July 15, 2022
Cyberbullying and social connectedness
This month, we are highlighting Dr Larisa McLoughlin and her fantastic work on cyberbullying. Estimates regarding the prevalence of cyberbullying vary, but it is thought that by the end of their school careers, up to 75% of young people will have been impacted by it, either as a perpetrator, a victim (or both), or as a bystander. Cyberbullying is clearly a prevalent concern during adolescence and it is also a significant contributor to poor mental health outcomes, including anxiety and depression. Establishing effective coping mechanisms and protective factors which might mitigate its negative influence is therefore vital.
Dr McLoughlin’s study investigates a small sample of 12-year-old Australian participants from the Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study (LABS) to establish what impact social connectedness has on levels of wellbeing for young people with experiences of cyberbullying.
Summary
Common incidents of cyberbullying include receiving hurtful messages, having images, messages or content shared without permission and being excluded from online groups or games. For this kind of behaviour to constitute cyberbullying, there generally needs to be an intent to cause harm and for the behaviours to be repeated over time. A one off incident would not usually be classified as cyberbullying.
Frequently, young people who experience cyberbullying also cyberbully others themselves. These are known as ‘bully victims’ and research suggests these individuals experience the most severe mental health problems, with more depression and anxiety than people who are only either perpetrators or victims.
Research shows that social connectedness may act as a protective factor for mental health and wellbeing when young people experience cyberbullying. Dr McLoughlin’s paper furthers this body of research by examining the links between social connectedness, wellbeing, and cyberbullying over time.
Social connectedness is well established as an important aspect of adolescence, with higher levels typically resulting in positive mental health and wellbeing. Being socially connected means having good quality relationships, on and offline, and the knowledge that there are people who like and value us and who we can turn to for help and support.
This study analysed the participants’ personal experiences of cyberbullying, their levels of social connectedness and their wellbeing scores. It found that the negative influences of cyberbullying and cybervictimisation on wellbeing scores over time are lessened by strong levels of social connectedness.
It appears that increased social connectedness promotes positive wellbeing over time and can protect wellbeing in those experiencing cyberbullying and/or cybervictimisation.
Implications
“The results highlight the important role that social connectedness plays in promoting wellbeing in both cybervictims and cyberbullies over time.”
Implications for parents – Aim to have open and honest conversations with children about cyberbullying and promote help-seeking behaviours, before any problems crop up. Ensuring that children feel comfortable talking about their experiences online is crucial. If your child is involved in cyberbullying, think carefully before removing their devices. It may feel like you are protecting them, but you might also be denying them access to vital supportive connections. Make time to discuss positive coping strategies.
On average, participants were not shown to have experienced multiple instances of cyberbullying or cybervictimisation. Parents should be aware that even very few experiences are linked to significant effects on wellbeing and that social connectedness and support are important regardless of the level of exposure.
Implications for schools – Dr McLoughlin notes that ‘schools should place an emphasis on the importance of connection and ensure there are a number of (social) support systems in place for students who may need it.’ Promote social connections through peer schemes, have a readily available pastoral team and make sure that young people are aware of helplines and external sources of support should they feel uncomfortable talking to friends, family or staff.
Dr Larisa McLoughlin
Research Fellow
Dr Larisa McLoughlin has over a decade of experience conducting cyberbullying research, and is currently a Research Fellow at the Behaviour-Brain-Body Research Centre at University of South Australia. Larisa just completed four years of work at the Thompson Institute, University of the Sunshine Coast, working on the Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study (LABS). LABS is collecting data using: self-report, neurocognitive assessments, neuropsychiatric interviews, MRI scans, and EEG.
Larisa has also undertaken her own research investigating the neurobiological underpinnings of cyberbullying. Her research used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to observe how the brain responds to witnessing cyberbullying. Larisa has developed CyPicS (Cyberbullying Picture Series) for use in this research. Larisa’s postgraduate work focused on cyberbullying, namely the mental health outcomes associated with it, as well as help-seeking and coping behaviours of young people. Her PhD was under a scholarship by the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, and Larisa was a key team member for the Safe and Well Online Study at UniSA, led by Associate Professor Barbara Spears.
