Adolescent victims of cyberbullying in Bangladesh-prevalence and relationship with psychiatric disorders

Cyberbully victimization ranged from 5- to 55% around the Globe. Victims show more negative emotions and stress than the non-victims. This study was designed to find out the prevalence of Cyberbully victims, nature of the Cyberbullying victimization and to find out its possible association with psychiatric disorders in a school sample in Bangladesh. This was a two-phased cross-sectional study. The first phase was for identifying Cyberbully victims and screening psychopathology. During second phase, psychiatric diagnoses were made. The subjects were further divided into Cyberbully victim positive and negative cases for comparison. Their age ranged from 14 to 17 years. Prevalence of Cyberbully victims was found to be 32 % with higher preponderance among boys. Of the Cyberbully victims, 27.3 % suffered from any kind of psychiatric disorder which was significant (P = 0.012). Both emotional and behavioral disorders were significantly higher among the victims (21.6 % and 12.5 % respectively). Major depressive disorder alone was present in 9.1 % of Cyberbully victims which was proportionately higher from the non-victims at significant level. Majority of the bullies (60.87 %) were virtual friends. The results indicate the rising problem of Cyberbullying associated with notable amount of psychiatric disorders that needs more attention.