Isolation drives lasting impact of cyberbullying on teens

 Teenagers who are subjected to online bullying are at greater risk of later emotional and behavioural difficulties, research suggests.

Young people who experienced cyberbullying were more likely to develop emotional and behavioural problems over the following six months if the experience led to feelings of loneliness and difficulties managing their emotions, a study shows.

The findings highlight the importance of supporting young people’s mental health after cyberbullying by helping them feel less isolated and supporting their emotional wellbeing.

The University of Edinburgh study is among the first to systematically examine the mechanisms linking online bullying and teenage mental health.

Around two-thirds of children worldwide report an increase in cyberbullying, with one in two saying they don’t know how to get the right support.

Researchers surveyed 501 adolescents to test whether more severe cyberbullying was associated with later greater emotional and conduct problems, and if so why.

They examined the results to investigate which emotional responses had the most influence on linking online bullying with later emotional consequences.

The team examined data from two senior Chinese high schools. China is particularly important as an example because of a high prevalence of cyberbullying, the researchers say.

The researchers analysed questionnaires which surveyed the adolescents aged 15 to 18 years about their online experiences, the research used the European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire.

The surveys – which were repeated after six months – also measured loneliness, emotion regulation difficulties, self-esteem and emotional and conduct problems.

Findings showed that loneliness and difficulties in managing emotions appeared to have more influence than self-esteem issues in explaining why teenagers who experience online bullying were more likely to report later emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Problem with regulating emotions was a significant pathway to other emotional issues such as anxiety, while not being able to control impulses had a significant effect on the risk of conduct problems. 

This was the case even when other factors such as age and gender were taken into account.

Yixuan Li, PhD candidate, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Health in Social Science, who led the study, said: “Cyberbullying victimisation can have serious consequences for young people’s mental health, but our findings suggest that what happens afterwards also matters. Adolescents subjected to cyberbullying may feel increasingly lonely and may struggle to manage difficult emotions, which may help explain why some go on to experience emotional and behavioural difficulties. The clear message is that supporting young people after cyberbullying is important.”

The study builds on the team’s previous research which brought together evidence from 125 studies involving more than 260,000 participants from 33 countries.

The findings identified factors which influence the lasting impact of cyberbullying on teenagers’ mental health.

The current study identifies which of those pathways appear to play the most important role in linking cyberbullying with later emotional and behavioural difficulties.

The findings provide a more nuanced understanding of where prevention and intervention efforts may be most effective, the researchers say.

The study is published in the Journal of Affective Disorders (link to study: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2026.122151)

Elementary students respond more strongly about nature when told what it does for them

 How to teach children to care about the environment? Beyond including climate change and biodiversity in the curriculum, researchers argue that environmental ethics—how we frame the relationship between humans and nature—matters just as much. According to a study published in Ecological Economics on July 14, 2026, elementary school students respond more strongly, at least in the short term, when nature is framed around what it does for them rather than around its value in itself.

“Broadly speaking, educators often frame environmental issues through two different ethical lenses: anthropocentrism, which centers on human benefit, and ecocentrism, which emphasizes nature’s intrinsic value,” says Akinori Kitsuki, Associate Professor at Kyushu University’s Faculty of Arts and Science. “We know these perspectives influence how children learn and engage with the environment, but there had been little empirical evidence for it. That’s the gap we wanted to fill.”

To investigate, the team turned to Kushiro, Japan’s largest wetland and its first Ramsar site. Although protected as a national park, the wetland faces growing pressure from development along its edges, including a rapid expansion of solar farms. Balancing development with conservation will require active engagement from the local community.

The researchers ran a randomized controlled trial across all 21 elementary schools in Kushiro City, testing two versions of a 45-minute environmental education program. The lessons were the same throughout except for the opening, which raised one question: why protect the Kushiro Wetland? One version answered with the blessings the wetland provides to people, from drinking water to flood protection to recreation. The other showed how the wetland is sustained by the interconnections among its many creatures, from salamanders to cranes, and why that web of life has value in itself.

A follow-up survey conducted a week later found that only students who got the first version showed an improvement in interest in the environment. Students who got the second version showed no such change. As far as the researchers know, this is the first study to empirically demonstrate that different ethical framings in environmental education lead to different learning outcomes.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect that such a small difference in storytelling could produce such a clear, measurable gap,” Kitsuki admits. “One possible explanation is that a human-centered story connects to something close to children’s own lives, narrowing the psychological distance between them and the environment.”

The researchers also examined whether these classroom effects extended to parents. While the ethical framing itself didn’t seem to matter here, parents’ interest in the environment improved after their child took the class, suggesting a form of intergenerational learning, where what children learn in school spills over to shape attitudes at home.

