Cyberbullying in teenagers – a true burden in the era of online socialization

Abstract

Cyberbullying represents a major concern worldwide, especially among teenagers with major negative psychological impact. We performed a prospective online questionnaire-based study on 316 teenagers in order to assess the prevalence of cyberbullying in Romania, evaluate its psychosocial consequences, and examine the factors that may predispose them to bullying. Almost 50% of the responders stated that they have been previously bullied, with females having a higher risk of being harassed (P = .0043). Most of the victims were bullied on Facebook, Instagram, and video games. More than 53% of the victims included in our study benefit from help. We found that subjects who have been cyberbullied had a significantly higher risk of having bullied friends (P < .0001). Also, we identified a significant association between the teenagers' relationship with the parents and the incidence of bullying (P = .002). Domestic violence and the male gender were significant risk factors for committing cyberbullying (P = .0014/0.0020). Cyberbullying had a negative impact also on the harasser, and previous victims of cyberbullying had a significantly higher risk of becoming bullied (P < .0001). Also, we found a significant association between the type of substance and the perpetration of aggression (P < .0001). Further studies should focus on designing effective strategies in order to decrease the incidence of this harmful online act of bullying.

Prebiotics, Probiotics, and Synbiotics—A Research Hotspot for Pediatric Obesity

“…Childhood obesity, a real pandemic, represents, in fact, a major public health problem worldwide, with an increasing trend in prevalence during the last decades, especially in developed countries [1][2][3][4][5]. Due to its associated short-and long-term complications, it carries an important burden not only for health services, but also for society, since it is associated with both psychosocial problems like bullying, resulting in school absences and consequent poor school results, and organic conditions such as metabolic syndrome with insulin resistance, cardiovascular disorders, hypertension, dyslipidemia, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, obstructive sleep apnea, and even neoplasia [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. According to the most recent reports of the World Health Organization (2020), 39 million children under the age of 5 years suffer from either overweight or obesity, with an impressive increase between 5 and 19 years, reaching up to 340 million cases [15].…”