Cyberbullying and traditional bullying among Nordic adolescents and their impact on life satisfaction

Abstract

<jats:p> Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of cybervictimization in the six Nordic countries and to assess its overlap with traditional bullying. A further aim was to examine potential associations between life satisfaction, on the one hand, and traditional bullying and cyberbullying on the other. Methods: Analyses were based on data from the 2013⁄2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. It included 32,210 boys and girls, aged 11, 13, and 15, living in the six Nordic countries. Results: The prevalence of cyberbullying by both pictures and by messages was around 2% in all the Nordic countries except Greenland. There it was considerably higher. The prevalence of being bullied in a traditional manner varied widely by country. For boys, this type of bullying was most frequent in the youngest age group and then decreased steadily in the older age groups. Girls were on average more likely to be cyberbullied. Cyberbullying was more common among 13- and 15-year-olds than 11-year-olds. Higher family affluence was unrelated to the risk of cyberbullying. However, it was related to traditional bullying and combined forms of bullying. Compared with intact families, cybervictimization was commoner among single-parent families and stepfamilies. Adjusting for age, gender, family affluence, and family structure, those subjected to cyberbullying had lower life satisfaction than those who were not bullied. Conclusions: We found relatively little overlap between cyberbullying and traditional bullying, indicating that the two may be separate phenomena stemming from different mechanisms, at least in the Nordic context. </jats:p>

Help-seeking behavior in Norwegian adolescents: the role of bullying and cyberbullying victimization in a cross-sectional study

“…Smith et al (26) found that traditional bully victims were more likely to seek help than cyberbully victims, and Dooley et al (27) found that being a cyberbully victim was not related to help-seeking in two samples of adolescents. A cross-national study among adolescents aged 11, 13, and 15 years from the Nordic countries (N = 32,210) showed that being exposed to cyberbullying was linked to lower life satisfaction (28). Cyberbully victimization has also been found to be related to worse mental health outcomes for adolescents generally, but especially for girls (18,29), indicating the need for victims to receive help.…”

Cyberbullying status and mental health in Norwegian adolescents

“…Smith, Mahdavi, Carvalho, Fisher, Russell and Tippett (2008, p. 376) defines cyberbullying as “An aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself.” Prevalence rates of cyberbullying vary a lot from for example 4.8% to 73.5% with a median of 23.0% as found in a review by Hamm, Newton, Chisholm, Shulhan, Milne, Sundar and Hartling (2015). Arnarsson, Nygren, Nyholm, Torsheim, Augustine, Bjereld and Bendtsen (2019) found even lower prevalence rates, which may partly be explained by the use of different measures to assess cyberbullying. The prevalence of being cyberbullied, bullied in a traditional manner, or both was 1.6%, 2.7%, and 1.6%, respectively, for 15‐year‐old Norwegian boys and 2.6%, 3.1%, and 1.9% for 15‐year‐old Norwegian girls (Arnarsson et al ., 2019).…”

“…Arnarsson, Nygren, Nyholm, Torsheim, Augustine, Bjereld and Bendtsen (2019) found even lower prevalence rates, which may partly be explained by the use of different measures to assess cyberbullying. The prevalence of being cyberbullied, bullied in a traditional manner, or both was 1.6%, 2.7%, and 1.6%, respectively, for 15‐year‐old Norwegian boys and 2.6%, 3.1%, and 1.9% for 15‐year‐old Norwegian girls (Arnarsson et al ., 2019). These rates indicate that the overlap between traditional bullying and cyberbullying is relatively low in Norway (Arnarsson et al ., 2019).…”

“…However, both traditional‐ and cyber victimization were related to emotional problems. Other studies found that being cyberbullied only or in combination with traditional bullying seems to have an additional negative effect on the mental health of adolescents (Arnarsson et al ., 2019; Campbell, Spears, Slee, Butler & Kift, 2012; Wolke, Lee & Guy, 2017). While Wolke et al .…”

Bullied Adolescent’s Life Satisfaction: Personal Competencies and School Climate as Protective Factors

“…The study of bullying in relation to perceived life satisfaction has only recently begun to be addressed. Available results show that bullying tends to have a negative impact on subjective adolescent well-being: lower levels of life satisfaction tends to be observed in adolescents who have suffered cyberbullying as opposed to those who have not been bullied (Arnarsson et al, 2019), as well as lower average levels of well-being in preadolescent bullying victims, with victimization being the variable posing the greatest negative impact to well-being (Alcántara et al, 2019). Similarly, Savahl et al (2018) show the negative relationship between subjective well-being and bullying in preadolescents from different countries.…”