Health Reports

A Canadian peer-reviewed journal of population health and health services research

September 2023

Cybervictimization and mental health among Canadian youth

by Mila Kingsbury and Rubab Arim

Peer victimization is a well-known risk factor for adolescent mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempt. With the rise in popularity of communication media among youth, including text messaging and social media, cybervictimization has emerged as a potentially serious form of victimization. Cybervictimization is conceptualized as behaviour carried out via electronic communication media with the intent to harm others. Cybervictimization can take many forms, including threats; harassment; social exclusion; the sharing of personal information online without consent; or other behaviours intended to cause fear, harm, embarrassment, or exclusion. When these acts are repeated over time against victims who cannot easily defend themselves, they may constitute cyberbullying. Prevalence estimates vary from study to study, likely depending on specific definitions and methodological differences; however, an average of one in five adolescents is estimated to have experienced cybervictimization. Although cybervictimization often takes place outside school hours, it is usually perpetrated by peers who attend school together and therefore may impact adolescents’ “real world” social environment and school climate. Like other forms of peer victimization, cybervictimization has been associated with numerous negative mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, disordered eating, and suicidality. Because of the permeation of cybervictimization into the home lives of victims, i.e., occurring outside school hours and on the victims’ personal devices, some authors have argued that cybervictimization may be even more distressing to youth than traditional in-school victimization. Adolescents’ media habits may influence their experience of cybervictimization. For example, more frequent use of online media may increase an adolescent’s likelihood of experiencing cyberbullying, suggesting that modifiable screen hygiene habits are important factors to examine when considering cybervictimization.

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Cybervictimization and mental health among Canadian youth

Lifetime probability of developing cancer and dying from cancer in Canada, 1997 to 2020

by JiaQi L. Liu, Shary Xinyu Zhang, Jean-Michel Billette and Alain A. Demers

Cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide.1 Its incidence is driven by numerous factors, including tobacco use, physical inactivity, excess body weight and population aging. Technological advances in oncological treatments have continued to improve the survival of Canadians diagnosed with malignancies. As better treatments are made available and patients survive longer, the burden of an increasing population living with malignancies will result in significant rising health care costs.

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Lifetime probability of developing cancer and dying from cancer in Canada, 1997 to 2020

  • Yao C, Billette JM. Short-term cancer prevalence in Canada, 2018. Health Reports. 2022; 33(3): DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.25318/82-003-x202200300002-eng
  • LeBlanc AG, Demers A, Shaw A. Recent trends in prostate cancer in Canada. Health Reports. 2019; 30(4): DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.25318/82-003-x201900400002-eng
  • Ellison LF. Progress in net cancer survival in Canada over 20 years. Health Reports. 2018; 29(9).
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