Aria Grant CYSE 201S

Professor Trinity Woodbury

4 April 2025

Article Review: “Prevalence and Trends of Depression among Cyberbullied Adolescents – Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2011-2019”

The study utilized the research to answer the questions of whether adolescents who cyberbullied display increased prevalence or trends towards depression, and how that data compares to other adolescent individuals who are not cyberbullied. They further separated these groups based on biological sex and race/ethnicity to understand if any variations can be seen with these categorizations. The study is related heavily to psychology due to the question specifying depression as a mental illness to focus on. Psychology helps to explain how depression exists, how it varies from adolescent to adult, and patterns in depression diagnosis over the years of studies. Additionally, sociology is another important factor within this study that specializes in why bullying as a whole takes place, the reasons cyberbullying is more prevalent than physical or in-person bullying, and the reasons why any bullying happens at all. The study utilized CDC data from 2011 to 2019 to ‘produce a nationally representative sample of students in grades 9-12.’ (Nicholson et al., 2023) The schools were selected from a list that remained proportional to each school’s enrollment, which resulted in a ‘71% response rate, with a sample size of 70,923.’ (Nicholson et al., 2023) The researchers further utilized CDC guidelines to parse through the information received from the participants to ensure that the numbers would remain consistent. Marginalized groups were individually accounted for when utilizing these methods from the CDC and showed trends for each group. This research is extremely essential because of the increased use that social media has seen over the years and how this may affect adolescents, specifically with depression. Understanding how adolescents have been affected by cyberbullying that has become more prolific within the past decade. Adolescents’ perception of online spaces is an important influence on how they will interact in online spaces. Just the feeling of being unsafe increases the chances of being victimized in online spaces. This dynamic takes greater effect when additionally analyzing the way individuals understate or do not understand how differently individuals can act in online spaces compared to real-life situations, creating a paradigm in which individuals feel comfortable until they are victimized.  This study provides an important foundation for further research to be conducted upon in regards to the effects and trends of cyberbullying.

References

Nicholson, Jason, et al. “Prevalence and Trends of Depression among Cyberbullied Adolescents – Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2011 – 2019 .” International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence and Cybercrime, vol. 6, no. 1, 31 Mar. 2023, https://doi.org/10.52306/znrr2381.