Background

Online sexual harassment in adolescence is associated with depressive symptoms. There is, however, a dearth of research investigating variability of symptom profiles in this population in relation to offender gender and age.

Objective

To identify the proportion of adolescents reporting online harassment by different types of offenders and compare their levels of depression.

Participants and setting

Participants were 18,872 Chilean students aged 12 to 17 years (3.063 of them online sexually harassed).

Methods

The study involved a secondary analysis of self-report data on online sexual harassment, poly-victimization, and depression collected as part of the National Poly-victimization Survey.

Results

In 37.6% of the cases the offender was male under 18, in 22.4% an adult male, in 14.5% a female under 18, and in 2.9% an adult female. In 22.5% of cases the offender could not be identified. An ANCOVA demonstrated levels of poly-victimization across the lifespan and frequency of online sexual harassment in the last year to predict depressive symptomatology. In females, higher levels of depressive symptoms were observed among those sexually harassed by either a female under 18, an offender whose age and gender the victim could not identify, or an adult male. In males, higher levels of depression were observed among those harassed by either an adult male, an offender whose age and gender the victim could not identify, or a male under 18.

Conclusions

The current study highlights the importance of offender's age and gender in predicting depression levels in adolescent victims of online sexual harassment.

中文翻译：

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智利青少年的在线性骚扰和抑郁症：基于犯罪者性别和年龄的变化

背景

青春期的在线性骚扰与抑郁症状有关。然而，缺乏研究调查该人群中症状特征与罪犯性别和年龄相关的变异性。

客观的

确定青少年报告受到不同类型犯罪者在线骚扰的比例，并比较他们的抑郁程度。

参与者和设置

参与者是 18,872 名 12 至 17 岁的智利学生（其中 3.063 人在网上受到性骚扰）。

方法

该研究涉及对作为全国多重受害者调查的一部分收集的关于在线性骚扰、多重受害者和抑郁症的自我报告数据的二次分析。

结果

在 37.6% 的案件中，犯罪者为 18 岁以下的男性，22.4% 为成年男性，14.5% 为 18 岁以下女性，2.9% 为成年女性。在 22.5% 的案件中，无法确定罪犯。一项 ANCOVA 显示了去年在整个生命周期中的多重受害水平和在线性骚扰的频率，以预测抑郁症状。在女性中，在受到 18 岁以下女性、受害者无法识别其年龄和性别的罪犯或成年男性的性骚扰的人群中，观察到的抑郁症状水平较高。在男性中，在受到成年男性、受害者无法识别其年龄和性别的罪犯或 18 岁以下男性骚扰的人群中，抑郁程度较高。

结论

目前的研究强调了犯罪者的年龄和性别在预测网络性骚扰青少年受害者的抑郁水平方面的重要性。