Cyberbullying Victimisation Was Associated With Greater Manic Symptoms in Early Adolescence: A Prospective Cohort Study

Aim: Cyberbullying has been linked to various adverse psychological outcomes, but prospective associations with manic symptoms in early adolescents remain unexplored. We examined the prospective relationship between cyberbullying victimisation and manic symptoms in a diverse cohort of American children and adolescents. Method: We analysed data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study from the period 2 follow-up (2018–2020) to the period 3 follow-up (2019–2021). Linear regression models estimated the associations between cyberbullying victimisation (lifetime and past 12 months) and manic symptoms. We adjusted for age, sex, race and ethnicity, household income, parental education, manic symptoms, anxiety, depression, total screen time, and study site. Results: The average age of our 9095 adolescents (51.3% male) was 12.0 ± 0.7 years. The prevalence of cyberbullying victimisation was 9.2% for lifetime and 6.1% for the past 12 months. Adjusting for the covariates, lifetime cyberbullying victimisation was associated with a 0.41 higher manic symptom sum score (95% CI 0.18–0.65, p = 0.001), and past 12-month cyberbullying victimisation was associated with a 0.38 higher manic symptom sum score (95% CI 0.11–0.66, p = 0.007). Conclusion: These findings highlight the need for early identification and intervention for adolescents experiencing cyberbullying to mitigate its adverse effects on mental health.