Adolescent Psychosocial Profiles and Early Cyberbullying Histories: Longitudinal Associations and Patterns of Change Across Development

IF 3.2 2区心理学 Q2 PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL

Journal of Adolescence Pub Date : 2026-08-05 Epub Date: 2026-06-23 DOI:10.1002/jad.70204

Taliah Prince, Amanda Boyes, Maddison Crethar, Christina Driver, Lia Mills, Daniel F. Hermens

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Introduction

Cyberbullying is highly prevalent during adolescence and is consistently associated with poor mental health outcomes. However, it remains unclear whether these difficulties develop into distinct psychosocial profiles, limiting understanding of how early cyberbullying relates to longitudinal patterns of psychological distress and wellbeing in adolescence. This study aimed to identify profiles of functioning, examine associations with earlier cyberbullying involvement, and characterize developmental patterns across adolescence.

Methods

Data were drawn from the Australian Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study (N = 86; 52.3% female, 48% male). Ward's hierarchical cluster analysis identified psychosocial profiles (i.e., clusters) based on psychological distress, body dissatisfaction, social connectedness, psychological wellbeing, and quality of life in mid-adolescence (time-points 9–15). Earlier cyberbullying involvement was examined using data from time-points 1–8 (Mage = 13.8 years), utilizing generalized additive mixed models to characterize psychosocial trajectories according to derived cluster membership.

Results

Three profiles emerged: (i) flourishing, (ii) broad impairment, and (iii) appearance-specific. Early cyberbullying involvement was associated with membership in the broad impairment cluster but not the appearance-specific cluster. Longitudinal modeling indicated that the flourishing group showed stable functioning, the broad impairment group showed significant change across domains, and the appearance-specific group showed change in social connectedness. Eating disorder symptoms were most prevalent in the appearance-specific profile, present in the broad impairment profile, and absent in the flourishing profile.

Conclusions

Cyberbullying was associated with widespread psychosocial impairment, whereas body dissatisfaction may reflect a more domain-specific vulnerability pathway. Differences in developmental trajectories across profiles support person-centered, longitudinal approaches for targeted prevention.

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青少年心理社会概况和早期网络欺凌历史：纵向关联和发展变化模式。

网络欺凌在青少年时期非常普遍，并且一直与不良的心理健康结果有关。然而，目前尚不清楚这些困难是否会发展成独特的社会心理特征，这限制了对早期网络欺凌与青春期心理困扰和健康的纵向模式之间关系的理解。本研究旨在确定功能概况，检查早期网络欺凌参与的关系，并描述青春期的发展模式。方法：数据来自澳大利亚纵向青少年脑研究（N = 86，女性52.3%，男性48%）。Ward的分层聚类分析确定了基于心理困扰、身体不满、社会联系、心理健康和青春期中期（时间点9-15）生活质量的心理社会概况（即聚类）。使用时间点1-8（年龄= 13.8年）的数据检查早期网络欺凌参与情况，利用广义加性混合模型根据衍生的聚类隶属度表征心理社会轨迹。结果：出现了三个概况：(i)繁荣，（ii）广泛的损害，（iii）外观特异性。早期参与网络欺凌与广泛损害集群的成员关系有关，但与特定外貌集群无关。纵向模型分析表明，健康组功能稳定，广泛性损伤组跨域变化显著，外貌特异性组社会连通性变化显著。饮食失调症状在外貌特异性的剖面中最为普遍，在广泛的损害剖面中存在，而在繁荣剖面中不存在。结论：网络欺凌与广泛的社会心理障碍有关，而身体不满可能反映了一个更特定领域的脆弱性途径。不同发育轨迹的差异支持以人为本的纵向预防方法。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Adolescence PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL-

CiteScore

6.40

自引率

2.60%

发文量

123

期刊介绍： The Journal of Adolescence is an international, broad based, cross-disciplinary journal that addresses issues of professional and academic importance concerning development between puberty and the attainment of adult status within society. It provides a forum for all who are concerned with the nature of adolescence, whether involved in teaching, research, guidance, counseling, treatment, or other services. The aim of the journal is to encourage research and foster good practice through publishing both empirical and clinical studies as well as integrative reviews and theoretical advances.