Cyberbullying among young Chinese people : trends and effects on mental health

Abstract

This study aims to find the trend of cyberbullying among Chinese young people and the mental health problems their cyberbullying experiences might cause. In the study, participants were 81 young people (aged between 18-25 years old) recruited from 5 popular social platforms in China. This study used a survey to collect data. The questionnaire used in this research contains 22 questions, including 12 Likert-type questions that were used to measure the participants’ experiences of cyberbullying as both perpetrators and victims; 7 Likert-type questions that were used to measure the participants’ symptoms of anxiety (AS); And 6 Likert type questions used for depression symptoms (DS) measurement. This study used SPSS version 26 for statistical analyses. The results of this study showed that the most common forms of cyberbullying that Chinese young people engage in as victims were “said nasty things about me to others either online or through text messages” (51.8%) and “said nasty things to me or called my nickname using texts or online messages” (48.2%). The most common forms of cyberbullying that Chinese young people engage in as perpetrators were“sent links of humiliating images to other people for them to see” (19.7%) and “wrote embarrassing jokes, rumors, gossip, or comments about someone on the Internet” (18.5). Results also indicated reciprocal relationships between depressive and anxiety symptoms and cyberbullying: cyberbullying experiences are positively correlated with depression and anxiety symptoms among young Chinese people. In conclusion, this study found the situation of online bullying among Chinese young people, and detected the harms of cyberbullying on young people’s mental health. These findings could help prevent Chinese young people suffer from mental health problems caused by cyberbullying.