Problematic Social Media Use and Cyberbullying Across Contexts: Multiverse Evidence From Adolescents in 42 Countries

Cyberbullying is pervasive in adolescence, and problematic social media use (PSMU) has been implicated in both cyberbullying perpetration (CP) and victimization (CV), yet how these links vary by age, family structure, region, country, and analytic decisions remains unclear.

Using 2017/2018 HBSC data (ages 10-16.5; 42 countries; N = 186,107; 48.2% boys, 51.8% girls), we applied separate multiverse analyses to examine the associations of PSMU with CP and CV, both dichotomized as never versus at least once in the past couple of months. Each analysis included 2576 specifications that varied covariate adjustment, fixed effects, missing-data treatment, and the operationalization of PSMU.

Across the full sample, PSMU was positively associated with both CP and CV across all specifications. The association between PSMU and CP declined across the three target age groups of 11, 13, and 15 years, whereas the association between PSMU and CV showed a similar but more modest age-related pattern. By family structure, median estimates tended to be higher in reconstituted families for CP and in single-parent families for CV. Regionally, the distributions of CP estimates tended to be shifted upward in Western Europe and downward in Southern/Eastern Europe; the distributions of CV estimates tended to be higher in Western/Southern Europe and lower in Eastern/Northern Europe. Estimates were sensitive to covariate adjustment, with health complaints notably attenuating effect sizes. Differences between PSMU-CP and PSMU-CV were context-dependent rather than uniform across strata.

Findings show a robust PSMU-cyberbullying association alongside marked developmental, familial, and macro-contextual heterogeneity, underscoring the need for context-sensitive prevention and transparent analytic reporting.