Depression and Cyber-Victimization among Middle School Students in Morocco.

Miami, Nezha; Belahcen, Amina; Lahlou, Laila; Ouanass, Abderrazzak

Background: Cyber-victimization is a real health problem worldwide. It has a negative impact on middle school students’ mental health. Objective: To evaluate the depression score among cyber-victimized middle school students in Morocco. Method: It’s a cross-sectional study based on an anonymous self-report questionnaire about cybervictimization and depression during the last twelve months. Data were collected in 44 middle schools in the urban area of three Moroccan zones. A total of 3785 students aged between 12 and 16 participated in the study. Cyber-victims refer to students who were cyber-victimized twice or more in the past twelve month. In our sample 72,3% (n=2736) were cyber-victims. We used a hierarchical multiple Regression to examine the relationship between independent variables and depression. Results: In the past twelve months 49,4% (n=1351) of cyber-victim participants were depressed and the difference between girls and boys was significant: (51,4% (n=732) vs 47,2% (n=619)) respectively p= 0,03. The most important predictor of depression score was cyber-victimization score β=0,17 t = 10,98 p< 0,001. The cyber-victimization score variable explained 3 % of variation to the depression score among middle school students and p<0,001. Age is a strong positive predictor of depression (β = 0.10, T = 6.59, p< 0.001). both cyber-victim adolescents and depressed cyber-victim ones spoke little of their experience of cyber-victimization. Conclusion: Cyber-victimization is a real problem among middle school students in Morocco. It is the main cause of depression. Hence action needs to be taken to face this problem.

MOROCCO; MIDDLE school students; CYBERBULLYING; MENTAL health of students; MIDDLE schools; URBAN schools; METROPOLITAN areas

Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, 2020, Vol 11, Issue 3, p2329

0976-0245

Academic Journal