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.

1. Introduction

Cyberbullying has recently become a worldwide concerning phenomenon with a high global prevalence rate. Thus, authors around the world reported a prevalence rate of cyberbullying between 10 and 42% in England, Australia, Canada, and the USA,^[1] 28.9% in China, and 11 to 26% in Europa in terms of pediatric cyberbullying and victimization.^[2,3] These trends tend to increase each year since according to a more recent study by Lessne and Yanes, in the school year 2014 to 2015, >5 million teenagers (20.8%) reported having been bullied at school.^[4] A similar prevalence, of 20.2% in the same age group was reported also by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance.^[5] In 2014, a group of experts along with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Department of Education reached a consensus regarding the definition of bullying and stated that this term represents any unwanted aggressive behavior(s) expressed by another young person or group of youths who are not related or involved in a relationship with the bullied person, involving a perceived or observed power imbalance and has a repetitive character or it is highly likely to be repeated.^[6] The same authors concluded that bullying might include physical, social, psychological, or educational harm or distress to the targeted young person.^[6] Still, multiple controversies emerged regarding the definition of cyberbullying since the experts failed in reaching a consensus regarding the most specific parameters of this phenomenon.^[7,8] According to Kowalski, the definition includes 4 components: intentional aggressive behavior, conduct repeatedly, different power between victims and perpetrators, and digital or electronic technology as the medium of bullying.^[8]

It is true that words should not affect the individual’s spirit, but at the same time, it is also a real fact that they sometimes can be very harmful to different individuals with certain personality types emphasizing once more the role of personality assessment in students for achieving their future professional success and for avoiding any negative events that might impact the quality of their life.^[9] Thus, it would be extremely useful to identify the factor that might be in fact the buffer against external distress such as bullying. Additionally, this factor should be cultivated and strengthened in those who are susceptible to becoming easy targets of certain types of harm, such as words.^[10] It seems that the impact of cyberbullying is worse than that of traditional bullying since it is available in a medium that the victim is not able to control.^[11] Despite the recent increasing awareness regarding this phenomenon, schools failed in implementing an effective strategy for obtaining a significant reduction of adolescent peer aggression frequency.^[12–14] Cyberbullying might result in major psychosocial issues, lowering self-esteem, and declining academic performance.^[15] Victims are not the only ones afflicted by this kind of problem, in fact, perpetrators of cyberbullying might also experience depressive symptoms or suicidal ideation.^[16]

Based on the online medium of cyberbullying, bullied youth experience greater difficulties in escaping it and its related negative impact. Regarding the “etiology” of cyberbullying, it was recently suggested that parental warmth might play a crucial role in cyberbullying victimization and that a positive parent-child relationship might in fact represent a strategy for preventing cyberbullying.^[17] Likewise, open communication and social support might also contribute to lowering the risks related to cyberbullying victimization and perpetration in middle school students.^[18,19] Thus, parents, teachers, and several role models play an important role in enabling children to develop useful competencies not only for decreasing bullying risk but also for coping better with the negative consequences of this act.^[20] Schools should consider including parents’ perspectives and even their help in improving the strategies for preventing cyberbullying and for helping their children cope better with the stressful events associated with cyberbullying situations.^[21]

Unsurprisingly, social media has an increasing presence in the daily life of young people. US reports from 2012 revealed that 95% of teenagers use the Internet and 81% of them use social media.^[22] Moreover, >50% of teenagers log on to social media more than once a day, while 22% log on to a desired website >10 times a day.^[23] These websites create an online environment for meetings and socialization, as well as providing easy access to information and enabling learning opportunities.^[24] Even though social media provides multiple advantages, its use might be associated with potential harm since teenagers’ levels of emotional and social development allow them to be vulnerable to peer pressure. It is a well-known fact that teenagers have a limited ability to self-regulate their emotions and behaviors^[25] resulting in increased exposure to several risks such as online harassment, privacy issues, and cyberbullying.^[24] Nevertheless, the information related to the reasons for cyberbullying, as well as the nature of bullying behavior remains scarce resulting in unknown long-term effects of this harmful act.

The aim of our study was to assess the prevalence of cyberbullying in Romanian teenagers, evaluate its psychosocial consequences, and examine the factors that may predispose one/them to bullying.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Participants

Our study included a total of 323 adolescents from Romania, aged between 13 and 18 years, grades 7 to 12. After analyzing the responses, we removed 7 participants whose answers were incomplete or showed satisficing patterns (provided satisfying answers) resulting in a final sample of 316 participants.

