Social Media Linked to Early Adolescent Suicidal Thoughts via Cyberbullying and Internalizing Symptoms

Abstract Early adolescents are increasingly engaged in visually rich social media platforms, which may lead to the involvement in visual cybervictimization, i.e., the unsolicited sharing of personal visuals, resulting in negative mental-health outcomes. The present study examined the association between social media use and suicidal ideation among early adolescents, with a focus on the mediating roles of visual cybervictimization and internalizing symptoms. The sample consisted of 1140 middle-school students from Northwestern Italy with a mean age of 12.35 years (SD = 0.97), 53.3% female, 45.1% male, and1.6% non-binary. We explored a serial mediation model, hypothesizing that increased social media engagement might lead to heightened suicidal ideation through elevated experiences of visual cybervictimization and subsequent rise in internalizing symptoms. Results indicated significant associations exist between increased social media use and both direct involvement in and bystander experiences of visual cybervictimization. Participating in visual cyberbullying events, both as victim and bystander, was significantly associated with higher levels of internalizing symptoms, in turn linked to greater suicidal ideation. These findings emphasize the critical need for digital literacy and interventions targeting visual aspects of cyberbullying to mitigate its detrimental effects on youth mental health.