Dr Larisa McLoughlin
Research Fellow
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Sep 16, 2024
How Do Young Children’s Relationships with Parents and Teachers Impact Their Adjustment to School?
We already know that children's relationships with their parents and teachers contribute to their school adjustment and achievement, and that positive, close relationships with adults are really important for a wide variety of children’s outcomes. However, few studies have examined interactions between these relationships or sought to address the nuances of children’s experiences in terms of how different relationships have different impact or influence. To address this, along with colleagues, our new Researcher of the Month, Dr Caoimhe Dempsey, has recently published an article which aims to examine the links between children's relationships with their mothers, fathers and teachers, and three domains of school adjustment: academic achievement, academic self-concept and behavioural adjustment in the classroom. By examining a range of data, the researchers sought to find out whether some children are more susceptible to the effects of the quality of their relationship with their teacher.
Aug 19, 2024
Supporting children's transition to secondary school
Supporting children to successfully transition from primary to secondary or senior school is vitally important. It's a big life change, which can leave both parents and children feeling excited and nervous in equal measure. At Tooled Up, we often use the analogy of a journey for the transitional experience. In fact, anyone who has attended or watched a talk with our founder, Dr Kathy Weston, is likely to have heard her say that we'd all want our children to be well prepared for any journey they go on, and that, as loving parents and carers, we wouldn't dream of sending them off on any journey without the right equipment, mindset and strategies to reach their destination safely and securely. Transition to a new school is no different. Research shows that there are numerous holistic protective factors that can help to ease transition. Conversely, it's also the case that problems with successfully transitioning to secondary school and subsequent lower levels of school connectedness are associated with lower education outcomes, school drop-out, higher levels of depression and anxiety, and increased involvement in criminal, violent and antisocial behaviour. Research also shows that these difficulties may not be equal across different socio-demographic variables, with children from underserved communities (including those from minority ethnic backgrounds and lower socio-economic status) and children with behavioural difficulties facing greater challenges during the transition to secondary school. It's therefore important for all parents and educators to consider how to make this transition as seamless as possible. Along with her co-authors, our Researcher of the Month, Dr Aurelie Lange, has published a new paper which evaluates the efficacy of a new UK-based online intervention called Level Up. In it, Dr Lange seeks to explore families' experiences of facilitators and barriers to engagement and change.
Jul 15, 2024
The impact of digital experiences on teens with mental health vulnerabilities
Over the last decade, digital developments have led to major changes in the ways that teens learn, work, play and interact with others. Digital access is a daily reality for most children and young people. Nine in 10 children in the UK now own a smartphone by the time they reach the age of 11, and the large majority of children aged 11 now use social media (78%) and have a social media profile (72%), despite being younger than the minimum age requirement for many platforms. By the time teens are 17 years old, 97% will use social media. Coincident with this change, adolescent mental health problems have also increased in prevalence. It is therefore no surprise that much research has focused on the relationship between digital experiences and adolescent mental health. However, comparatively few studies have directly compared the experiences of teens with mental health conditions meaning that some key questions remain unanswered. Do adolescents with pre‐existing mental health conditions differ in terms of why and how they engage with the digital world compared to peers without such difficulties? Are specific mental health conditions linked to different patterns of digital usage? What role do such differences play in the development and escalation of these conditions? In a recent paper, our Researcher of the Month, Dr Kasia Kostyrka-Allchorne, and her colleagues, explore what the evidence shows about the digital experiences of teens with mental health vulnerabilities.