2.2. Procedure

The descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted as an anonymous online survey performed from March 2021 to May 2021 applying an online questionnaire containing 33 questions. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology Târgu Mureș, 1308/26.03.2021. Participants were free to quit the study at any time without consequence. All the data were only used for research and collected on a strictly voluntary and anonymous basis. All the participants and their parents provided informed consent. We included in the study the following sociodemographic variables: age, gender, and family information. Moreover, we assessed the adolescents’ knowledge about the definition of cyberbullying, if they had ever been electronically bullied, whether they had ever bullied others on the Internet and for what reason, and how they felt when they bullied others. Questions regarding bullying victimization included the evaluation of anxiety, depressive symptoms, and suicidal thoughts. Categories of bullying as rumors, being excluded, physical threats or violence from other students, identity theft, harassment, and threatening messages were included in the questionnaire. The form and place of cyberbullying were also assessed, whether anyone tried to help them, how they defended themselves against bullying, who they sought help from or why they did not seek help, and whether they knew the perpetrator. The relationship between adolescents and their parents and classmates, their attitude towards cyberbullying, and its impact on their daily lives were also evaluated. Furthermore, we examined the incidence of violence in their family, the consumption of alcohol, cigarettes, drugs and the reason for this, and the quality of their sleep. We also considered it important to find out what they did when they witnessed cyberbullying and how, in their opinion, this new form of bullying could be stopped most effectively.

2.3. Statistical analysis

The statistical analysis included elements of descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, median, standard deviation) and elements of inferential statistics. The Shapiro–Wilk test was applied to determine the distribution of the analyzed data series. Mann–Whitney test, a nonparametric test was applied for comparing the medians. The chi-square test was applied to determine the association between the qualitative variables. The significance threshold chosen for the P value was 0.05. The statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism trial variant program.

3. Results

The final analyzed sample consisted of 316 adolescents, among which 49.68% were females and 50.32% were males. The mean age of our sample was 15.73 ± 1.615 years.

Most of the teenagers (65.51%, n = 207) stated that they have previously heard about cyberbullying. According to 80.38% of the respondents, cyberbullying includes harassment, 65.19% of them considered sending offensive messages or images to be cyberbullying, and 57.28% included threatening messages as well. Furthermore, 50% believed that it includes shaming and denigrating others on social networking sites, 38.29% of adolescents considered that cyberbullying includes spreading false and harmful rumors, 35.76% are convinced that cyberbullying includes sharing of confidential information and pictures of others without consent and 27.85% interpreted it as an online fight. In addition, 33.23% believed that cyberbullying also includes regular and unsolicited messages from strangers, 31.33% sustained that profile hacking and theft of personal data might be considered cyberbullying, while 29.11% included identity theft in cyberbullying definition as well (Table 1).

Table 1.

The demographic analysis of the evaluated variables.

