The consequences of abuse, neglect and cyber-bullying on the wellbeing of the young

Abstract

We map changes in the mental health of young people in the United States. Then we run multivariate analyses to capture the independent correlation between young people’s mental health and difficulties experienced in childhood - Adverse Child Experiences (ACE)s – together with the role played by social media, including via cyber-bullying. In doing so we exploit repeat cross-sectional data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) surveys from 2009–2023, the National Health Interview Surveys 1997–2021, the Healthy Minds Surveys 2007–2023 and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) for high school students. We find that poor mental health is on the rise in the United States, particularly among young women. ACEs have also been on the rise for the young and are strongly and significantly associated with poor mental health in adulthood. The impact of living with a household member with poor mental health is large relative to other ACEs and is particularly pronounced among younger people. Being bullied, including electronically, is also strongly negatively associated with the wellbeing of high school students. In the YRBS we find that time spent in front of a screen has been rising over time for high school children, especially girls, and that this has an independent negative impact on their mental health over and above bullying and being sexually abused as a child.