Maya Washburn/Contributing Writer
A recent FIU study confirmed negative emotions from bullying victimization correlate with digital self-harm.
Digital self-harm is the anonymous online posting, sending or otherwise sharing of hurtful content about oneself, according to the Journal of Adolescent Health.
“[Digital self-harm] can help to alleviate those negative thoughts…due to getting bullied or other life stressors,” said FIU criminology professor Ryan Meldrum who led the study last year.
Digital self-harm is in its early stages of research and Meldrum’s study discovered its correlation to bullying.
His study concluded that bullying victimization leads to negative emotions, thus motivating digital self-harm.
Empirical model from Meldrum’s study shows how bullying victimization leads to digital self-harm.
Rates of digital self-harm are expected to increase as a result of the pandemic’s effects on screen time as more people quarantine.
Meldrum teamed up with professors from the University of Wisconsin, Arizona State University and Florida Atlantic University for the study and discovered the correlation between digital self-harm and bullying.
Meldrum explains self-harm gives cathartic release. Whereas, the digital-self harm is a more delayed process than the physical, ten percent of Florida teens engage in every month, according to the 2019 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey.
Meldrum used this data as a basis for the research.
Meldrum first asked the Florida Department of Children and Families, who conducts the Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey, to collect data which later he would use in his research.
“I was able to make the argument to them that we should include a couple of items about digital self-harm in 2019,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to be able to collect the data on the ten thousand or so people…[and] piggyback off of the efforts.”
An earlier study in 2017 by criminologists Justin W. Patchin and Sameer Hunduja found that one may take part in online self-harm for issues including “sexual orientation, experience with school bullying and cyberbullying, drug use, participation in various forms of adolescent deviance and depressive symptoms.”
The 2017 study hypothesized that bullying is a cause of digital self-harm. Meldrum confirmed that this is often the case.
“Once I read [Patchin and Hunduja’s] study, it was a natural extension for me…looking at how bullying relates to physical self-harm,” said Meldrum. “I wanted to see if that same type of relationship existed where the focus was digital self-harm.”
He analyzed how COVID-19 may be causing a rise in this issue.
“The frequency of digital self-harm may be on the rise because, as a result of COVID-19, adolescents are spending a lot more time online and are having a lot less face-to-face interaction,” said Meldrum.
A clinician at FIU’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Marlena Rodriguez, worries that many individuals may result to this rather than seeking help.
“A lot of people are feeling very disconnected and isolated right now. Digital self-harm is how some people are trying to tell others they are struggling,” said Rodriguez.
However, according to CAPS clinician, Alicia Brown, social media itself cannot be blamed for this behavior.
“While some may try to limit one’s social media use in response, that does not adequately address the problem,” said Brown. “The online and offline worlds overlap.”
Despite the suicides of adolescents who engaged in digital self-harm, Meldrum said academic attention to the issue is limited.
He is actively working to change that by conducting research and increasing awareness of the problem.
“Digital self-harm in terms of something being studied by researchers is very new,” he said. “There are researchers who are experts on physical self-harm who have asked me, ‘What is digital self-harm?”
Meldrum hopes the university will bring awareness to the issue as it becomes more widespread.
“Hopefully here at FIU, we can put a research footprint on the topic,” said Meldrum.
Digital-self harm affects more adolescents than many may anticipate.
“In my data, we show that one in ten Florida teenagers say they’ve done this,” he said. “[When] you scale that up from the ten thousand participants we had to the millions of students in Florida and the tens of millions of students in the country, that means that there are hundreds of thousands of students who are likely engaging in this behavior.”
Da’Nica Benaine, a senior studying psychology on a pre-med track, told PantherNOW that she has engaged in digital self-harm on social media.
“On Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, I think I have participated in self-harm,” said Benaine. “Some of the things I talk about [are] ‘I’m gonna fail’, ‘I’m not good enough’…you have to stop and think about, well, who told you that?”
Digital self-harm can be an act of seeking affirmation, validation and reassurance.
“It was nice that [followers] said something back [like] ‘We’re here for you’…that was nice to hear,” said Benaine.
She explained how some may suppress their pain through the behavior.
“Digital self-harm is a way of saying, ‘Hey, I have a problem and I’m not comfortable with saying I have a problem so I’m going to mask it with comedic humor…but really, I may need help,’” Benaine said.
Meldrum advised social media users to respect those around them online or offline.
“Be nice. There are people around you…that may be going through a lot more than they led on,” said Meldrum. “If you see that [someone] is openly talking bad about themselves online…reaching out and being a helping hand can go a long way.”
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