Variables	Number (%)
Cyberbullying includes	n = 316
Harassment	254 (80.38%)
Sending offensive messages or images	206 (65.19%)
Online fight	88 (27.85%)
Shaming and denigrating others on social networking sites	158 (50.00%)
Disseminate false or harmful rumors, gossips	121 (38.29%)
Profile hacking and theft of personal data	99 (31.33%)
Identity theft	92 (29.11%)
Sharing of confidential personal information or pictures without consent	113 (35.76%)
Receiving regularly unsolicited messages from strangers	105 (33.23%)
Threatening messages	181 (57.28%)
Is online bullying a serious problem?	n = 316
No	40 (12.66%)
Yes	276 (87.33%)
Have you been bullied?	n = 316
Never/seldom	183 (57.91%)/54 (17.09%)
Sometimes	65 (20.57%)
Often/very often	10 (3.16%)/4 (1.27%)
If yes, what type of bullying	n = 133
Harassing	45 (33.83%)
Offensive private messages/images	72 (54.14%)/21 (15.79%)
Sexting	17 (12.78%)
Online fight/insulting on socialization network/gossips/rumors	52 (39.10%)/21 (15.79%)/47 (35.34%)
Profile hacking and theft of personal data	15 (11.28%)
Identity theft	11 (8.27%)
Sharing of confidential personal information or images without consent	22 (16.54%)
Receiving regularly unsolicited messages from strangers	37 (27.82%)
Threatening messages	33 (24.81%)
What type of platform was used?	n = 133
Facebook	100 (75.19%)
Email	5 (3.76%)
Instagram	54 (40.60%)
Twitter/Youtube	2 (1.50%)/9 (6.77%)
Twitch/Blogs &Vlogues	3 (2.26%)/5 (3.76%)
Forums/Video plays	4 (3.01%)/24 (18.05%)
Others	16 (12.03%)
Somebody tried to help you?	n = 133
No	62 (46.62%)
Yes	71 (53.38%)
If yes, who?	n = 71
Friends/Parents/Brother or sister/Unknown/Nobody	53 (74.65%)/28 (39.44%)/14 (19.72%)/8 (11.27%)/61 (85.91%)
How did you defend yourself?	n = 133
I did nothing	22 (16.54%)
I asked the perpetrator to stop	26 (19.55%)
I left the social media site	21 (15.79%)
I talked to the perpetrator personally	14 (10.53%)
I blocked the perpetrator	87 (65.41%)
I changed my online name	2 (1.50%)
I told to my brother or sister/friend/parents	10 (7.52%)/26 (19.55%)/18 (13.53%)
I collected evidence against the perpetrator	11 (8.27%)
How did bullying affect you?	n = 133
Often, I am sad	16 (12.03%)
I am upset/depressed	40 (30.08%)/10 (7.52%)
I live with fear/I am afraid to leave my home	10 (7.52%)/6 (4.51%)
Often, I have stomach pain	3 (3.01%)
I cannot fall asleep/I have nightmares	5 (3.76%)/1 (0.75%)
Often, I have diarrhea	2 (1.50%)
Often, I have headache	9 (6.77%)
I feel uncomfortable	26 (19.55%)
I can’t concentrate on my studies	7 (5.26%)
I feel guilty/ashamed/lonely/furious/panicked	11 (8.27%)/12 (9.02%)/9 (6.77%)/23 (17.29%)/7 (5.26%)
It didn’t affect me	63 (47.37%)
Did you request for help?	n = 133
No	76 (57.14%)
Yes	57 (42.86%)
If yes, whom?	n = 57
Friends/brother or sister/parents/site administrator/police/professionals (psychologist, psychiatrist)	34 (59.65%)/13 (22.81%)/24 (42.10%)/5 (8.77%)/1 (1.75%)/4 (7.02%)
If no, why?	n = 76
Nobody would believe me/take me seriously	5 (6.58%)/9 (11.84%)
I can solve the problem on my own	56 (73.68%)
I am ashamed to discuss with others	10 (13.16%)
The perpetrator threatened me not to talk	2 (2.63%)
What happened after you reported the case?	n = 133
Things got better/worse	59 (44.36%)/2 (1.50%)
Nothing happened	72 (54.14%)
Do you know the perpetrator?	n = 133
Yes, it is a friend/my brother/my classmate/acquaintance	14 (10.53%)/11 (8.27%)/0 (0.00%)/30 (22.56%)
No	78 (58.65%)
Among your friends, was somebody bullied on Internet?	n = 316
