Sleep Quality as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Cyber Victimization and Depression.
Misol Kwon, Young S Seo, Amanda B Nickerson and 3 others
PMID 32510831WHAT IT FOUND
Cyber victimization was not directly associated with depression after accounting for sleep.
Poor sleep quality was the pathway: bullied adolescents had worse sleep, which was linked to higher depression six months later.
Key findings
01Cyber victimization at baseline was not directly associated with depressive symptoms at follow-up after controlling for sleep quality, age, sex, and baseline depression.
02Adolescents who were cyber-victimized had worse sleep quality than non-victimized adolescents on several subjective sleep measures, including global sleep quality.
03Poor sleep quality was the pathway linking cyber victimization to later depressive symptoms.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study had only baseline and follow-up measurements over 6 months, so it cannot show that cyber victimization caused poor sleep or depression. All data were self-report, so adolescents may have under- or over-reported cyber victimization, sleep, and depressive symptoms. The sample was mostly White, from two-parent households, and from one region, so results may not apply to more diverse adolescents. The analysis controlled only for age, sex, and baseline depression, not for caffeine intake, substance use, or in-person victimization. Sleep was measured subjectively, not with objective methods such as actigraphy.
Declared interests
The supplied metadata lists NIH extramural research support. The article text does not provide a conflict-of-interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the significant sleep pathway as proof that cyber victimization directly causes depression. The direct effect was not significant once sleep quality, age, sex, and baseline depression were considered, and this was an observational study.