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Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique logoLink to Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique
. 2017 Sep 1;108(5-6):e468–e474. doi: 10.17269/CJPH.108.6175

Cyberbullying victimization and its association with health across the life course: A Canadian population study

Soyeon Kim 1,✉, Michael H Boyle 1, Katholiki Georgiades 1
PMCID: PMC6972207  PMID: 29356651

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To examine the prevalence of cyberbullying victimization (CV), its associations with self-reported health and substance use and the extent to which age moderates these associations.

METHODS: We used the 2014 Canadian General Social Survey on Victimization (N = 31 907, mean age = 45.83, SD = 18.67) and binary logistic regression models to estimate the strength of association between CV and health-related outcomes.

RESULTS: The five-year prevalence of CV was 5.1 %. Adolescents reported the highest prevalence of CV (12.2%), compared to all other adult age groups (1.7%-10.4%). After controlling for socio-demographic covariates, individuals exposed to CV had increased odds of reporting poor mental health (OR = 4.259, 95% CI = 2.853–6.356), everyday limitations due to mental health problems (OR = 3.263, 95% CI = 2.271–4.688), binge drinking (OR = 2.897, 95% CI = 1.765–4.754), and drug use (OR = 3.348, 95% CI = 2.333–4.804), compared to those not exposed to CV. The associations between CV and self-reported mental health and substance use were strongest for adolescents and attenuated across the adult age groups.

CONCLUSION: Adolescence may represent a developmental period of heightened susceptibility to CV. Developing and evaluating targeted preventive interventions for this age group is warranted.

Key Words: Bullying, mental health, adolescent

Footnotes

Acknowledgements: This research was supported by funds to the Canadian Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and Statistics Canada. Although the research and analysis are based on data from Statistics Canada, the opinions expressed do not represent the views of Statistics Canada.

Conflict of Interest: None to declare.

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