Depression and Cyber-Victimization among Middle School Students in Morocco

Abstract

Background: Cyber-victimization is a real health problem worldwide. It has a negative impact on middle
school students’ mental health.
Objective: To evaluate the depression score among cyber-victimized middle school students in Morocco.
Method: It’s a cross-sectional study based on an anonymous self-report questionnaire about cybervictimization
and depression during the last twelve months. Data were collected in 44 middle schools in the
urban area of three Moroccan zones. A total of 3785 students aged between 12 and 16 participated in the
study. Cyber-victims refer to students who were cyber-victimized twice or more in the past twelve month.
In our sample 72,3% (n=2736) were cyber-victims. We used a hierarchical multiple Regression to examine
the relationship between independent variables and depression.
Results: In the past twelve months 49,4% (n=1351) of cyber-victim participants were depressed and the
difference between girls and boys was significant: (51,4% (n=732) vs 47,2% (n=619)) respectively p= 0,03.
The most important predictor of depression score was cyber-victimization score ?=0,17 t = 10,98 p< 0,001.
The cyber-victimization score variable explained 3 % of variation to the depression score among middle
school students and p<0,001. Age is a strong positive predictor of depression (? = 0.10, T = 6.59, p< 0.001).
both cyber-victim adolescents and depressed cyber-victim ones spoke little of their experience of cybervictimization.
Conclusion: Cyber-victimization is a real problem among middle school students in Morocco. It is the main
cause of depression. Hence action needs to be taken to face this problem.