Cyberbullying Perpetration and Victimization Among Middle-School Students

Objectives. We examined correlations between gender, race, sexual identity, and technology use, and patterns of cyberbullying experiences and behaviors among middle-school students.Methods. We collected a probability sample of 1285 students alongside the 2012 Youth Risk Behavior Survey in Los Angeles Unified School District middle schools. We used logistic regressions to assess the correlates of being a cyberbully perpetrator, victim, and perpetrator–victim (i.e., bidirectional cyberbullying behavior).Results. In this sample, 6.6% reported being a cyberbully victim, 5.0% reported being a perpetrator, and 4.3% reported being a perpetrator–victim. Cyberbullying behavior frequently occurred on Facebook or via text messaging. Cyberbully perpetrators, victims, and perpetrators–victims all were more likely to report using the Internet for at least 3 hours per day. Sexual-minority students and students who texted at least 50 times per day were more likely to report cyberbullying victimization. Girls were more likely to report being perpetrators–victims.Conclusions. Cyberbullying interventions should account for gender and sexual identity, as well as the possible benefits of educational interventions for intensive Internet users and frequent texters.Cyberbullying is the “willful and repeated harm inflicted [on another] through the use of computers, cell phones, or other electronic devices.”1^(p5) Among 6th- through 10th-grade students nationally, 4% reported being cyberbullying perpetrators, 5% reported being a victim of cyberbullying, and 5% reported being perpetrators–victims (meaning that they have both perpetrated and been victimized by cyberbullying) during the previous 2 months.2 Among middle-school students in the southeastern and northwestern United States, a nonprobability sample of 3767 students by Kowalski and Limber3 found that 11% reported being a victim of cyberbullying, 4% were cyberbullying perpetrators, and 7% were perpetrators–victims during the previous 2 months. Cyberbullying may be more insidious than traditional bullying, because cyberbullying can quickly reach wide audiences (e.g., e-mails sent to an entire school), can be perpetrated anonymously, and is not bound to in-person interactions.4,5 Although cyberbullying has garnered widespread media attention, to our knowledge, no previous study has explored correlates of cyberbullying with a representative probability sample in an urban middle-school sample.Cyberbullying is associated with a host of health and behavioral health consequences. Research has suggested that cyberbullying may have a greater effect on depression and suicidal ideation than traditional offline bullying.6 Both perpetration and victimization are associated with mental health consequences, including lower self-esteem,7 recent depressive symptoms,5,8,9 and suicidal ideation.5,8,10 Cyberbullying perpetrators are more likely to have problems with their behavior, peer relationships, and emotions, and are less likely to be prosocial than their peers who are neither cyberbullying perpetrators nor victims of cyberbullying.11 Specifically, female cyberbullying perpetrators express greater anxiety and depression than their female peers who are not cyberbullying perpetrators.12 Cyberbullying victimization is also strongly associated with substance use, violent behavior, and risky sexual behavior among high-school students.10Cyberbullying disproportionately affects youths who are already vulnerable to mental health and behavioral health disparities, including members of sexual minorities (i.e., gay, lesbian, bisexual), girls, and racial and ethnic minorities. More than half of sexual-minority middle- and high-school students nationally report being a cyberbully victim during the previous year, with almost one fifth reporting often or frequent victimization.13 Female students are significantly more likely to be cyberbully perpetrators–victims than their male peers.9,14 Studies have reported that male students are significantly more likely to be cyberbullying perpetrators2,15 and significantly less likely to be cyberbully victims.2,6,9 Middle-school boys are more likely to cyberbully others because of their race, sexual identity, or both.16 African American students are more likely to be cyberbully perpetrators and Hispanic students are more likely to be cyberbully perpetrators–victims than their White peers.2Cyberbullying may occur across a variety of technology platforms, and the specific qualities of each platform may affect how cyberbullying is perpetrated and experienced. Earlier studies suggested that instant messaging, chat rooms, and message boards were the most common mediums for middle-school students who experienced cyberbullying.3,17 More recently, youths have migrated to social media platforms such as Facebook,18–20 necessitating an examination of cyberbullying across more contemporary and emerging platforms for youth interaction.More frequent use of technology has also been associated with cyberbullying. Students who use the Internet for at least 3 hours per day and those who use instant messaging and Web cams are significantly more likely to have been cyberbully victims at least 7 times during the previous year.17 Frequent Internet users are significantly more likely to be cyberbully perpetrators, victims, and perpetrators–victims.14Research has shown that even though cyberbullying takes place in a virtual space, most cyberbullying perpetrators know their victims and vice versa. Moreover, 73% of victims reported being “pretty sure” or “totally sure” about the identity of their cyberbully, with 51% of cyberbullying perpetrators identified as a classmate, 43% as someone who they only knew online, and 20% as an in-person, nonclassmate relation.17 Cyberbullying perpetrators of middle-school victims were most often a classmate or a stranger; cyberbullying perpetrators most often reported that they cyberbullied classmates, friends, and strangers.3This study expanded previous work with high-school samples2 and nonprobability samples of middle-school students3,17 to explore the role of sexual identity, gender, race, and technology use patterns in a random sample of urban middle-school students in Los Angeles County, California. The study focused on demographic characteristics including sexual identity, patterns of technology use (i.e., frequency of Internet use, texting, parental rules regarding Internet use), and platforms on which middle-school students experience cyberbullying (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, text messaging) to inform interventions to disrupt this maladaptive behavior and help protect early adolescents from the consequences of cyberbullying.     

