Cyberbullying Involvement, Resilient Coping, and Loneliness of Adolescents During Covid-19 in Rural China

Abstract

Cyberbullying involvement can lead to internal health issues, especially mental health problems. Different coping strategies may reduce or enhance the strengths between cyberbullying experience and mental health problems. In this study, we examined the correlations between cyberbullying involvement and loneliness among a group of children and adolescents during the Covid-19 pandemic in China, focusing on investigating the protecting effect of the resilient coping strategy. The results demonstrated that 86.68% of the students were not involved in cyberbullying activities, 8.19% were victims only, 1.89% was perpetrators only, and 3.24% were both victims and perpetrators. Compared with the non-involved, the victims-only group had a significantly higher degree of reported loneliness and a lower score of resilient coping, while the differences of the other groups were not significant. Resilient coping strategy can significantly reduce loneliness and play a mediating role between cyberbullying victimization and loneliness, but such mitigating effect was relatively weak. Besides, peer relations were the primary protective factors, and age was the primary risk factor of loneliness among the controlled variables. This study can enrich current knowledge of cyberbullying involvement and the psychological health among children and adolescents, especially in the context of the pandemic.

Prevalence, characteristics, and psychological outcomes of workplace cyberbullying during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan: a cross-sectional online survey

“…Our findings regarding the relationship between TB at work and depression [ 51 ], insomnia [ 3 , 90 ], and social isolation [ 91 , 92 ] are consistent with those from precedent research. It has been reported that CB victimization among adolescents is associated with loneliness [ 93 , 94 ] and sleep problems [ 95 ]. Our study expands the existing literature showing the negative effects of CB victimization on sleep and loneliness among employees.…”

A narrative review into the impact of COVID‐19 pandemic on senior high school adolescent mental health

“…During this pandemic, high school teenagers face the challenge of feeling lonely (Scott et al, 2021 ). Compared to children at the elementary and junior high school levels, high school students are reported to have higher levels of loneliness (Han et al, 2021 ). Loneliness is the leading cause of emotional reactions, namely, feeling sad in adolescents (Esposito et al, 2021 ).…”

Can Acting Out Online Improve Adolescents’ Well-Being During Contact Restrictions? A First Insight Into the Dysfunctional Role of Cyberbullying and the Need to Belong in Well-Being During COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Contact Restrictions

“…It is therefore plausible that loneliness does not activate aggressive behavior online. In research, loneliness has been found more often in cybervictims, not cyberbullies, and as a consequence but not as a precursor of cyberbullying involvement (e.g., Olenik-Shemesh et al, 2012;Han et al, 2021). In a short-term longitudinal study by Schultze-Krumbholz et al (2012) the authors were able to show, though, that in boys cyberbullying reduced feelings of loneliness at the second measurement occasion.…”