Schools should attempt to minimalize the usage of social media
because with social media comes cyber-bullying and all forms of
bullying may cause a decline in mental and physical health.
"The viability of these links has been strengthened through
research showing how experience with peer harassment (most
often as a victim but also as a perpetrator) contributes to
depression, decreased self-worth, hopelessness, and
loneliness—all of which are precursors to suicidal thoughts
and behavior (Graham & Juvonen, 1998; Hawker &
Boulton, 2000; Joiner & Rudd, 1996; Kaltiala-Heino,
Rimpela¨, Marttunen et al., 1999; KaltialaHeino, Rimpela,
Rantanen et al., 2000; Langhinrichsen-Rohling & Lamis,
2008; Marr & Field, 2001; Roland, 2002)." (Hinduja 207)
Cyberbullying contributes to depression, decreased
self-worth, hopelessness, and loneliness, which are all
negative impacts on someones' mental and physical health.
"Among known accounts of cyberbullicide, Internet-based harm
often coincided with other issues (such as offline
mistreatment, emotional and psychological problems, academic
difficulties, low self-esteem, clinical depression, a lack of
a support structure, etc.)"(Hinduja 208).
Cyberbullying also contributes to academic difficulties,
and other psychological problems.
"According to the findings, the participants in the
victim/bully group were found to have more problems regarding
general health and depression than the non-victim and
non-bully groups" (CHAROENWANIT 239)
"Cyberbullying, in particular, causes symptoms to be more
severe, because adolescents can become victims or bullies
anywhere. Therefore, the impact is more severe than with other
types of bullying among adolescents, because the adolescents
frequently have no place to avoid cyberbullying by others,
even in the adolescents’ own bedrooms." (CHAROENWANIT 239)
The effects of cyberbullying are more sever than that of
regular bullying because cyberbullying can happen anywhere
and there isn't really a solution to this because no one can
limit what websites someone decides to browse. Since it's so
easily accessible, the victims of cyberbullies have to face
the harassment everywhere they go. They're not even safe in
their own homes.
"In general,
researchers have examined the relationship between
involvement with cyberbullying and adolescents’ tendency to
internalize issues (for example, the development of negative
affective disorders, loneliness, anxiety, depression,
suicidal ideation, and somatic symptoms)." (Nixon)
"Specifically, results showed
that higher levels of cyberbullying victimization were
related to higher levels of depressive affect."
(Nixon)
Cyberbullying is also highly correlated to suicide.
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2007)
reported that suicide was the third leading cause of death
among adolescents in 2004" (Hinduja 206)
"One factor that has been linked to suicidal ideation is
experience with bullying in and around school and the
neighborhood." (Hinduja 206).
"First, the British Medical Journal published a study in
which 16,410 Finnish students between the ages of 14 and 16
completed a school health promotion study that concentrated on
adolescent health, health behavior and school behavior
(Kaltiala-Heino, Rimpela¨, Marttunen et al., 1999). Results
indicated that among boys who were frequently bullied (at
least once per week), 4% had severe suicidal ideation
(compared to 1% for boys who were not bullied). Among girls
who were frequently bullied, 8% exhibited signs of severe
suicidal ideation (compared to 1% for girls who were not
bullied). Of those who bullied others at least once per week,
8% of boys and 8% of girls displayed severe suicidal ideation
(Kaltiala-Heino, Rimpela¨, Marttunen et al., 1999)." (Hinduja
209)
Studies show that people who experience bullying have more
suicidal thoughts than those people that don't. This shows a
direct correlation to people that experience bullying, and
suicide.
"In research stemming from the Netherlands, surveys from
4,721 primary school boys and girls revealed that
approximately 13% of boys directly bullied and 18% of boys
indirectly bullied suffered from suicidal ideation" (Hinduja
209).
Cyberbullying is directly correlated to academic problems
"According to the interpretation, the participants that
were victims or cyberbullies had high academic achievement
problems. Furthermore, cyberbullying was positively correlated
with general health and depression..."(CHAROENWANIT 236)
the participants that were studied in this research showed
that the victims of cyberbullying struggled harder in their
academics. It also states that cyberbullying showed a direct
relationship with health and depression.
"Based on the findings of the present study, when the data
on mean academic achievements were compared in each group, the
bully/victim group or the victim group was found to have lower
academic achievement after being cyberbullied or after
cyberbullying than before being cyberbullied..." (CHAROENWANIT
238)
Comparing the results from their data of the group that
was bullied and the group that wasn't, the group that was
bullied showed a lower academic achievement than the other
group.
"In addition to low academic achievement, another important
problem among the victim group was skipping classes or
refusing to go to school. The findings revealed the
bully/victim group to have a history of skipping classes, or
refusing to go to school, at a level as high as 79.7 %, while
the participants that were never bullied and that never
bullied others had no problems with refusing to go to school."
(CHAROENWANIT 239)
Another form of effect that was caused by bullying is that
student's started to refuse to go to class, and/or skip
classes. this could also a cause to the difference is
academic achievements.
Charoenwanit's findings in his studies agreed with previous
researcher's data.
Sources
Hinduja, Sameer and
Justin W. Patchin. “Bullying, Cyberbullying, and Suicide.” Archives of Suicide Research, vol.
14 no. 3, July 2010, pp. 206-221. EBSCOhost,doi:10.1080/13811118.2010.494133.Accessed 2 March 2019.
Nixon,
Charisse L. “Current
Perspectives: The impact of cyberbullying on adolescent health.”Adolescent health, medicine
and therapeutics. 1 August 2014. doi:10.2147/AHMT.S36456. Accessed
20 February 2019.
Supawadee CHAROENWANIT.
“The Relationship of Cyber-Bullying and AcademicAchievement,
General Health,
and Depression in Adolescents in Thailand.” WalailakJournal of
Science & Technology, vol. 16, no. 4, Apr. 2019pp. 231–241.
EBSCOhost,libproxy.adelphi.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=133759642&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Accessed
2 March 2019.