Yes, all/the most/a few	4 (1.27%)/40 (12.66%)/136 (43.04%)
No	136 (43.04%)
Have you ever witnessed to cyberbullying?	n = 316
No	194 (61.39%)
Yes	122 (38.61%)
If yes, how did you proceed?	n = 122
I tried to comfort the victim	51 (41.80%)
I have reported the perpetrator to the social network administrator	42 (34.43%)
I confronted the perpetrator	33 (27.05%)
I did not react because I was afraid of the repercussions	10 (8.20%)
I didn’t do anything, because I couldn’t help him/her anyway	9 (7.38%)
I didn’t do anything, because I wasn’t involved	14 (11.47%)
I have logged out from that online interface	16 (13.11%)
I also participated in the bullying	9 (7.38%)
Have you ever bullied someone online?	n = 316
Never/seldom	265 (83.86%)/20 (6.33%)
Sometimes	26 (8.23%)
Often/very often	2 (0.63%)/3 (0.95%)
If yes, why?	n = 51
Revenge	21 (41.18%)
Envy	3 (5.88%)
Boredom	20 (39.21%)
Joke	19 (37.25%)
Self-defense	11 (21.57%)
Because I was bullied too	8 (15.69%)
What do you feel when you bully someone?	n = 316
Satisfaction	6 (1.89%)
Happiness	1 (0.32%)
Neutrality/nothing	20 (6.33%)
Unpleasant feeling	9 (2.85%)
Remorse	15 (4.75%)
I never bullied anyone	265 (83.86%)
How would you describe your relationship with your parents?	n = 316
Very good, we can talk about anything	113 (35.76%)
Pretty good, I often ask their advice	98 (31.01%)
Acceptable, we only talk about important things	85 (26.90%)
Pretty bad, we rarely talk	16 (5.06%)
Very bad, I feel neglected	4 (1.27%)
How often does violence occur in your family?	n = 316
Never	260 (82.28%)
Sometimes/seldom	7 (2.22%)/38 (12.03%)
Often/very often	8 (2.53%)/3 (0.95%)
How would you describe your relationship with your classmates?	n = 316
Very good, I have many friends	105 (33.23%)
Pretty good, I have several friends	176 (55.70%)
Acceptable, I feel left out	27 (8.54%)
Pretty bad, sometimes I get offended	6 (1.90%)
Very bad, I am often bullied	2 (0.63%)
Is anyone afraid of you?	n = 316
Everyone is afraid of me	3 (0.95%)
Many fear me	5 (1.58%)
Some people are afraid of me	27 (8.54%)
They have no reason to fear me	281 (88.92%)
Which of the statements listed below represents you better?	n = 316
I’m a reserved person	53 (16.77%)
I enjoy talking to other people, but not to be in the center of attention	209 (66.14%)
I like to be the center of attention	54 (17.09%)
Do you use any of the following substances?	n = 316
Coffee	119 (37.66%)
Energy drinks	79 (25.00%)
Alcohol	41 (12.97%)
Cigarettes	48 (15.19%)
Drugs	10 (3.16%)
None	139 (43.99%)
Why do you consume it?	n = 316
Because I can’t rest	64 (20.25%)
My friends consume also	34 (10.76%)
I feel nervous if I can’t consume	14 (4.43%)
Not to be excluded from the group	19 (6.01%)
I face a lot of stress	58 (18.35%)
What is the quality of your sleep?	n = 316
Very good, I wake up rested	166 (52.53%)
Less good, sometimes I have nightmares, but I don’t feel tired	108 (34.18%)
I sleep very badly, often have nightmares, and feel tired all day	42 (13.29%)
From your point of view, online bullying is:	n = 316
Better than physical	74 (23.42%)
Worse than physical	35 (11.08%)
Just as bad as the physical one	207 (65.51%)
In your opinion, what would be the most effective way to stop cyberbullying?	n = 316
Parental supervision	91 (28.80%)
Not to publish too much personal information	183 (57.91%)
Restricting public access to personal data	142 (44.94%)
Filtering of unwanted messages/content by the system administrator	92 (29.11%)
Blocking and/or reporting the harasser	220 (69.62%)
Involvement of the authorities	85 (26.90%)

