Journal of Youth and Adolescence最新文献

Defenders are critical in preventing school bullying, yet the association of their heterogeneity with social-ecological factors remains underexplored, especially over long-term development. Using a multilevel framework, this longitudinal study examined subgroups of defenders among Chinese adolescents, their distribution patterns at the classroom level, and how social-ecological factors influence these subgroups. Data were collected from 3569 junior high school students (initial M_age = 12.69 ± 0.49, 47.5% girls) across 76 classrooms in three waves at half-year intervals. Multilevel latent profile analysis identified six defender subgroups (frequent aggressive, frequent nonaggressive, moderate aggressive, moderate nonaggressive, infrequent, and nondefenders) and two classroom patterns (high- and low-defending). From the first to the second semester of eighth grade, nonaggressive defenders generally decreased, while aggressive, infrequent, and nondefenders increased at both the student and classroom levels. Furthermore, social status, classroom status hierarchy, and classroom bullying norms predicted defender subgroups, with effects that varied over time. These findings emphasize the necessity of considering defender heterogeneity from a social-ecological perspective and offer insights for classroom-level interventions.

Cyberbullying involves aggressive behaviors or threats through digital platforms. Youth who are victims of cyberbullying are at risk for a wide range of emotional and behavioral problems. Given the growing role of social media in adolescent life, understanding its relation to cyberbullying is crucial for prevention and policy. Although numerous studies suggest that social media use predicts cyberbullying victimization, methodological shortcomings limit their ability to infer the etiological role of social media use in cyberbullying victimization at the individual level-an issue this study addresses. A sample from two birth cohorts of children (n = 781, 53.4% girls) in Trondheim, Norway, was assessed biennially through interviews and questionnaires from age 12 to 18. Social media use and cyberbullying were related at the between-person level (i.e., those who use social media more than others were more likely to experience cyberbullying than others). However, within-person increases in self- or other-oriented social media use did not predict future within-person changes in cyberbullying victimization. The vast majority of former studies, which have not explored within-person changes, may have overestimated and overinterpreted the role of social media use in cyberbullying victimization. Efforts to reduce cyberbullying victimization by decreasing individual social media use may have limited effectiveness.

Although many studies have indicated that problematic smartphone use and depressive symptoms are closely associated and frequently co-occur in adolescence, little is known about their heterogeneous co-occurrence profiles and how these profiles evolve over time. Using person-centered approaches (LPA and RT-LTA), this study identified the co-occurrence patterns of problematic smartphone use and depressive symptoms, examined their transitions, and investigated the roles of social support and self-control on transitions. A total of 8969 Chinese adolescents (49.3% girls; T1: M_age = 12.86, SD = 0.31) participated in the study over a one-year period with three follow-up assessments. Five co-occurrence profiles consistently emerged: low symptoms, moderate co-occurrence, PSU-dominant, depression-dominant, and high co-occurrence. The low symptoms group showed the highest stability, whereas the PSU-dominant group showed the most transitions. Boys, as well as adolescents with higher levels of social support and self-control, showed a greater likelihood of symptom improvement and a reduced risk of symptom worsening over time, with the protective roles of self-control and social support being stronger among adolescents with less severe symptoms. These findings reveal the heterogeneous manifestations in the co-occurrence of problematic smartphone use and depressive symptoms, their longitudinal transitions and the conditional effects of protective factors among adolescents.