Browsing by Author "Mäkinen, Jenna"

Aims of the study Most adolescents use social media. As the amount of social media use increases the likelihood of being cyberbullied increases. Both the amount of social media use and cyberbullying victimization are known to be associated with depression. In this study we examine whether cyberbullying victimization mediates the association between the amount of social media use and depression among girls and boys. Methods The sample of this study (girls: n=5647, boys: n=5535) consisted of British youth who participated in Millenium Cohort Study in 2015 and who were 14 years old at the time. The amount of social media use was measured by the following question: “On a normal week day during term time, how many hours do you spend on social networking or messaging sites or Apps on the internet such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp?”. Being cyberbullied was measured asking the youth “How often have other children sent you unwanted or nasty emails, texts or messages or posted something nasty about you on a website?”. Depression was measured by Short Moods and Feelings Questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was used as the main statistical method. Results and conclusions Compared to those who used very little social media (less than one hour daily), the amount of social media use was associated with greater probability of depression when social media was used daily at least for an hour among girls (1-3 h: OR=1.27, 3-7 h: OR=2.34, over 7 h: OR=3.59) and over three hours among boys (3-7 h: OR=1.52, over 7 h: OR=2.75). Greater amount of social media use was associated with greater probability of cyberbullying victimization among girls (1-3 h: OR=1.78, 3-7 h: OR=3.24, over 7 h: OR=4.21) and boys (1-3 h: OR=1.73, 3-7 h: OR=2.41, over 7 h: OR=2.72). Cyberbullying victimization was associated with greater probability of depression among girls (OR=3.47) and boys (OR=4.23). Cyberbullying victimization mediated the association between the amount of social media use and depression among both girls and boys. Cyberbullying victimization seems to be more strongly associated with depression than the amount of social media use. Conclusions about the directions of the associations cannot be drawn because of the cross-sectional nature of this study.