CYBERBULLYING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA: DIGITAL HARASSMENT, MENTAL HEALTH CONSEQUENCES, AND RESILIENCE IN THE CONNECTED AGE

Description

Cyberbullying extends interpersonal aggression into a persistent digital environment where harmful messages, images, rumors, exclusion, impersonation, and synthetic media can be repeated, redistributed, and witnessed by audiences far beyond the original interaction. This chapter examines cyberbullying through a psychological-trauma lens without assuming that every online harassment experience constitutes trauma or produces post-traumatic stress disorder. Research consistently associates cybervictimization with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress symptoms, loneliness, sleep disruption, self-harm risk, and impaired social or academic functioning. The chapter explains how perceived inescapability, public humiliation, uncertainty about audience size, loss of control, social betrayal, and rumination can intensify distress. It also considers bully-victims, bystanders, university and workplace settings, and emerging risks from generative AI and deepfakes. A socio-technical framework is proposed in which prevention and recovery require coordinated action across individuals, families, institutions, platforms, healthcare systems, and policy. The chapter concludes with a trauma-informed response architecture emphasizing safety, evidence preservation, proportionality, human oversight, and restoration of agency.