates the impact of cyberbullying on the mental health of teenagers.

Purpose Statement

This study is focused on examining the impact of cyberbullying on teenagers’ mental health and offering recommendations on the measures that can be taken to lessen these impacts. This study will enumerate the mental effects of cyberbullying on teenagers, such as depression and anxiety, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts and self-harm, and academic problems (Johanis et al., 2020). The interventions adapted to prevent and mitigate the consequences of cyberbullying will be based on its causes and influence on teenagers.

Statement of the Problem and Research Question(s)

Research has established that teenagers form a significant percentage of social networking site users, making them vulnerable to cyberbullying. Since cyberbullying has been associated with adverse impacts on the mental health of teenagers, this issue has received maximum attention (Vismara et al., 2022). The most challenging aspect of cyberbullying is that it happens to an individual anytime, anywhere, thus making it difficult for the victims to avoid its effects completely. This serves to intensify the influence of this vice on teenagers’ mental health.

Research Questions

• What is the prevalence rate of cyberbullying among teenagers?
• What are the impacts of cyberbullying on teenagers’ mental health, such as anxiety and depression, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts and self-harm, and academic challenges?
• What techniques, like social support and coping strategies, can be applied to lessen its impacts on the mental health of teenagers?

Significance of the Study

This study is significant in various ways. For instance, this study will enhance one’s understanding of the prevalence of cyberbullying among teenagers and how it occurs. Secondly, the study will add to the already existing body of evidence relating to the impact of cyberbullying on the mental health of teenagers (Frensh et al., 2022). Thirdly, the research will also highlight the techniques that can be adopted to lessen the effect of cyberbullying on teenage health, together with guiding them to take therapy that goes a long way in helping with the healing process.

Discussion

It is significant to note that, during cyberbullying, victims often relate differently to their immediate environment. For many teenagers, life may seem hopeless and meaningless (Yang et al., 2021). Others may lose interest in previous hobbies or even reduce their time with friends and family. Nevertheless, the first impact of cyberbullying among teenagers is that it may result in depression and anxiety (Yang et al., 2021). This is because exposure of teenagers to cyberbullying is often identified as causing them to succumb to stress which often exacerbates depression. Depression among teenagers steals their feelings of happiness and contentment. Additionally, depression and anxiety among teenagers may result in increased feelings of worry and isolation (Maurya et al., 2022). Research recently revealed that about 92% of the teenagers victimized through cyberbullying reported feelings of sadness, powerlessness, and hopelessness (Maurya et al., 2022). This necessitated the erosion of the teenagers’ self-confidence and decreased feelings of self-worth in the life they are leading.

The other impact of cyberbullying on teenagers is that it causes them to develop low self-esteem. This form of victimization has been established to capitalize on things that make one feel less vulnerable (Maurya et al., 2022). For instance, a teenager who feels insecure about their birthmark is more likely to be bullied concerning this issue. Furthermore, online bullying may have a detrimental impact on the self-esteem of people. As such, teenagers may begin feeling intense dissatisfaction concerning who they are as human beings (Maurya et al., 2022). This causes teenagers to begin doubting their real worth, value, and the purpose of their lives on earth. Since teenagers have an exacerbated need to be part of a peer group, cyberbullying often exposes them to a reduced sense of well-being, psychological maladjustment, and low self-esteem (Collantes et al., 2020). This may also cause teenagers to lose interest in school. The lost interest in learning causes teenagers to report higher rates of absenteeism than non-bullied teenagers because bullying makes them feel embarrassed and humiliated and distracts them from learning (Lee & Chun, 2020).

