Étude du profil des personnes victimes d’intimidation réelle et d’intimidation sur Internet

Abstract

ObjectivesOver the last decade, Internet use has exponentially grown among young people and 95% of adolescents are able to access the Internet. It is important to note that this expansion might lead to cyberbullying, an underestimated phenomenon that has been reported to be experienced by up to 20% of adolescents. Cyberbullying has been associated with poor psychological functioning such as increased depressive and anxiety symptoms. Therefore, the aim of the present study was firstly to explore relationships between different kinds of bullying (face to face, Internet, and Facebook) and depression, social and separation anxiety, submissive traits, and social support, among adolescents. We expected to find an association between the different forms of bullying and these variables. Secondly, the aim was to identify a typology of adolescents based on the type of bullying. We expected to obtain clusters that would differ in levels of psychological functioning including depressive and social phobia symptoms, perceived social support, separation anxiety and submissive traits. MethodsThe study data were obtained from high schools students in Toulouse, France. Participants were 151 adolescents (Mean age=15.28±0.6) who completed a self-report questionnaire assessing depression, social and separation anxiety, submissive traits, social support, bullying, and cyberbullying on the Internet and on Facebook. ResultsA correlation analysis revealed that cyberbullying was positively associated with bullying (r=.80, P<.05) and negatively associated with social support (r=–0.27, P<.05). Cluster analysis yielded 3 clearly distinct clusters with 92.7% of participants successfully classified (Wilks’ λ=0.10, P<.0001): the low bullied cluster (LBC) (n=99.60% of the sample), the moderately bullied cluster (MBC) (n=38.31% of the sample) and the highly bullied cluster (HBC) (n=14.9% of the sample). The HBC cluster had significantly higher scores on depression, social anxiety and submissive traits and lower scores of social support than the LBC and the MBC clusters. ConclusionFirstly, our results suggest that victims of cyberbullying might suffer from increased psychological distress including higher depressive symptoms, social/separation anxiety symptoms, submissive traits and lower social support. Secondly, our results suggest the usefulness of taking traditional bullying into account when exploring cyberbullying. Indeed, existing face-to-face power relationships might be extended to Internet. A continuum between bullying in school and cyberbullying could lead to increased psychological distress and an increased suicide risk. This continuum might be associated with Internet use on mobile devices which could lead to a lack of separation between private and public domains. Further studies exploring cyberbullying via mobile devices as well as victim and assaulter profiles on the Internet are warranted.