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European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Published in: European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 2/2021

Open Access 01-02-2021 | Affective Disorder | Original Contribution

Online sexual harassment and negative mood in Croatian female adolescents

Authors: Kirstin Mitchell, Aleksandar Štulhofer

Published in: European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Issue 2/2021

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Abstract

Online sexual harassment (OSH) appears to be a relatively frequent phenomenon, particularly for older adolescents. It is also a gendered experience. Compared to their male peers, female adolescents are more likely to experience OSH and find it upsetting. This study sought to explore the role of resilience in explaining the association between online sexual harassment (OSH) and negative mood (i.e., depression and anxiety symptoms) among female adolescents. Using data from a panel sample of 477 female Croatian adolescents (age at baseline = 15.8 years; SD = 0.48) and two-wave cross-lagged path analysis, we investigated OSH, changes in depression/anxiety symptoms, association between OSH and negative mood, and the role of resilience. During the 26-month period under observation, OSH and negative mood were associated cross-sectionally, but not longitudinally. This suggests the negative mood effects of OSH exposure may be short-lived or that factors other than OSH explain changes in negative mood over time. Resilience was consistently and negatively associated with negative mood, but not OSH. In adolescent girls with low levels of resilience, OSH was associated with negative mood; no such relationship was observed among their highly resilient peers. Experiences other than OSH appear to be more pertinent in predicting symptoms of negative mood in older adolescent girls over time. Given that resilience attenuated the relationship between OSH and negative mood, efforts to increase resilience to online challenges may be more helpful than efforts to limit or control young people’s online exposure.
Footnotes
1
Historically a port town with close ties to Italy, Rijeka lost most of its industry during the process of post-socialist transition in the 1990s. During the past three decades, the municipality of Rijeka has been uninterruptedly governed by social democrats—in contrast to most other parts of the country, in which more conservative Christian democrats have been dominating. In 2013, the county of Rijeka was one of the two counties (of the total of 21) that rejected a proposal to amend the constitutional definition of marriage as a heterosexual union.
 
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Metadata
Title
Online sexual harassment and negative mood in Croatian female adolescents
Authors
Kirstin Mitchell
Aleksandar Štulhofer
Publication date
01-02-2021
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry / Issue 2/2021
Print ISSN: 1018-8827
Electronic ISSN: 1435-165X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01506-7

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