Lastly, cyberbullying may cause teenagers to develop suicidal thoughts and self-harm. Since the mental state of teenagers is not properly developed, many may resort to self-harm as a response to the cyberbullying they have been exposed to while leading their lives (Collantes et al., 2020). The increased torment from peers through instant messaging, text messages, or social media apps may push teenagers to the end of taking away their lives (Santos et al., 2021). Therefore, these teenagers may fantasize about passing on as the most effective way to escape this torture. Despite the mental effects of cyberbullying on teenagers’ mental health, various measures can be adopted to curb these adverse consequences. As such, such teenagers should be encouraged to seek counseling as it improves their coping mechanisms (Santos et al., 2021). Other interventions that may come in handy to reduce the negative effects of cyberbullying include group counseling, role-playing, discussion, and exposing teenagers to group projects.

References

Casas, J. A., Ortega-Ruiz, R., & Monks, C. P. (2020). Cyberbullying: a changing phenomenon. In Online peer engagement in adolescence (pp. 71-84). Routledge.

Collantes, L. H., Martafian, Y., Khofifah, S. N., Fajarwati, T. K., Lassela, N. T., & Khairunnisa, M. (2020). The impact of cyberbullying on the mental health of the victims. In 2020 4th International Conference on Vocational Education and Training (ICOVET) (pp. 30-35). IEEE.

Frensh, W., Ablisar, M., & Mulyadi, M. (2022). Criminal Policy on Cyberbullying of Children in Indonesia. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 15(2).

Johanis, M. A., Bakar, A. R. A., & Ismail, F. (2020). Cyber-Bullying Trends Using Social Media Platform: An Analysis through Malaysian Perspectives. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1529, No. 2, p. 022077). IOP Publishing.

Lee, S., & Chun, J. (2020). Conceptualizing the impacts of cyberbullying victimization among Korean male adolescents. Children and Youth Services Review, p. 117, 105275.

Maurya, C., Muhammad, T., Dhillon, P., & Maurya, P. (2022). The effects of cyberbullying victimization on depression and suicidal ideation among adolescents and young adults: a three-year cohort study from India. BMC Psychiatry, 22(1), 1–14.

Mindrila, D. (2019). Bullying and cyberbullying victimization and weapon carrying: A 3-step latent class analysis with a covariate and a distal outcome. International Journal for Infonomics, 12(1), 1854-1861.

Santos, D., Mateos-Pérez, E., Cantero, M., & Gámez-Guadix, M. (2021). Cyberbullying in adolescents: Resilience as a protective factor of mental health outcomes. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(6), 414-420.

Vismara, M., Girone, N., Conti, D., Nicolini, G., & Dell’Osso, B. (2022). The current status of Cyberbullying research: A short review of the literature. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 46, 101152.

Yang, B., Wang, B., Sun, N., Xu, F., Wang, L., Chen, J., & Sun, C. (2021). The consequences of cyberbullying and traditional bullying victimization among adolescents: Gender differences in psychological symptoms, self-harm and suicidality. Psychiatry Research, 306, 114219.

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Read the FINAL draft assignment instructions below.
For your ROUGH draft assignment, please provide at least 50% (i.e. at least 3 total pages) of discussion.
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Provide at least 10 references to support your selected topic on the reference page.

Introduction: Provide an overview of your topic. Sets the stage for the remainder of your paper.

4. Purpose Statement: This is the most important statement in the proposal. It orients the reader to the central intent of the study and from it all other aspects of the research project follow. While there are a number of differing formats for purpose statements, in general, the statement should present the central controlling idea in the study, and focus on the major phenomenon under study.

5. Statement of the Problem and Research Question(s): Based on the type of study to be conducted, present here a clear statement of the problem to be investigated or the specific research question(s) which will be addressed in the study.

6. Significance of the Study: Delineate the significance of the research, what knowledge will it create, what gaps in our knowledge will it help fill, how will it advance the selected theory or theories, what new research methods will it advance, how the results may be applied to improve existing policy or procedures, etc.—as appropriate for the study.

7. Discussion: This is the ‘meat’ of your paper. This is where you describe/explain/paraphrase what you found during the course of your research. This section makes up the majority of your paper’s content.

8. References: Provide at least ten references.