Psychological Outcomes of Cyber-violence on Victims, Perpetrators and Perpetrators/victims

Adolescents can take different roles in cyber-violence, and one of the most common classifications recognises victims, perpetrators, perpetrators/victims and uninvolved individuals. These groups experience some common outcomes, but there are also psychological outcomes that are specific to a particular role. In the relevant literature, depressive symptoms and low self-esteem are found as common outcomes for both victims and perpetrators, while distress is related only to being a victim. Since perpetrators/ victims display both types of roles in cyber-violence, they are assumed to be the group with the most negative outcomes, the group that per se experiences lower academic achievement. In the present research, youths with different roles in cyber-violence were compared regarding various psychological outcomes (depressive symptoms, stress, anxiety and self-esteem), hours spent on the Internet and academic achievement. In total, 1,176 participants were divided into groups of victims, perpetrators, perpetrators/ victims and uninvolved individuals. Perpetrators/victims differed in all variables from uninvolved individuals and had more negative results, supporting the claim that they constitute the group with the most negative outcomes, followed by victims. Perpetrators only showed a higher level of stress and had lower grades than the uninvolved group, suggesting lower costs of committing cyber-violence than experiencing it. The results provide insights into psychological outcomes, suggesting that perpetrators/victims comprise the group that should be included in selective or even indicated prevention programmes focused on reducing involvement in cyberviolence and its known outcomes, especially depression, anxiety and stress. Indicated prevention programmes for perpetrators should probably be tailored differently, for example, by problematising the lack of guilt and promoting empathy for victims while reducing the positive outcomes of cyber-violence (e.g., gaining social status via violence).