Cyber Victimization and Aggression: Are They Linked with Adolescent Smoking and Drinking?

Problematic alcohol use as a risk factor for cyber aggression within romantic relationships

“…Problematic alcohol use was not associated with cyber relational aggression after accounting for traditional IPV. These findings help with the interpretation of prior research, suggesting that the significant problematic alcohol use‐cyber aggression relationship detected in previous studies that failed to differentiate between cyber relational aggression and cyber privacy invasion may have been driven by items assessing the latter . Available data from articles that failed to detect an association between problematic alcohol use and cyber aggression indicate the assessment of cyber aggression relied heavily upon items assessing cyber relational aggression rather than cyber privacy invasion …”

“…In addition to less frequent, heavier drinking episodes in comparison to adults, adolescents also demonstrate high rates of cyber relational aggression and privacy invasion in particular . Prior investigations into the relationship between substance use and cyber aggression among adolescent samples have been limited and contradictory with one producing a significant association among high school students, one producing no significant effect among middle schoolers, and one producing a significant effect only in the absence of traditional IPV among individuals aged 14–20 years . Further, surveys of substance use among younger samples are often limited to few, broadly worded questions and none of the identified studies among adolescents evaluated multiple facets of cyber aggression.…”

“…Research pertaining to the association between problematic alcohol use and the perpetration of cyber aggression remains sparse with mixed results. Chan and Greca found that the perpetration of peer cyber aggression was significantly and positively associated with both alcohol use and binge drinking among a sample of 1,064 high school students who completed self‐reports of alcohol use and cyber aggression using two items from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Survey and nine dichotomously coded items from the Cyber Peer Experiences Questionnaire (C‐PEQ), respectively . Singh et al reported a significant, positive association between alcohol and cyber partner aggression among a large, nationally representative sample of partnered adult males in the U.S. Watkins et al developed a cyber aggression in intimate relationships scale using data provided by 455 participants using online crowdsourcing.…”

Associations of Bullying and Cyberbullying With Substance Use and Sexual Risk Taking in Young Adults

“…Concerning alcohol abuse, inconsistent gender‐specific associations were found in this study that may be mediated by different drinking motives, as proposed by Archimi and Kuntsche (). Bully–victim male students, but not traditional bullies, had increased odds for drunkenness, although in other reports all bullying categories, and especially bullies, get intoxicated at higher levels (Archimi & Kuntsche, ; Chan & La Greca, ; Vieno et al., ). However, in a prospective study in males in Finland, bullying involvement at the age of 8 years was not associated with drunkenness at the age of 18 years (Niemelä et al., ).…”

“…Cyberbullying has also been associated with smoking and drinking in teenage bullies and victims (Chan & La Greca, ; Vieno et al., ), and with illicit drug use and sexual risk behaviors for victimized male and female adolescents (Hertz, Everett Jones, Barrios, David‐Ferdon, & Holt, ). Engagement in cyberbullying during college is also associated with increased odds of problematic drinking and depression among female students (Selkie, Kota, Chan, & Moreno, ) and cybervictimization correlates to higher depressive symptoms, anxiety, phobic anxiety, and paranoia (Schenk & Fremouw, ).…”