Individual Differences in Impulsive Action Reflect Variation in the Cortical Serotonin 5-HT2A Receptor System

Impulsivity is an important feature of multiple neuropsychiatric disorders, and individual variation in the degree of inherent impulsivity could play a role in the generation or exacerbation of problematic behaviors. Serotonin (5-HT) actions at the 5-HT_2AR receptor (5-HT_2AR) promote and 5-HT_2AR antagonists suppress impulsive action (the inability to withhold premature responses; motor impulsivity) upon systemic administration or microinfusion directly into the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a node in the corticostriatal circuit that is thought to play a role in the regulation of impulsive action. We hypothesized that the functional capacity of the 5-HT_2AR, which is governed by its expression, localization, and protein/protein interactions (eg, postsynaptic density 95 (PSD95)), may drive the predisposition to inherent impulsive action. Stable high-impulsive (HI) and low-impulsive (LI) phenotypes were identified from an outbred rodent population with the 1-choice serial reaction time (1-CSRT) task. HI rats exhibited a greater head-twitch response following administration of the preferential 5-HT_2AR agonist 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine (DOI) and were more sensitive to the effects of the selective 5-HT_2AR antagonist M100907 to suppress impulsive action relative to LI rats. A positive correlation was observed between levels of premature responses and 5-HT_2AR binding density in frontal cortex ([³H]-ketanserin radioligand binding). Elevated mPFC 5-HT_2AR protein expression concomitant with augmented association of the 5-HT_2AR with PSD95 differentiated HI from LI rats. The observed differential sensitivity of HI and LI rats to 5-HT_2AR ligands and associated distinct 5-HT_2AR protein profiles provide evidence that spontaneously occurring individual differences in impulsive action reflect variation in the cortical 5-HT_2AR system.     

Interactions among the beta2- and beta3- adrenergic receptor genes and total body fat and abdominal fat level in the HERITAGE Family Study

OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTS: Interactions between markers in the beta2- and beta3-adrenergic receptor (ADR) genes and total body fat and computerized tomography-measured abdominal fat phenotypes were studied in the HERITAGE Family Study cohort of Black (n=205; 81 males and 124 females) and White (n=415; 198 males and 217 females) subjects before and after an endurance training program. RESULTS: In Black subjects, beta2- and beta3-ADR gene variants showed evidence of interactions on changes in total body fat mass and abdominal fat area (P<0.005 and =0.010, respectively). Black subjects who were carriers of both beta2-ADR Arg16 and beta3-ADR Arg64 alleles had a greater decrease in total fat mass as well as abdominal total and subcutaneous, but not visceral fat areas in response to endurance training than subjects with other genotype combinations (P from 0.011 to 0.047). After correction for multiple tests, the findings remained essentially unchanged for total body fat mass and abdominal fat area, but became nonsignificant for subcutaneous fat area. The changes in abdominal fat correlated positively with the changes in fat mass (P<0.0001). The interactions between beta2 and beta3-ADR gene markers accounted for a maximum of 3% of the variances in the response of total fat mass and abdominal fat area to endurance training in Black subjects but it was not significant in White subjects. CONCLUSION: Interactions between sequence variants in the beta2-beta3-ADR gene contributed to the changes in fat mass and abdominal adiposity in response to endurance training in Black subjects.     

Broad and potent neutralizing human antibodies to tick-borne flaviviruses protect mice from disease

Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is an emerging human pathogen that causes potentially fatal disease with no specific treatment. Mouse monoclonal antibodies are protective against TBEV, but little is known about the human antibody response to infection. Here, we report on the human neutralizing antibody response to TBEV in a cohort of infected and vaccinated individuals. Expanded clones of memory B cells expressed closely related anti-envelope domain III (EDIII) antibodies in both groups of volunteers. However, the most potent neutralizing antibodies, with IC₅₀s below 1 ng/ml, were found only in individuals who recovered from natural infection. These antibodies also neutralized other tick-borne flaviviruses, including Langat, louping ill, Omsk hemorrhagic fever, Kyasanur forest disease, and Powassan viruses. Structural analysis revealed a conserved epitope near the lateral ridge of EDIII adjoining the EDI–EDIII hinge region. Prophylactic or early therapeutic antibody administration was effective at low doses in mice that were lethally infected with TBEV.     

Motor unit properties from three synergistic muscles during ramp isometric elbow extensions

Many tasks require synergistic activation of muscles that possess different architectural, mechanical, and neural control properties. However, investigations of the motor unit (MU) mechanisms which modulate force are mostly restricted to individual muscles and low forces. To explore the pattern of MU recruitment and discharge behavior among three elbow extensors (lateral and long heads of the triceps brachii, and anconeus) during ramp isometric contractions, recruitment thresholds of 77 MUs in five young men were determined and corresponding MU discharge rates were tracked in 1-s epochs over forces ranging from 0 to 75 % of maximal voluntary isometric force (MVC). Across all forces, MUs in the lateral head discharged at higher rates than those in the anconeus (p < 0.001, Δ = 0.23). When all MUs were considered, recruitment thresholds in the long head of the triceps brachii were higher than the lateral head (p < 0.05, Δ = 0.70) with a trend (p = 0.08, Δ = 0.48) for higher recruitment thresholds in the long head compared with the anconeus. Together, these data indicate a potential mechanical disadvantage of the long head of the triceps brachii at 0° shoulder flexion. However, among low-threshold MUs (<10 % MVC), recruitment thresholds were lower in the anconeus than in both heads of the triceps brachii consistent with the expected twitch contractile and fiber type differences among these muscles. These findings illustrate the importance of considering synergistic relations among muscles used for a coordinated task, and the sensitivity of synergies to muscle architectural, mechanical, and possibly specific synaptic input factors.