``Mental health cost of internet'': A mixed-method study of cyberbullying among Indian sexual minorities

Abstract

This exploratory sequential mixed-method study examines the mental health effects of cyberbullying on sexual minorities in India. In the first phase, 13 sexual minorities who encountered cyberbullying in the past month were interviewed. The second phase was a survey-based quantitative study (N = 103) developed based on the qualitative findings. The qualitative result suggests that cyberbullying experienced by LGBTQIA+ persons takes three forms: Verbal-aggressive (abusive commenting, threatening), Sexual (asking for sexual favor, sending pictures of genitalia), and Attack on identity (calling one's identity immoral, unnatural). The participants coped with the cyberbullying through three strategies: Active responding to the bully (retaliation, exposing the bully, attempting to explain), Psychological blocking (adopting an `I don't care' attitude, stop replying), and Technological blocking (blocking, deactivation, increasing filters). Cyberbullying led to aversive emotional outcomes (anger, sadness, shame), behavioural outcomes (reluctance to socialization, displacing anger to family members, self-injury), and psychopathologies (Depression, Sleep Disorders, Anxiety). The quantitative study shows a significant negative relationship between cyberbullying and mental health. Also, a positive correlation is observed between acceptance received from social media and the mental health status. However, the acceptance from social media does not significantly moderate the relationship between cyberbullying and mental health status. Also, there was no significant difference in mental health status, severity and frequency of cyberbullying, and acceptance from family and social media, based on education, employment status, and life-stage of the participants.