In terms of cyberbullying, 66.77% of teenagers considered it to be a serious problem that needs to be stopped, 20.57% considered that nothing can be done about it, although it is a serious problem, and unfortunately, 12.66% replied that it is not “a big deal.” Moreover, we noticed that those who considered cyberbullying to be a serious problem had a significantly lower risk of becoming perpetrators (P < .0001).

Our analysis revealed that 57.91% (n = 183) of the responders had never been bullied electronically, while 42.09% (n = 133) were victims of cyberbullying. Among the bullied teenagers, 17.09% of the victims (n = 54) were bullied once, 20.57% (n = 65) only sometimes, 3.16% (n = 10) often, and 1.27% (n = 4) almost every day. Most victims of cyberbullying were 16 (21%) and 17 (21%) years old (Table 1). Applying Mann–Whitney test, we found no statistical difference (P = .7590) between the median ages of victims and nonvictims of cyberbullying. Nevertheless, we found a statistically significant association between the gender of the victims and the occurrence of cyberbullying (P = .0043) proving that females have a 1.482-fold (relative risk [RR] = 1.482, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.135–1.935) higher risk of being harassed (Fig. 1).

Figure 1.

Gender distribution of harassed victims.

According to our study, victims of cyberbullying suffered various harms: 54.14% were insulted in private messages, 39.10% got into an online fight, 35.34% had rumors/gossips spread about them, 33.83% were harassed, 27.82% were regularly texted by strangers and 24.81% received threatening messages. Additionally, 16.54% shared their confidential images and information without their permission, 15.79% suffered shame on some social media site, 15.79% of victims received offensive images in private messages, while 12.78% received sexually provocative images and videos (sexting). Furthermore, 11.28% had their profile hacked and had their personal information stolen and 8.27% of them suffered identity theft or someone tried to discredit them by using their names. A significant number of victims included in this study (75.19%) were bullied on Facebook, but many of them (40.6%) also on Instagram and 18.05% in video games. Our study revealed that fewer were bullied online via YouTube (6.77%), email (3.76%), various blogs/vlogs (3.76 %), Messenger (3.76%), Snapchat (3.01%), Discord (3.01%), forums (3.01%), Twitch (2.26%), Twitter (1.5%), WhatsApp (1.5%), Microsoft Teams (0.75%) and on Wattpad (0.75%). Girls were mostly bullied on Facebook (62 girls, 38 boys) and Instagram (37 girls, 17 boys), while boys in video games (19 boys, 5 girls) and YouTube (8 boys, 1 girls).

Based on our results 53.38% of the victims benefited from someone’s support. Thus, friends tried to help most of them (74.65%), followed by parents (39.44%), siblings (19.72%), and strangers (11.27%). Moreover, in order to protect themselves, most of the victims (65.41%) blocked their bully, 19.55% told a friend, 19.55% tried to ask the perpetrator to stop, 15.79% left the social media site, 13.53% told their parents, 10.53% talked to the perpetrator personally, 8.27% collected evidence of the bullying, 7.52% turned to their brother for help. Moreover, 1.50% of them changed their online name. Nevertheless, 16.54% of the victims failed in defending themselves (Table 1).

When the victims were asked about the impact of bullying on their life, 47.37% denied any impact. Still, 30.08% stated that they were upset, 19.55% felt uncomfortable, 17.29% were angry, 12.03% were often sad, 9.02% were ashamed of themselves, 8.27% of them felt guilty, 7.52% lived in depression and fear, 6.77% indicated they often had headaches and felt lonely, 5.26% can’t concentrate on their studies and had panic attacks, 4.51% did not dare to leave their homes, and 3.76% cannot fell asleep as a result of the bullying. Moreover, 3.01% indicated that they had constant stomach pain, while the least common symptoms included frequent diarrhea (1.50%) and nightmares (0.75%) (Table 1).

Examining the effect of gender on online victims’ requests for help, we found that bullied girls sought help more often (27.8%) than bullied boys (15.8%), but there we found no significant association between the distribution of victims’ requests for help and gender (P = .0763, RR = 1.481, 95% CI: 0.9553–2.296). Most of the victims turned to their friends (59.65%) or parents (42.10%) for help. Contrariwise others asked for help from their siblings (22.81%), the administrator of the social network site (8.77%), professionals (7.02%), or even the police (1.75%). Most of the teenagers that did not ask for help (73.68%) considered they had the ability to solve the problem on their own. Others (13.16%) were ashamed to discuss with others, 11.84% felt that others would not take them seriously or would not believe them (6.58%), while 2.63% were threatened by the perpetrator. After reporting the harassment, almost half of the respondents (44.36%) indicated that things got better, while 54.14% stated that nothing had changed, and 1.50% that it got worse (Table 1).

Most of the teenagers (58.65%) claimed to not know their bully. In almost a quarter of the cases (22.56%) the perpetrator was an acquaintance of the victims, in 10.53% was a boyfriend/girlfriend, and in 8.27% was their classmate(s) (Table 1).

Most of the victims’ friends have also been cyberbullied (35%), while the nonvictims had less frequent cyberbullying in their circle of friends (22%). Moreover, subjects who have been cyberbullied had a 2162 times higher risk of having bullied friends (P < .0001, RR = 2.162, 95% CI: 1.770–2.641) (Fig. 2). In addition, 38.61% of the teenagers indicated that they had witnessed cyberbullying and were helpful in most of the cases: 41.80% comforted the victim, 34.43% reported the perpetrator to the administrator of the social network, while 27.05% confronted the perpetrator. There were also witnesses who remained neutral: 8.20% were afraid that they would be harassed as revenge and 7.38% felt that they could not help anyway. Others simply logged out from the online interface where the harassment took place (13.11%) and 11.47% preferred to remain neutral since they were not directly involved. In fewer cases, there were also witnesses who encouraged the perpetrator and participated in the harassment themselves (7.38%). The Pearson correlation test revealed a significant difference (P = .0011) regarding the reaction of adolescents who had never experienced cyberbullying and of former victims of cyberbullying (Table 1).

