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Symptoms of anxiety and post-traumatic stress in traditional and cyber

5.1 C ONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE AND THEORY BUILDING

5.1.2. Symptoms of anxiety and post-traumatic stress in traditional and cyber

Much research has focused on the emotional problems of traditional victimization (e.g., Reijntjes et al., 2010; Ttofi et al., 2011). However, as cyberbullying is relatively new, it is important to determine whether this form differs from traditional victimization in terms of the emotional problems involved.

Discussion Victimization and symptoms of anxiety

The aim of paper 1 was to investigate the association between traditional and cyber victimization and symptoms of anxiety and depression. The findings showed significant differences between traditional and cyber victimization and symptoms of anxiety and depression. One of the main findings was that there is a stronger association between cyber victimization and symptoms of anxiety than between traditional victimization and those symptoms. This is consistent with the findings by Campbell et al. (2012) and Landoll et al. (2015) and indicates that cyber victimization causes more symptoms of anxiety than traditional victimization.

The aspects of anonymity and publicity involved in cyber victimization are presented as possible reasons for cyber victimization having a stronger correlation to symptoms of anxiety than traditional victimization. However, as our survey is not a longitudinal study, causality must be interpreted with caution.

The relatively strong correlation between cyber victimization and symptoms of anxiety makes it plausible that this victimization is also related to symptoms of post-traumatic stress. However, to the best of our knowledge, no previous study has investigated this issue in depth.

Another relevant question is whether the substance of such stress might indicate causality between the bullying history and the symptoms of stress.

Victimization and symptoms of post-traumatic stress

Terr (1991) describes a framework comprising two categories of childhood trauma: type I and type II. Type I trauma describes an overwhelming one-time experience, while type II trauma describes a more long-lasting negative experience, often a relational experience (Terr, 1991; Bath, 2008).

Discussion

It has been argued that repetition of the negative events in victimization makes this a potential traumatic type II experience. Studies find a correlation between traditional victimization and symptoms of post - traumatic stress (e.g., Idsøe, Dyregrov & Idsøe, 2012; Mckenney, Pepler, Craig & Connolly, 2005). This correlation involves the frequency of being victimized and the symptoms of post-traumatic stress. This differs, however, from the risk related to the duration of bullying exposure.

All the respondents presented in paper 2 experienced long-lasting bullying exposure for 1-7 years. One informant experienced victimization for one year, two for two years, one for three years, three for four years, one for six years and one for seven years. Although the sample is too small to draw conclusions, one interesting finding is that the informant who experienced victimization for seven years was the only informant describing bodily activation in the form of trouble breathing when thinking about the victimization. Thus, being exposed for a long time is a risk factor for more symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

Moreover, some differences between traditional and cyber victimization are described regarding both intrusive memories and behavioral avoidance. Although one should be careful to conclude anything because of the small sample this should be discussed in relation to the findings in paper 1 regarding symptoms of anxiety.

Symptoms of anxiety and intrusive memories

Pupils who have experienced both traditional and cyber victimization described more symptoms of intrusive memories than those who experienced only traditional victimization. Poly-victims had difficulty sleeping and described being frightened both in school and at home, while respondents who experienced traditional victimization described being frightened only in school settings.

Discussion

The findings regarding fear indicate that cyber victimization contributes to more fear in one’s spare time, as none of the respondents who did not experience cyber victimization reported this type of fear. Descriptions by the poly-victims of feeling fear both in school and in their spare time could explain the stronger correlation between symptoms of anxiety and cyber victimization shown in paper 1.

The poly-victims were also the only respondents to describe difficulty sleeping. This finding could also be related to cyber victimization having a stronger correlation with symptoms of anxiety than traditional victimization, as shown in paper 1, as experiencing anxiety could also lead to difficulty sleeping (Dyregrov, 2010).

The aspect of availability could be a possible reason for the findings mentioned above. Worrying about when victimization will occur, as it could happen in one’s spare time or even when one is asleep, easily leads to a higher level of stress and to symptoms of anxiety.

Symptoms of anxiety and behavioral avoidance

Behavioral avoidance can be defined as trying to avoid external reminders of a distressing experience (APA, 2013). For example, behavioral avoidance could result in avoiding certain places. We found that the most commonly described place to avoid was school. This is consistent with previous research showing a correlation between children who experienced victimization and school refusal (Havik et al., 2015).

However, there are reported differences in terms of which external reminders the respondents avoid. The respondents who have experienced traditional victimization describe avoidance behavior related only to the school setting; in contrast, poly-victims describe avoidance as a strategy in both the school setting and during their spare time. This difference could also be related to poly-victims describing experiencing fear both in school and in their spare time, in contrast to respondents who

Discussion

experienced traditional victimization only reporting experiencing fear related to school settings. In addition, differences in avoidance could be related to the findings in paper 1, in which cyber victimization was found to have a stronger correlation with symptoms of anxiety than traditional victimization.

Poly-victims – prevalence and emotional problems

As the analysis in the first paper showed that both traditional and cyber victimization are correlated with symptoms of depression and anxiety, it would further be appropriate to use the same sample in paper 1 to estimate the level of these symptoms for poly-victims compared to other categories of pupils. The variables of non-victimized, traditional victimization only, cyber victimization only and both cyber and traditional victimization (poly victims) were set up, using being bullied 2-3 times a month as the cutoff point. The percentages of cyber victims only, traditional victims only and poly victims were 2.2, 2.6 and 1.7, respectively.

The means of the symptoms of depression and anxiety were calculated by adding the score on each variable and dividing the sum by the number of items. The means of the symptoms of anxiety and depression were compared using SPSS:

Regarding symptoms of anxiety, those who were not bullied had a mean score of .18, while poly victims had a mean score of 2.06. Those who were traditionally victims only and cyber victims only scored .71 and .74 respectively. Regarding symptoms of depression, pupils who were not bullied scored .62. Poly victims had a mean of 2.08. Traditionally victims only had a mean of 1.21, and cyber victims had a mean of 1.19.

Tukey’s post hoc test showed that the differences between cyber victims only and traditional victims only were not significant for symptoms of anxiety (p=.98) or for symptoms of depression (p=.98). All other differences were significant (p=.00). The main conclusion is that poly

Discussion

victims have a very high score on both symptoms of anxiety and depression compared to all the other categories.

This result corresponds with other findings comparing the emotional problems of poly victims with those of victims of one type of bullying ( Brighi et al., 2012; Gradinger, Strohmeier, Spiel, 2009; Villora, et al., 2020).

Notably, the very small and non-significant differences between traditional victims only and cyber victims only in symptoms of anxiety and depression, were different from what the SEM analysis demonstrated (paper 1). The SEM analysis is the most reliable, because it corrects for measurement errors.