Looking ahead, the team plans to extend the study to other age groups, including adults, and build a broader body of evidence on how different ethical approaches shape learning. In time, they hope these findings can inform both environmental policy and curriculum design.

Kitsuki emphasizes that the findings do not make anthropocentric framing preferable to ecocentrism. While it increased students’ short-term interest, recognizing nature’s intrinsic value remains important for long-term conservation and a sustainable society. The challenge, he suggests, is how educators communicate these ideas. For ecocentric messages in particular, hands-on experiences such as fieldwork may help students connect with nature in a more personal and lasting way.

“Environmental education needs to look beyond technical content,” Kitsuki concludes. “Environmental ethics are rarely addressed in teacher training, yet the ethical lens educators choose is a fundamental part of how they design their lessons. We hope this study encourages educators to give that choice more thought.”

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Journal

Ecological Economics

DOI

10.1016/j.ecolecon.2026.109150 

Preschool teachers overwhelmingly support play-based learning

 

While play-based curricula is linked to academic success, urban teachers report lower perceived support from families

 Thinkers from Plato to Maria Montessori have championed play as one of the most powerful ways that young children learn and grow. American preschool teachers overwhelmingly agree — but a new study finds that teachers in urban settings feel less family support for play-based learning than their suburban counterparts.

The study, published in the Early Childhood Education Journal, drew on survey data from 110 preschool teachers in two Midwestern states to examine how classroom play is supported across urban, suburban and rural settings. Researchers looked at three key factors: teachers’ own knowledge and beliefs about learning and play, their perception of family support for play and their perception of curricular support for it.

While teachers’ beliefs about play and curricular support didn’t differ by region — 96.9% agreed or strongly agreed that play supports academic learning — urban teachers were significantly less likely than suburban teachers to say families in their classrooms viewed play as essential to learning.

According to Erin Fox, lead author of the study and a recent graduate with a doctorate in human development and family science from The Ohio State University, both research and anecdotal stories from teachers and parents point to growing pressure in preschool settings to prioritize direct academic instruction, which can limit children’s time for play.

Fox was curious about how this tension was taking shape across communities and set out to explore equity in access to high-quality, play-based preschool.

“One of the biggest misconceptions is that play doesn’t support learning,” Fox said. “In general, I think most people would agree that play supports social emotional development, but may be less likely to understand how play can also support early literacy or math skills.”

Far from being just a “break” or a way for kids to burn off energy, playful learning is an evidence-based teaching strategy: The researchers define it as an active learning approach that combines child-directed, engaging elements with intentional adult guidance.

“From the outside, it might just look like kids are playing, but when you actually talk to the teachers, it’s very intentional and there are clear learning goals behind it,” said Kelly Purtell, a co-author of the study and associate professor of human sciences at Ohio State. The paper is part of a larger study focused on understanding how teachers use and think about play experiences in preschool and early elementary school classrooms.

Purtell notes a broader cultural shift in the way conversations about school readiness have come to dominate how families view preschool.

“When talking to teachers, both formally and informally, they’ve expressed that when some families send their kids to preschool, they really expect them to be there to learn and to be ready for kindergarten,” Purtell said. An increased focus on formal academic preparation, she added, shapes broader expectations of what preschool should look like.

As to why teachers in urban areas reported feeling less support from families around playful learning, the researchers speculate that parents in urban areas might be more exposed to narratives around the importance of school readiness, Purtell said, and there is a growing need to better educate parents and families about the important role of play-based learning in ensuring school readiness.

Parental concerns about kindergarten preparation are well-placed and understandable, Purtell said, and she hopes to help broaden how people think about school readiness.

“Play-based learning is a developmentally appropriate learning strategy,” she said, “and it’s something parents should feel comfortable talking to their children’s teachers about — to better understand how and why teachers are using play in the classroom — and how that’s helping kids develop and get ready for the transition to school.”

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Journal

Early Childhood Education Journal

DOI

10.1007/s10643-026-02276-8 

The hidden high costs of ‘free-to-play’ videogames

 Digital media, including videogames, are a central part of leisure activities for many adolescents and adults. For more than a decade, the industry has increasingly relied on highly profitable financing models in which games can be played free of charge (‘free-to-play’ games), while additional purchases are offered through so-called microtransactions. As the industry repeatedly emphasizes, these purchases are voluntary. 

However, the term ‘microtransaction’ can be misleading. Individual purchases of €100 or more can hardly be considered small, especially for children and adolescents. For the average player more frequent and smaller payments may be more common, but focusing on the average player may conceal an important problem. 

The average player can hide the real problem 

Similarities between free-to-play models and gambling are not limited to the well-researched and gambling-like mechanism of buying loot boxes, where players buy a randomized selection of virtual items, the contents of which are unknown at the time of purchase. Battle passes, virtual currencies, rotating shops, paid progression, personalized offers, and time-limited events can encourage repeated spending.  

