Problematic Social Media Use and Parental Concealment Linked to Teen Cyberbullying

Adolescents who report problematic patterns of social media use, and those who hide their online activity from their parents, face greater odds of being involved in cyberbullying, both as victims and as perpetrators, according to a new study of 686 young people aged 12 to 18 drawn from 12 schools.

The research, conducted by a team based at Utah State University with collaborators at Brigham Young University and the University of California, Davis, examined how three aspects of adolescents’ digital lives relate to cyberbullying: problematic social media use, concealment of social media activity from parents, and parental media monitoring. The paper has been accepted for publication in Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

To analyze the data, the researchers used logistic generalized linear mixed models, a statistical approach chosen because students were nested within schools. This modeling framework accounts for the fact that adolescents attending the same school share environments that may shape their online experiences, allowing the analysis to separate individual-level patterns from school-level structure.

The results showed that both problematic social media use and concealment from parents were significantly associated with greater odds of cyberbullying victimization and of cyberbullying perpetration. In other words, adolescents whose social media habits were themselves problematic, and those who actively kept their online behavior hidden from their parents, were more likely to report both being targeted and targeting others online.

Notably, parental media monitoring was not a significant predictor in either model. The study therefore suggests that simply monitoring what adolescents do online may not, by itself, be associated with reduced cyberbullying involvement, whereas the adolescents’ own patterns of use and their willingness to conceal those patterns from parents appear more closely tied to risk.

The authors emphasize that the findings highlight the importance of addressing adolescents’ specific patterns of media use rather than relying on oversight alone. Because concealment emerged as a significant factor, the study points to the value of open communication between adolescents and parents about online experiences, alongside attention to whether a young person’s social media use has become problematic.

The researchers also frame their conclusions in terms of prevention. They argue that effective responses to cyberbullying are likely to require multi-systemic approaches involving families, schools, and technology developers, rather than any single point of intervention. Such approaches would aim to mitigate cyberbullying risks by engaging the multiple settings in which adolescents’ social media lives unfold.

As with any cross-sectional study of this kind, the findings describe associations rather than proven causal effects. The analysis cannot establish whether problematic use or concealment leads to cyberbullying involvement, whether involvement in cyberbullying prompts concealment, or whether other unmeasured factors influence both. The study also relies on adolescent self-reports within a defined sample of 686 participants from 12 schools, so results may not generalize to all adolescent populations.

Nevertheless, the study adds to a growing body of work on how the rapid expansion of social media has created new opportunities for adolescent connection while also heightening risks of involvement in online aggression. By identifying problematic use and parental concealment as significant correlates of both victimization and perpetration, and by showing that parental media monitoring alone was not significant, the research offers a more nuanced picture of which aspects of the adolescent social media environment deserve attention in prevention efforts.

The work was received on 9 July 2026 and accepted on 7 October 2026, and the final formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Subject of Research: Adolescent cyberbullying in relation to problematic social media use, concealment, and parental media monitoring

Article Title: Likes, lies, and oversight: problematic social media use, concealment, parental monitoring, and adolescent cyberbullying

Article References: Gale, M., Alexander, K. N., Schwartz, S. E., Meter, D. J., Coyne, S. M., & Cingel, D. P. (2026). Likes, lies, and oversight: problematic social media use, concealment, parental monitoring, and adolescent cyberbullying. Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 5, Article 1933453. https://doi.org/10.3389/frcha.2026.1933453

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/frcha.2026.1933453

Keywords: cyberbullying, adolescents, social media, problematic social media use, parental monitoring, concealment, victimization, perpetration, schools, prevention, Likes, lies