Bullying, cyberbullying, and youth health behaviors

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of bullying and cyberbullying victimization on youth health behaviors (smoking, drinking, drugs, sexual intercourse) since the literature has not evaluated within the same framework whether bullying on school grounds and cyberbullying have distinct effects on such behaviors. Using within law heterogeneity in anti-(cyber)bullying laws during 2011–2019, I jointly estimate the decision to adopt a health (dis)accumulating behavior along with a multivariate treatment into four victimization groups: no victimization, bullying only at school, only cyberbullying, both bullying and cyberbullying. Identification of students who face one of the four distinct victimization types reveals heterogeneous effects: cyberbullying has stronger deleterious effects than bullying, and students who experience both accumulate even less health capital. Interestingly, female students respond to victimization by increasing their participation in addictive health behaviors (smoking, excess drinking, marijuana, other illicit drugs), whereas male students are prone to engaging in riskier sexual behaviors (multiple sex partners, unprotected sex). These effects remain even after accounting for mediating effects of student depression and truancy suggesting that public policies should invest in strategies to educate the student's social environment (peers, teachers, parents) about their role in preventing (cyber)bullying and in providing effective counseling for victimized students.