A new study showed that spending on microtransactions is highly concentrated among a small minority of players. The highest-spending 10%, whom we simply called ‘heavy spenders’ — deliberately avoiding the gambling-derived term ‘whales’ — accounted for the majority of all money spent. The degree of inequality in spending, meaning that a small minority spent a lot of money while many players spent much less, was also remarkably similar to that found in gambling more generally. 

The researchers also found that heavy spending was not limited to adolescents from affluent families, and the prevalence of problematic behaviors such as gaming disorder and gambling disorder appeared to be higher among heavy spenders. Like gambling, a substantial share of free-to-play games’ revenue may be generated by individuals who are more likely to experience addictive behavior.  

Gambling is subject to varying degrees of legal regulation because of the potential for harm. However, videogames are subject to much less stringent regulations. 

How could regulation help? 

Regulation should expand beyond gambling-like loot boxes alone. While political efforts are currently being made to regulate social media because of its potentially addictive features, videogames remain comparatively underregulated, aside from specific provisions within the Digital Services Act. Several European countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands have attempted to regulate individual mechanics, particularly loot boxes. Research suggests that these approaches have had limited success, but the current momentum surrounding the regulation of social media could also be used to address dark patterns in videogames — design features that manipulate or steer players towards choices that primarily benefit the game provider, including increased spending.  

A particularly useful approach would be to introduce friction that interrupts the regularity and immediacy of purchases. In gambling research, event frequency — in this case, the frequency of microtransactions in games — is considered one of the strongest indicators of the addictive potential of a product. Similar principles should be considered when assessing monetization systems in digital games. 

Persistent addictive behavior and the associated spending is likely to be a problem that predominantly affects adults, and our study did not address this. Nevertheless, children and adolescents require greater protection. At present, responsibility for this protection is largely placed on parents and caregivers, who may struggle to help heavy spenders disengage, particularly when they are confronted with games that incorporate sophisticated design features intended to maximize player engagement and spending. Most young people use videogames competently and without experiencing serious problems, but a system should not be considered safe simply because many users experience no obvious harm. When a small minority of young players generates most of the revenue, that minority deserves particular protection.  

Numbers alone suggest the free-to-play economy is not really free. The monetization of videogame playing is of increasing concern and vulnerable players need protection from potentially exploitative practices. 

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Journal

Frontiers in Public Health

DOI

10.3389/fpubh.2026.1867460 

Children prefer fair punishment to unequal treatment

Consistent enforcement of rules is more important than the severity of the punishment itself, and children expect adults to treat every member of their group impartially and equally. Moreover, fair punishment brings emotional relief to children, according to research by scientists from SWPS University and the University of Michigan.

Children are keen observers, and their sensitivity to social injustice is evident from an early age. Even preschoolers are able to recognise situations in which rules are being broken, and expect that antisocial behaviour will be punished. As they get older, their sense of fairness becomes increasingly sophisticated: they not only expect that violations will be punished, but also understand that punishment should be proportional to the severity of a transgression.

Impartiality and equal treatment

In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology (a follow-up to an earlier study by the same team, published in the journal Cognition), as part of an international project, scientists Katarzyna Myślińska-Szarek, PhD (SWPS University) and Professor Felix Warneken (University of Michigan) focused on children's sense of fairness and their reactions to rule-breaking. Children from Poland and the United States, aged 6-9 (122 individuals), were shown picture stories in which characters engaged in a rule-breaking behaviours, for example, used smartphones at school or left mess after lunch. After watching a story, children answered a series of questions such as whether the character should be punished and whether the punishment was fair.

The primacy effect, previously described in a paper published in the journal Cognition, is crucial in children's assessment of situations. The decision made by a guardian or teacher regarding the first child who broke a rule sets a standard for subsequent instances. This means that if the first offender is punished, their peers believe the second should suffer the same punishment. If the first offender escapes consequences, children expect the second offender to be treated with the same leniency. Children are guided by so-called meta-norms, principles that dictate that rules must be applied impartially and equally to everyone.

In a more recent study, researchers also investigated what happens when both characters in a story face the same consequence - either both are punished or both escape punishment. They found that in this situation, almost all children (97%) believed the teacher did not need to change anything. However, when the consequences were different, as many as 93% of children demanded equal treatment. This shows that children focus not on punishment or its absence, but on equal treatment.

The results show that young children expect rules to be applied impartially and equally to every group member, and that being treated differently by an adult provokes strong resistance and undermines their sense of justice, says Katarzyna Myślińska-Szarek, PhD, a psychologist and sociologist from the SWPS University Faculty of Psychology in Sopot, the first author of the study.

