More Cyberbullying, Less Happiness, and More Injustice—Psychological Changes During the Pericyberbullying Period: Quantitative Study Based on Social Media Data (Preprint)
Authors: Liu Xingyun , Liu Miao , Kang Xin , Han Nuo , Liao Yuehan , Ren Zhihong 
Published: February 2025

BACKGROUND

The phenomenon of cyberbullying is becoming increasingly severe, and many studies focus on the negative psychological impacts of cyberbullying survivors. However, current survey methods cannot provide direct and reliable evidence of the short-term psychological effects of cyberbullying survivors, 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 psychological impacts of cyberbullying on survivors during the pericyberbullying period, defined as the critical time frame surrounding the first cyberbullying incident, encompassing the psychological changes before, during, and after the event.

METHODS

We collected samples from 60 cyberbullying survivors (experimental group, 94/120, 78% female) and 60 individuals who have not experienced cyberbullying (control group, matched by sex, location, and number of followers) on Sina Weibo, a social media platform developed by Sina Corporation. During the pericyberbullying period, we retrospectively measured psychological traits 3 months before and after the first cyberbullying incident for both groups. Social media data and predictive models were used to identify survivors’ internal psychological traits, including happiness, suicide risk, personality traits, and moral perceptions of the external environment. Network analysis was then performed to explore the interplay between cyberbullying experiences and psychological characteristics.

RESULTS

During the pericyberbullying period, survivors exhibited significantly reduced happiness (<i>t</i><sub>59</sub>=2.14; <i>P</i>=.04), marginally increased suicide risk, and significant changes in the Big 5 personality traits, including decreased conscientiousness (<i>t</i><sub>59</sub>=2.27; <i>P</i>=.03), agreeableness (<i>t</i><sub>59</sub>=2.79; <i>P</i>=.007), and extraversion (<i>t</i><sub>59</sub>=2.26; <i>P</i>=.03), alongside increased neuroticism (<i>t</i><sub>59</sub>=–3.42; <i>P</i>=.001). Regarding moral perceptions of the external environment, survivors showed significant increases in communicative moral motivation (<i>t</i><sub>59</sub>=–2.62; <i>P</i>=.011) and FairnessVice (<i>t</i><sub>59</sub>=–2.20; <i>P</i>=.03), with a marginal rise in PurityVice (<i>t</i><sub>59</sub>=–1.88; <i>P</i>=.07). In contrast, the control group exhibited no significant changes during the same time frame. Additionally, network analysis revealed that beyond cyberbullying experiences, core psychological characteristics in the network were neuroticism, conscientiousness, and Oxford Happiness.

CONCLUSIONS

By leveraging noninvasive retrospective social media data, this study provides novel insights into the short-term psychological impacts of cyberbullying during the pericyberbullying period. The findings highlight the need for timely interventions focusing on enhancing survivors’ happiness, reducing suicide risk, adjusting personality traits, and rebuilding moral cognition to mitigate the negative effects of cyberbullying.