The relationship between bullying victimization and depression in adolescents: multiple mediating effects of internet addiction and sleep quality

ABSTRACT

Various studies have found that bullying victimization is an important factor affecting depression. However, few studies have explored the underlying mechanism of this effect.  The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of bullying victimization on depression, as well as the mediating roles of internet addiction and sleep quality. The participants were 2022 Chinese junior high school students who completed questionnaires regarding bullying victimization, internet addiction, sleep quality and depression. Correlation analysis indicated that bullying victimization, poor sleep quality, internet addiction, and depression have significant, positive correlations with each other. Hayes’ PROCESS macro revealed that internet addiction and sleep quality played multiple mediation roles in the relationship between bullying victimization and depression. These results suggested that effective strategies focusing on improving problematic internet use along with sleep quality may contribute to reducing the negative effect of bullying victimization on depressive symptoms.

KEYWORDS:

• Bullying
• Depressive Symptoms
• Problematic Internet Use
• Sleep Disturbance
• Adolescents

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

We acknowledge all the participants who contributed to this study. This work was supported by the [International Innovation Team of Jilin University #1] under Grant [number 2019GJTD06]; [Planning Project for Humanities and Social Science Research of the Department of Education of Jilin Province #2] under Grant [number JJKH20190216SK]; and [Graduate Innovation Fund of Jilin University #3] under Grant [number 101832018C063].