TY - JOUR
T1 - Cyber-victimisation and mental health in young people
T2 - A co-twin control study
AU - Baldwin, Jessie R.
AU - Ayorech, Ziada
AU - Rijsdijk, Fruhling V.
AU - Schoeler, Tabea
AU - Pingault, Jean Baptiste
PY - 2020/1/1
Y1 - 2020/1/1
N2 - BackgroundThe rise of social media use in young people has sparked concern about the impact of cyber-victimisation on mental health. Although cyber-victimisation is associated with mental health problems, it is not known whether such associations reflect genetic and environmental confounding.MethodsWe used the co-twin control design to test the direct association between cyber-victimisation and multiple domains of mental health in young people. Participants were 7708 twins drawn from the Twins Early Development Study, a UK-based population cohort followed from birth to age 22.ResultsMonozygotic twins exposed to greater levels of cyber-victimisation had more symptoms of internalising, externalising and psychotic disorders than their less victimised co-twins at age 22, even after accounting for face-to-face peer victimisation and prior mental health. However, effect sizes from the most stringent monozygotic co-twin control analyses were decreased by two thirds from associations at the individual level [pooled β across all mental health problems = 0.06 (95% CI 0.03-0.10) v. 0.17 (95% CI 0.15-0.19) in individual-level analyses].ConclusionsCyber-victimisation has a small direct association with multiple mental health problems in young people. However, a large part of the association between cyber-victimisation and mental health is due to pre-existing genetic and environmental vulnerabilities and co-occurring face-to-face victimisation. Therefore, preventative interventions should target cyber-victimisation in conjunction with pre-existing mental health vulnerabilities and other forms of victimisation.
AB - BackgroundThe rise of social media use in young people has sparked concern about the impact of cyber-victimisation on mental health. Although cyber-victimisation is associated with mental health problems, it is not known whether such associations reflect genetic and environmental confounding.MethodsWe used the co-twin control design to test the direct association between cyber-victimisation and multiple domains of mental health in young people. Participants were 7708 twins drawn from the Twins Early Development Study, a UK-based population cohort followed from birth to age 22.ResultsMonozygotic twins exposed to greater levels of cyber-victimisation had more symptoms of internalising, externalising and psychotic disorders than their less victimised co-twins at age 22, even after accounting for face-to-face peer victimisation and prior mental health. However, effect sizes from the most stringent monozygotic co-twin control analyses were decreased by two thirds from associations at the individual level [pooled β across all mental health problems = 0.06 (95% CI 0.03-0.10) v. 0.17 (95% CI 0.15-0.19) in individual-level analyses].ConclusionsCyber-victimisation has a small direct association with multiple mental health problems in young people. However, a large part of the association between cyber-victimisation and mental health is due to pre-existing genetic and environmental vulnerabilities and co-occurring face-to-face victimisation. Therefore, preventative interventions should target cyber-victimisation in conjunction with pre-existing mental health vulnerabilities and other forms of victimisation.
KW - Co-twin control design
KW - cyber-bullying
KW - cyber-victimisation
KW - mental health
KW - twin study
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084445786&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0033291720001178
DO - 10.1017/S0033291720001178
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85084445786
SN - 0033-2917
JO - Psychological Medicine
JF - Psychological Medicine
ER -