Jun 13, 2024
NELI Preschool: a new oral language enrichment programme for preschools and nurseries
Oral language skills provide the foundation for formal education, yet many children enter school with language weaknesses. Oral language is fundamental to children’s overall development and educational success. It is linked to all higher level cognitive skills and is pivotal for literacy development, and education more generally. It’s also vitally important for children’s social and emotional development. The term oral language refers to a complex set of skills that should ideally work seamlessly together to enable children to communicate with others by producing and understanding language. It’s an umbrella term, encompassing numerous component skills which include having a good vocabulary and the grammatical ability to combine words effectively to convey meaning, along with an understanding of cause and effect, memory skills and the ability to plan what to say and what not to say. Language skills develop rapidly between the ages of 3–6 years making preschool an excellent time to intervene to support language development. Because of this, Dr Gill West and her colleagues – as part of a team headed by Professor Charles Hulme – have developed and evaluated the efficacy of a new language enrichment programme, the Nuffield Early Language Intervention—Preschool (NELI Preschool), which is delivered to children the year before they enter formal education. The programme combines language enrichment for all children, with additional targeted support for those with language needs, potentially narrowing the gap in language skills associated with social disadvantage.
May 16, 2024
"More is more”: the impact of careers education on later outcomes
Does school-based careers education, advice, information and guidance (CEAIG) have any influence on later life outcomes? A body of research has shown that careers education and activities can play an important role in helping young people to prepare for and navigate transitions into the world of work. It has also shown that the quality and quantity of provision can vary considerably, with those who are most socially disadvantaged experiencing the least and lowest quality provision. However, until now, the impact of careers education on later life outcomes has remained unclear. A new paper written by Dr Julie Moote and colleagues seeks to find out what relationship there is between young people’s perceptions of the quality and quantity of school-based careers activities and education experienced at the age of 14–16 and their outcomes several years later, when they are 21–22. Findings are discussed in the light of recent legislation relating to careers support in England, which highlights how important it is to ensure that the needs of all young people transitioning into the workforce and adulthood are met.
Apr 11, 2024
STEM in preschool settings: do teachers’ scientific questions differ by child gender?
In the US, as in numerous countries including the UK, female and non-White students are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) fields. A significant body of research demonstrates significant gender disparities in STEM achievement, participation and attitudes from early childhood, and that these continue to widen as children get older. Children are strongly influenced by their early environments and conversations with adults. Whilst gendered messages around STEM are now rarely explicit – children are unlikely to be told that girls can’t be scientists – they may receive more subtle messages about representation and belonging. These differences may contribute to children’s beliefs about their own STEM ability, their performance in STEM activities, and their decision to pursue a career in STEM. US researcher, Dr Sona Kumar, and her colleagues sought to explore whether there are subtle differences in the messages that preschool educators send girls and boys about STEM. Previous, older research with caregivers found that parents tended to provide more scientific explanations to boys than to girls. Studies have also found that, within classroom settings, boys often receive more attention from teachers on science-related subjects than girls. Dr Kumar predicted that teachers would direct more scientific questions to boys than girls and tested this by observing a preschool setting.
Mar 14, 2024
Do parental controls work and what are the pros and cons?
Policymakers and technology companies promote the use of parental control tools to ensure children’s safety in our digital age. In recent years, there has been considerable industry investment in this new generation of technical child protection measures, designed to help parents and carers to control what their children see and do online. Some of these tools operate at the level of the device (such as a phone or tablet). Other tools are embedded into specific services, such as Snapchat, or streaming services such as Netflix. Others work at the level of the operating system, such as IOS, Android or Windows, or are provided by your broadband company. Control tools vary in functionality. Some allow parents to limit the amount of time that children spend on a device or particular app. Others can track their child’s location. Internet filters block certain categories of content (violence, adult content or gambling, for example), or specific websites. There are other tools that track children’s online activity (search history, online purchases or activity logs, for example) and provide reports or real-time alerts to parents. Some tools track activity and interactions on social media platforms and can limit children’s contact with unknown users. But how many families actually make use of them, and do they work? Our Researcher of the Month, Dr Mariya Stoilova, and her colleagues, reviewed all available evidence in a recently published study.
