General and cyber-paranoia in non-clinical adolescents

Abstract

Adolescence is a period where young people experience biological and social changes (Sawyer et al., 2018), are susceptible to high levels of vulnerability and social threat recognition (Bird et al., 2017) and are transitioning through a critical period in their development (Robinson et al., 2011). This research focussed on the mental health of adolescents. Chapter 1 discusses the reasons for embarking on this research explaining the ontology, epistemology and the axiology used in the subsequent two chapters. Chapter 2 utilised a narrative synthesis to report the findings from 7 studies, identified as part of a systematic literature review of the impact of cyberbullying and online victimisation in adolescents aged 14 to 18 years of age. Key findings suggest that adolescents are at risk of depression, feeling sad and suicide having been a victim of cyberbullying and/or online victimisation. Student connectedness acted as a protective factor with lower numbers of adolescents identifying as victims of cyberbullying and online victimisation in schools with higher levels of students connectedness. Chapter 3 used a mixed methods approach to explore the personal experiences of paranoia in a non-clinical population of adolescents aged 14 to 18 years, and compare to the levels of cyber-paranoia and fear in the same population. The online survey was disseminated through schools who opted in to the research. Parents gave consent for 14 and 15 year olds who then gave their assent. Adolescents aged 16 to 18 years gave their own consent. There were associations with lower wellbeing in the presence of paranoia and adolescents also reported a sense of powerlessness. Levels of cyber paranoia and fear were similar to adults. Further research with a larger cohort of participants would provide the opportunity to build on the trends observed. Implications for future practice include interventions delivered by technology literate personal as opposed to teachers to help adolescents engage safely with technology.
Keywords: Adolescents, cyberbullying, mental health, paranoia

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Identifiers

ORCID for Perena Wasterfall: orcid.org/0000-0002-6053-3613

ORCID for Emma Palmer-Cooper: orcid.org/0000-0002-5416-1518

ORCID for Lyn Ellett: orcid.org/0000-0002-6051-3604

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