Figure 2.

The correlation between cyberbullying and having bullied friends.

Regarding the personality type of the cyberbullying victims included in our study, we noticed that introverted subjects were less often victims of cyberbullying (8%) when compared to extroverted ones (34%).

In order to identify the best choice in terms of support, we assessed also the relationship between the studied sample and their peers. Thus, in terms of the relationship with their parents, 35,76% declared that it is very good, 31,01% considered that is pretty good, 26,90% affirmed that is acceptable, 5,06% believed it is pretty bad, and 1.27% very bad. We also studied the incidence of cyberbullying depending on the parent-child relationship and found that adolescents who had a good relationship with their parents were less likely to be victims of cyberbullying than those who had a less good relationship, identifying a significant association between the teenagers’ relationship with the parents and the incidence of bullying (P = .002).

In terms of classmates, 33.23% of the teenagers included in our study (n = 105) considered to have a very good relationship with them, 55.70% (n = 176) pretty good, 8.54% (n = 27) not very good, 1.90% (n = 6) pretty bad, and 0.63% declare it very bad. Adolescents who had a good relationship with their classmates were less likely to be victims of online bullying than those who had a less good relationship, but the difference was not significant (P = .0557) (Table 1).

Taking into account that 17.12% (n = 56) of teenagers declared that there is violence in their family, we found a significant correlation between domestic violence and cyberbullying (P = .0014, RR = 2.321, 95% CI: 1.400–3.849). Subjects with domestic violence had a 2.321-fold higher risk of committing cyberbullying (Fig. 3). In our sample, only 16.14% declared to have committed cyberbullying, most of them (23.53%) were 17 years old (Table 1). We found a significant correlation between the gender of the bullies and the occurrence of cyberbullying (P = .0020, RR = 2.370, 95% CI: 1.353–4.151), with males being 2.370 times more likely to commit cyberbullying (Fig. 4). Regarding the reasons for cyberbullying, most of them (41.18%) bullied others out of revenge, 39.22% out of boredom and 37.25% for joke. Moreover, others used cyberbullying as self-defense (21.57%), 15.69% as a mimicry act since they had been previously bullied, and 5.88% bullied others due to envy (Table 1).

Figure 3.

The distribution of cyberbullying according to the violence in the family.

Figure 4.

The distribution of cyberbullying according to bullies’ gender.

Based on our findings, bullying affected not only the victims but also the bullies: 4.75% felt remorse, 2.85% felt themselves uncomfortable, 1.89% felt satisfaction, 0.32% were happy and 6.33% felt nothing at all. In addition, we noticed a significant association between cyberbullying and victim roles (P < .0001, RR = 5.003, 95% CI: 2.668–9.385) since victims of cyberbullying{Citation} had a 5.003-fold higher risk to became bullies (Fig. 5).

Figure 5.

The association between previous cyberbullying victims and future bullies.

When comparing cyberbullying with physical violence, 65.51% of our sample considered them to have the same impact, 23.42% stated that cyberbullying is better than physical violence, while 11.08% indicated that it is worse than physical violence (Table 1).

Based on the well-known relationship between the consumption of different harmful substances and violent acts,^[26–30] we found that 37.66% of the responders consumed coffee, 25% energy drinks, 15.19% smoked cigarettes, 12.97% consumed alcohol and 3.16% used drug. A statistically significant relationship was found between the type of substances consumed and the perpetration of aggression (P < .0001). Nevertheless, 43.99% of the teenagers included in this study denied any consumption or use of these substances. We tested the popularity of the consumption of different substances between victims of cyberbullying and nonvictims using Pearson correlation analysis, and we noticed that the consumption of coffee, energy drinks, and alcohol was more common among nonvictims, while cigarette and drug consumption was more frequent among victims (P = .0002). Several reasons were identified for the consumption of these substances: 20.25% because they can’t rest, 18.35% due to stress, 10.76% stated that “because friends also use them,” 6.01% not to be excluded from a group, and 4.43% declared that they feel nervous if they can’t consume (Table 1).

Teenagers’ opinion regarding the most effective strategy for stopping cyberbullying was also assessed in this study. Thus, 69.62% considered blocking and reporting the harasser to be the most effective method, and 57.91% indicated that “not to publish too much personal information” could be useful, as well as “restricting public access to personal data” (44.94%). Moreover, 29.11% considered that the system administrator should filter the unwanted content, or that parental supervision (28.80%) and the involvement of the authorities (26.90%) could be helpful (Table 1).