Feb 09, 2024
BMI, body dissatisfaction and depression: positive steps forward
We know that more adolescents are experiencing depressive symptoms than in the past, but we don’t yet know precisely why. Noting a need to understand modifiable risk factors for depression, which could inform future preventative work, our researcher of the month, Dr Francesca Solmi, and her team, have recently published new and novel findings about the impact of high BMI and body dissatisfaction on children’s later mental health. They “found strong longitudinal evidence that a high BMI in childhood is linked with an increased risk of depressive symptoms multiple years later” and discovered that body dissatisfaction accounts for a significant proportion of this link, finding strong evidence that being unhappy with one’s appearance at the age of 11 is linked with increased depressive symptoms during the teen years.
Jan 15, 2024
New study links energy drinks to mental health problems in young people
We’ve all seen the vast array of colourful cans and bottles in the supermarket. Perhaps you are a fan yourself. But did you know that, in 2020, the energy drinks market was worth $45.8 billion globally? It is a large and expanding market, projected to grow at an annual rate of 8.2%, and reach a whopping $108.40 billion by 2031. Despite the fact that these products typically contain very high levels of both caffeine and sugar, and warnings on labels that they are ‘not recommended for children’, they are extremely popular with young people. In fact, if you have offspring of a certain age, you are likely aware that 2023 was the year of Prime, a product popularised on social media. Initially, Prime was a hydration drink, but the range has since expanded to include an energy drink containing caffeine. It became so popular among teens that bottles were spotted selling for £18 in some shops (and more on resale sites), despite the recommended retail price being only £2.99. Research from a few years ago had already found that up to a third of children in the UK consume caffeinated energy drinks on a weekly basis and ranked young people in the UK as the biggest consumers of energy drinks in Europe for their age group. 13% identified as high chronic consumers – having energy drinks four to five times a week, or more. Published today (15th January), the most comprehensive evidence review to date has found that consuming energy drinks is associated with a wide range of risks, including increased risk of mental health issues among children and young people. Our researcher of the month, Professor Amelia Lake, along with co-author Dr Shelina Visram and the rest of the team at FUSE (the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health) at Teesside University and Newcastle University, examined data from 57 studies of over 1.2 million children and young people from more than 21 countries. The study’s findings build on earlier research and highlight numerous risks associated with energy drinks.
Dec 11, 2023
Mainstreaming the Black Pill: Incels on TikTok
You may well have heard of incels (involuntary celibates). Following several violent attacks associated with the ideology, this subgroup of the ‘manosphere’ has recently received a significant amount of media interest. Once mostly contained on niche men’s forums, incel communities and theories are gaining prominence on mainstream social media platforms. The incels are an online community whose members define themselves by their inability to form or access sexual relationships with women. They believe that society is stratified according to physical attractiveness. Women and attractive men are privileged, and unattractive men (like them) are excluded from sexual or romantic relationships. The ‘black pill’ ideology maintains that unattractive men cannot escape their romantic fate because their unattractiveness is pre-determined by genetic factors. Incels believe that their physical traits are substandard and that they are therefore discriminated against by women based on their physical appearance. Misogynistic incels believe that this social structure has been created by women and encouraged by feminists. They consider women to be privileged, entitled, lookist and promiscuous, and believe that women always choose the most physically attractive men and exclude those who are less attractive, using pseudoscience and evolutionary psychology to reinforce their claims. Whilst previous research considerably enhanced our understanding of the incel phenomenon and their presence on Reddit and secluded incel forums, incel’s presence on mainstream social media platforms is understudied and their presence on TikTok is yet to be addressed. Our Researcher of the Month, Anda Solea, is hoping to fill this research gap and has recently co-authored a paper on the incel subculture on TikTok. It examines the presence and spread of misogynistic narratives linked to incels on TikTok and YouTube aims to identify the mechanisms that drive engagement to such content.