Adolescent Psychosocial Profiles and Early Cyberbullying Histories: Longitudinal Associations and Patterns of Change Across Development

Taliah Prince; Amanda Boyes; Maddison Crethar; Christina Driver; Lia Mills; Daniel F Hermens

doi:10.1002/jad.70204

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Adolescent Psychosocial Profiles and Early Cyberbullying Histories: Longitudinal Associations and Patterns of Change Across Development

Journal article

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Adolescent Psychosocial Profiles and Early Cyberbullying Histories: Longitudinal Associations and Patterns of Change Across Development

Taliah Prince, Amanda Boyes, Maddison Crethar, Christina Driver, Lia Mills and Daniel F Hermens

Journal of Adolescence, Vol.98(6), pp.2070-2083

2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.70204

PMID: 42333898

Appears in Thompson Institute Research Collection

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Abstract

adolescence

cyberbullying

social connectedness

body dissatisfaction

psychosocial profiles

wellbeing

Thompson Institute Special Collection

Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study

Youth mental health

Introduction Cyberbullying is highly prevalent during adolescence and is consistently associated with poor mental health outcomes. However, it remains unclear whether these difficulties develop into distinct psychosocial profiles, limiting understanding of how early cyberbullying relates to longitudinal patterns of psychological distress and wellbeing in adolescence. This study aimed to identify profiles of functioning, examine associations with earlier cyberbullying involvement, and characterize developmental patterns across adolescence. Methods Data were drawn from the Australian Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study (N = 86; 52.3% female, 48% male). Ward's hierarchical cluster analysis identified psychosocial profiles (i.e., clusters) based on psychological distress, body dissatisfaction, social connectedness, psychological wellbeing, and quality of life in mid-adolescence (time-points 9–15). Earlier cyberbullying involvement was examined using data from time-points 1–8 (Mage = 13.8 years), utilizing generalized additive mixed models to characterize psychosocial trajectories according to derived cluster membership. Results Three profiles emerged: (i) flourishing, (ii) broad impairment, and (iii) appearance-specific. Early cyberbullying involvement was associated with membership in the broad impairment cluster but not the appearance-specific cluster. Longitudinal modeling indicated that the flourishing group showed stable functioning, the broad impairment group showed significant change across domains, and the appearance-specific group showed change in social connectedness. Eating disorder symptoms were most prevalent in the appearance-specific profile, present in the broad impairment profile, and absent in the flourishing profile. Conclusions Cyberbullying was associated with widespread psychosocial impairment, whereas body dissatisfaction may reflect a more domain-specific vulnerability pathway. Differences in developmental trajectories across profiles support person-centered, longitudinal approaches for targeted prevention.

Details

Title: Adolescent Psychosocial Profiles and Early Cyberbullying Histories: Longitudinal Associations and Patterns of Change Across Development
Authors: Taliah Prince (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Amanda Boyes - Deakin University
Maddison Crethar - University of the Sunshine Coast
Christina Driver - University of the Sunshine Coast
Lia Mills - University of the Sunshine Coast
Daniel F Hermens - University of the Sunshine Coast
Publication details: Journal of Adolescence, Vol.98(6), pp.2070-2083
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Date published: 2026
DOI: 10.1002/jad.70204
ISSN: 1095-9254
PMID: 42333898
Copyright note: © 2026 The Author(s). Journal of Adolescence published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Foundation for Professionals in Services to Adolescents. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Data Availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Grant note: This research was supported by the Prioritizing Mental Health Initiative, Australian Commonwealth Government, 4-IKYOZBK.
Organisation Unit: Centre for Human Factors and Systems Science; Thompson Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991242150602621
Output Type: Journal article

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Web Of Science research areas: Psychology, Developmental