4. Discussion

It is widely known that the use of internet and smartphones among teenagers increased during the last decades. Thus, the Pew Research Center reported that approximately 75% of teenagers have a smartphone and 92% reported they log into social networks daily.^[31] These devices enable adolescents to use the internet 24/7. Although several positive aspects are definitely associated with the increased use of the internet such as promoting interhuman connection, easy access to information, and technological advances, this increasing tendency of using the internet and social media might also be correlated with the risk of cyberbullying.^[32,33] Thus, a survey performed between 2007 and 2014 already reported that 25% of teenagers have a history of being cyberbullied and >16% of them have cyberbullied others.^[34] According to our findings, >65% of the teenagers included in our study reported that they have heard about cyberbullying. Moreover, 42.09% of our responders were victims of cyberbullying.

A recent study revealed that girls and older teenagers are more likely to suffer from depression as a result of cyberbullying.^[11] Our study also revealed that most of the responders that reported being victims of cyberbullying were older teenagers, that is, 16 (21%) and 17 (21%) years old. Likewise, we also noticed that the females included in our study were significantly more predisposed to be cyberbullied. A possible explanation for this finding consists of the difference between genders in terms of internet habits since a Swedish study indicated that girls were more active on social networking sites, chatting, and blogging as compared to boys who preferred video clips and online games.^[35] Previously published studies indicated that cyberbullying might take different forms including sending malicious e-mails, writing offensive messages, the use of websites and forums for offensive purposes, uploading offensive or degrading videos or images from mobile phone cameras,^[36] hate speech, writing threatening content, crude sexual comments or references, harassment, and teasing,^[37] but also online publication of another person’s personal information, determining others to ridicule this person or portraying him in a bad light, which in fact were the most common forms of cyberbullying reported by the victims according to Patchin and Hinduja.^[38] A more recent study concluded that the publication of offensive video clips and images represents the most severe form of cyberbullying due to the largest number of online views and audiences attracted by these potential images which identify the victim in certain humiliating situations.^[39] In our study, we also noticed that girls were mostly bullied on Facebook and Instagram, while boys in video games and on YouTube. The most common forms of cyberbullying reported by our responders included harassment; threatening, insulting, or offensive messages; rumors spreading; online fights; and identity theft. The most frequently used online platforms for cyberbullying were Facebook and Instagram, but victims were also denigrated in video games. According to the gender analysis, the female victims included in this study were more commonly cyberbullied on Facebook and Instagram, while boys in video games and on YouTube.

Social support and open communication represent effective coping strategies that were proven to prevent the risks related to cyberbullying victimization and perpetration in middle school students.^[18,19] Moreover, a study that assessed available social supports for bullied victims such as parents, siblings, friends, other relatives, and school staff proved that home and school support represent the most effective supports enabling the bullied children to feel relieved.^[40] Elsaesser et al^[17] found a negative association between parental warmth and both cyberbullying and perpetration concluding that positive parent-child relationships might be a protective factor against cyberbullying.^[17] Similarly, most of the cyberbullying victims included in our study asked their friends or parents for help. Moreover, girls proved to be more open to discussing their problems and asked for help more frequently than boys. Likewise, we noticed that more than half of the teenagers included in this study rated their relationship with their parents to be very good or pretty good. Similar to the findings mentioned in the study of Elsaesser et al,^[17] we also found a significant association between the teenagers’ relationship with their parents and cyberbullying emphasizing the fact that those who had a positive relationship with their parents were less likely to become victims of cyberbullying. Friends or classmates also proved to be an effective support for cyberbullying victims in our study since we noticed that >80% of the responders had a very good or pretty good relationship with their classmates resulting in a low likelihood to become victims of online bullying as compared to those who rated the relationship as not very good, pretty bad or very bad. Based on our findings and the previously reported results from the literature parents might have a crucial role in both preventing cyberbullying and supporting children who suffer cyberbullying.^[41]

