JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The phenomenon of cyberbullying is becoming increasingly severe, and many studies focus on the negative psychological impacts of cyberbullying victimization. However, current survey methods cannot provide direct and reliable evidence of the short-term psychological effects of cyberbullying victimization, as it is impractical to measure psychological changes before and after such an unpredictable event in a short period.

Objective:

This study aims to explore the short-term effects of cyberbullying on victims' internal psychological traits and their perceptions of the external environment, and to analyze the core psychological characteristics of cyberbullying victims.

Methods:

We collected samples from 60 victims (78.3% female) and 60 non-victims (matched by gender, location, and number of followers) on Sina Weibo. In both the victim and non-victim groups, we measured their psychological traits three months before and after the first cyberbullying incident. We first used non-invasive, timely retrospective methods with social media data, based on predictive models, to identify individuals' internal psychological traits, including happiness, suicide risk, personality traits, and moral perceptions of the external environment. We then used network analysis methods to explore the core psychological traits after experiencing cyberbullying.

Results:

Results showed that for internal psychological traits, the victim group exhibited significantly reduced happiness, marginally increased suicide risk, and significant changes in the Big Five personality traits within three months after experiencing cyberbullying. Regarding moral perceptions of the external environment, the victims showed a significant increase in communicative moral motivation and a significant increase in the FairnessVice, with a marginal increase in the PurityVice. In contrast, cyberbullying had no significant impact on the non-victim group. Additionally, network analysis revealed that happiness is the core psychological trait affected by cyberbullying victimization.

Conclusions:

We used non-invasive data collection methods, and the findings on the short-term effects of cyberbullying on individuals' internal psychological traits and moral perceptions of the external environment provide important insights for timely interventions. Enhancing victims' happiness, reducing suicide risk, adjusting personality traits, and rebuilding moral cognition should be the primary focus areas for intervention.