An Intersectional Perspective on Cyberbullying: Victimization Experiences Among Marginalized Youth

The impact of cyberbullying victimization on youth development, encompassing mental health, academic performance, and socioemotional well-being, has been widely documented. Research highlights the heightened vulnerability of sexual and gender minoritized youth, along with other youth from marginalized groups, to cybervictimization. However, there is a gap in understanding how intersecting marginalized social identities affect experiences of cyberbullying.

This study employs an intersectionality framework to examine cybervictimization among youth. The sample consists of 444,224 students in grades 9-12 from the 2017-2019 California Healthy Kids Survey. Using exhaustive chi-square automatic interaction detection (ECHAID), the analysis identifies the prevalence of cybervictimization across multiple intersecting social identities, including sex assigned at birth, gender modality (cisgender 97.6%), sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, grade level, and socioeconomic status.

Cybervictimization was reported by 22.7% of youth in the sample. Rates were two to three times higher among youth with multiple marginalized identities. Youth at the intersection of bisexual sexual orientation, transgender gender modality, and racial/ethnic minoritized identities faced a particularly high risk of cybervictimization.

There is an urgent need for future research in cyberbullying and youth development. Such research should focus on identifying and understanding the intersectional nature of discrimination and victimization, both in-person and online, to develop evidence-based prevention programs that effectively address the complexities of minoritized identities and discrimination in the digital world.