A potential explanation for the fact that certain teenagers are more likely to be bullied than their classmates was stated by Willard who indicated that bullied victims are usually perceived by their peers as weaker or different, being often less liked by them, but at the same time their personality traits including the preference to be solitary, quieter, lack of self-confidence, increased sensitivity, tendency for depression or increased fear might also contribute to the higher likelihood of being (cyber)bullied.^[42] Moreover, the victims were proven to have a decreased ability to cope with difficult situations, being less willing to ask their parents for help, and therefore less likely to report threatening or dangerous online situations to adults. Thus, several coping strategies adopted by the victims of online attacks were previously reported such as withdrawing from social networks,^[43] confronting their cyberbullies,^[43,44] but most frequently victims preferred to ignore the perpetrator's behavior and to do nothing in response to the online attacks.^[45–47] A more recent study underlined that the most frequently displayed behavioral reactions among cyberbullied teenagers consist of counterattacking, informing a friend, and ignoring the online attack.^[48] In terms of behavioral reactions encountered in our study, most of the victims asked their parents, friends, or siblings for help, but also the administrator of the social network site, professionals, or the police. Contrariwise, 78.31% of the teenagers included in this study considered that they do not need help and can solve the problem by themselves. Thus, the majority asked the perpetrator to stop, left the social media, or talked to the perpetrator personally, while <2% preferred to change their online name. Unfortunately, almost 20% of the victims reported to have failed in defending themselves. Other reasons for which the victims did not ask for help consisted of being ashamed to discuss with others, feeling that others would not take them seriously or would not believe them, and also the fact they were threatened by the perpetrator. Nevertheless, most of those who reported the incident felt that the situation improved after.

In terms of emotional reactions, the teenagers who became victims of cyberbullying reported various negative emotions as a result of online attacks such as sadness, anger, rage, frustration, unease, helplessness, and stress.^[45,48,49] As a result of the online attack, our victims reported to be upset, feel uncomfortable, angry, sad, ashamed, depressed, lonely, or blamed themselves, had headaches, stomach pain, panic attacks, lacked concentration or sleep, and they did not dare to leave their homes. Less common symptoms included diarrhea and nightmares. Nevertheless, 47.37% of these victims denied any negative impact of cyberbullying.

Some limitations of this study should be mentioned. Thus, the data were collected with self-report measures, sensitive to social desirability, perception, and recall biases. Furthermore, the picture of cybervictimization is continuously changing bearing in mind the rapid technological developments, especially mobile technologies. The geographical location of the respondents was predominantly from the northwestern and central regions of Romania. There are access factors that are likely to be relevant in the prediction of cyberbullying such as access to technology, amount of time using the internet, and competence in using technology. Unfortunately, we did not assess either the living environment or the socioeconomic status of the responders. Finally, caution is needed when interpreting the findings, as the study sample consisted of 316 students from rural and city areas in Romania.

5. Conclusions

Cyberbullying is a pervasive and troubling problem among adolescents with a great impact on the mental, physical, and social health of both victims and bullies. Domestic violence and the status of former cyberbullying victims proved to be significant risk factors for committing cyberbullying. According to our findings, females had a higher risk of being cyberbullied, while males displayed a greater risk of becoming bullies. Likewise, females were more likely to be bullied on social sites, whereas boys in video games. In addition, former victims of cyberbullying included in our study were more likely to have bullied friends. A good quality of parent-child and friendship relationships might represent protective factors against suffering and perpetrating cyberbullying. The impact of cyberbullying on adolescents’ emotions and well-being consists of somatic, depressive, and stress symptoms. The coping strategies are known but not practiced by all the victims. Parents and teachers need to promote dialogue about cyberbullying, aiding adolescents to find effective ways to deal with these situations and to develop their empathy, communication, and social skills. Further research is needed to find therapeutical, school, and family-based relevant intervention strategies to prevent and reduce the impact of cyberbullying and to understand its long-term impact.

Author contributions

Conceptualization: Reka Borka Balas, Lorena Elena Melit.

Data curation: Reka Borka Balas.

Investigation: Reka Borka Balas, Daniel Sarkozi, Dana Valentina Ghiga.

Methodology: Reka Borka Balas, Lorena Elena Melit, Dana Valentina Ghiga, Cristina Oana Mărginean.

Supervision: Lorena Elena Melit, Cristina Oana Mărginean.

Validation: Reka Borka Balas, Lorena Elena Melit, Cristina Oana Mărginean.

Visualization: Reka Borka Balas.

Writing – original draft: Reka Borka Balas, Lorena Elena Melit, Cristina Oana Mărginean.

Writing – review & editing: Reka Borka Balas, Lorena Elena Melit, Cristina Oana Mărginean.