Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today's article tackles the effects of cyberbullying on children. Autistic and other neurodiverse children are more likely to be bullied than your average child, due to our innate differences and the miscommunications that can go with those differences.
The effects are about what you'd expect for something that includes "bullying" in the name: measurably higher levels of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, anger and dissociation from their lives and selves. Cyberbullying is emotional trauma, and preventing that can't be done by keeping an eye out for bruises on a child's arms and legs.
Now, traditional bullying, the kind I experienced in elementary school, can come with a physical component. I was kicked between the legs, for example. But bullying usually comes with an emotional component as well: I was mocked verbally for my tendency to cry when upset as well. Later, in middle school, people attempted to mock me for my lack of fashion. Unfortunately for them, I was too angry to give a crap.
Cyberbullying is a bit beyond the traditional bully-on-the-playground or mean-girls-in-your-class experience. Why? The ever-present nature of the Internet. At this point in time, most children have a smart phone, and perhaps spend some of their free time on social media or popular video games like Fortnite.
You see, I was safe when I got home. The cruelty of my classmates couldn't follow me back to where I slept. Today, bullying can follow you anywhere. If you have classmates on social media, then you can have cyberbullying. If you're playing the same online game, you can also have cyberbullying. Heck, it doesn't even have to be classmates. You can be cyberbullied by random terrible people on the Internet that just took a disliking to you.
Actually, cyberbullying has one additional difference from traditional bullying. This article doesn't talk about it, because it's more interested in explaining that cyberbullying exists... but because the Internet allows for anonymity, it is possible for a child to cyberbully themself. It's a form of self-harm, like more traditional cutting. Here's a NPR article about the phenomenon.
Needless to say, I hope, it's a subject that should be taken very seriously. Emotional pain may be harder to spot than bruises or scars, but it's just as painful as physical pain. Sometimes moreso, because of how invisible it is. You can silently suffer and no one notices or seems to care, for years.
You can find resources to help you and your child fight cyberbullying in a lot of places, but here and here are good places to start. Bullied people can also get help immediate via text to the number on this website or call the numbers listed on this website.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
Today's article tackles the effects of cyberbullying on children. Autistic and other neurodiverse children are more likely to be bullied than your average child, due to our innate differences and the miscommunications that can go with those differences.
The effects are about what you'd expect for something that includes "bullying" in the name: measurably higher levels of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, anger and dissociation from their lives and selves. Cyberbullying is emotional trauma, and preventing that can't be done by keeping an eye out for bruises on a child's arms and legs.
Now, traditional bullying, the kind I experienced in elementary school, can come with a physical component. I was kicked between the legs, for example. But bullying usually comes with an emotional component as well: I was mocked verbally for my tendency to cry when upset as well. Later, in middle school, people attempted to mock me for my lack of fashion. Unfortunately for them, I was too angry to give a crap.
Cyberbullying is a bit beyond the traditional bully-on-the-playground or mean-girls-in-your-class experience. Why? The ever-present nature of the Internet. At this point in time, most children have a smart phone, and perhaps spend some of their free time on social media or popular video games like Fortnite.
You see, I was safe when I got home. The cruelty of my classmates couldn't follow me back to where I slept. Today, bullying can follow you anywhere. If you have classmates on social media, then you can have cyberbullying. If you're playing the same online game, you can also have cyberbullying. Heck, it doesn't even have to be classmates. You can be cyberbullied by random terrible people on the Internet that just took a disliking to you.
Actually, cyberbullying has one additional difference from traditional bullying. This article doesn't talk about it, because it's more interested in explaining that cyberbullying exists... but because the Internet allows for anonymity, it is possible for a child to cyberbully themself. It's a form of self-harm, like more traditional cutting. Here's a NPR article about the phenomenon.
Needless to say, I hope, it's a subject that should be taken very seriously. Emotional pain may be harder to spot than bruises or scars, but it's just as painful as physical pain. Sometimes moreso, because of how invisible it is. You can silently suffer and no one notices or seems to care, for years.
You can find resources to help you and your child fight cyberbullying in a lot of places, but here and here are good places to start. Bullied people can also get help immediate via text to the number on this website or call the numbers listed on this website.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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