Combined victimization of face-to-face and cyberbullying and adverse health outcomes among school-age adolescents in Argentina

ABSTRACT

Face-to-face bullying victimization (FBV) and cyber bullying victimization (CBV) are of global concern, including in Latin America. The aim of this study was to evaluate the associations between combined FBV and CBV relative to single victimization (FBV or CBV) and no victimization with a wide range of adverse health outcomes among school-aged adolescents from Argentina. National cross-sectional school data from 56,981 adolescents that responded to questions on FBV, CBV, and adverse health outcomes were analyzed. The results showed a prevalence of 18.7% FBV alone, 8.1% CBV alone and 13.6% combined FBV and CBV. Combined FBV and CBV had higher odds than single victimization (FBV or CBV) in 18 negative health outcomes, including anxiety, suicidal ideation, loneliness, suicide plan and attempt, smoking, smokeless tobacco use, history of intoxication, alcohol-related problems, current cannabis use, ever use of amphetamine, school truancy, participation in physical fighting, physically attacked, injury, ever sex, multiple sexual partners and sedentary behaviour. In conclusion, combined FBV and CBV had higher odds than single BV or no BV in most adverse health outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• face-to-face bullied
• cyberbullied
• health outcomes
• adolescents
• Argentina

Acknowledgments

“This paper uses data from the Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS). GSHS is supported by the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention”.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical standards

The study was granted ethics approval by a national ethics committee and written informed consent was obtained from the participants or their guardians before the survey.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in the World Health Organization NCD Microdata Repository, https://extranet.who.int/ncdsmicrodata/index.php/catalog/

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.