The researchers also investigated whether it mattered if the characters in a story knew they were treated differently from their peers. It turned out that it was important: unless the story character knew what had happened to the peer, their emotions were assessed primarily based on their own punishment (or its absence). However, when the character learned that a peer had been treated differently, children were much more likely to attribute negative emotions (sadness, anger, guilt) to them regardless of the actual consequences. This demonstrates that children as young as six years old take into account what the person knows when assessing how they feel.

Punishment as an emotional reset

The experiment also yielded important observations on the psychology of emotions, related to how children perceive the consequences of breaking rules. A fair punishment does not evoke only negative emotions. While it may be unpleasant, it offers the punished child a sense of relief. Facing the consequences allows for closure for a difficult situation and releases the child from the burden of guilt.

Avoiding punishment, however, causes the initial joy of escaping the consequences to give way to guilt and sadness, especially when the child learns that another peer has been punished for the same offence.

Children do not analyse situations solely in terms of their own benefit. Their emotional reactions and assessment of situations depend on whether they know how others have been treated, explains Katarzyna Myślińska-Szarek. Leniency shown to one child in a group is not perceived as kindness, but as a violation of the principle of equality. Favouritism and selective enforcement of rules destroy a sense of fairness and cause discomfort even in the child who ultimately escapes punishment.

The results obtained among children from Poland and the US were consistent, confirming that sensitivity to double standards is universal and develops regardless of cultural context.

What are the implications of the study result for parents and teachers? It turns out that building authority and children's trust requires absolute consistency, because the first decisions after breaking rules establish the standard that children then expect to be consistently applied. Children measure the clarity and permanence of rules not by the severity of the punishments, but by whether adults enforce them impartially, predictably, and free from double standards, which is why it is important to ensure equal treatment.

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Journal

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

DOI

10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106553 

Exercise is linked to better mental health among college students

 Infrequent exercise is associated with a higher prevalence of common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety among higher-education students in Norway, according to a study published August 19, 2026, in the open access journal PLOS One by Michael Grasdalsmoen from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and colleagues. The findings highlight the potential value of consistent physical activity rather than intense, prolonged exercise sessions.

Common mental disorders are leading causes of disability worldwide in young adults. The transition to higher education is a particularly vulnerable period, underscoring the importance of identifying modifiable protective factors during this developmental stage. Physical inactivity remains pervasive among young adults, even though past research has suggested that regular exercise is associated with better mental health. However, relatively few studies have examined prospective associations between physical exercise and the later development of common mental disorders using standardized diagnostic instruments.

To overcome this limitation, Grasdalsmoen and colleagues conducted a prospective study to examine associations between physical activity and subsequent anxiety and depression. The participants included in the final analysis were 10,460 full-time, higher-education Norwegian students who were aged 18–35 years. They completed questionnaires that assessed exercise frequency, intensity, duration, and total weekly hours at baseline, in addition to a self-administered diagnostic instrument one year later.

The results revealed that lower levels of physical exercise were associated with a higher risk of clinically defined common mental disorders 1 year later. In particular, associations were more consistent for exercise frequency compared with intensity or duration. Low exercise intensity predicted anxiety and depression among women, whereas shorter weekly exercise duration was a stronger risk factor among men. The probability of common mental disorders declined as the total amount of exercise increased, up to approximately 10 hours per week.

In addition, the study provided support for meeting the World Health Organization recommendation of at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week.

Overall, the findings suggest that consistent engagement in exercise, rather than intensity or duration, may be particularly important for curbing anxiety and depression among higher-education students.  Although causality cannot be established from the observational study, encouraging regular exercise may represent a beneficial component of broader strategies to support student mental health, especially for individuals with emerging or subthreshold symptoms.

The authors add: “Our findings show that students who engage in regular physical exercise are at lower risk of developing common mental disorders over time. These findings highlight the importance of making physical activity an accessible and natural part of student life.”

“Mental health among students is a growing public health concern. Our findings suggest that supporting students to be physically active may contribute to better mental health and should be recognized as an important part of a healthy learning environment.”

 

Complete study: https://plos.io/4wwXhAB

Could teaching assistants be an overlooked teacher pipeline?

 

As school districts continue searching for ways to recruit and retain teachers, new research from UNC-Chapel Hill suggests one promising pipeline may already be in classrooms: teaching assistants. 

A new statewide study from the Education Policy Initiative at Carolina (EPIC) found that nearly 1 in 5 beginning teachers in North Carolina previously worked as a teaching assistant. Researchers also found that these former TAs perform just as well as other early-career teachers—and are significantly more likely to remain in the profession through their second and third years. 

The findings also suggest the TA-to-teacher pipeline could help address other workforce needs. Former TAs are more likely to be teachers of color and more likely to hold special education licenses, strengthening areas where many districts face persistent shortages. 

Why it matters: Rather than focusing solely on recruiting new graduates into teaching, the research points to an existing workforce that states and districts could better support as they look to address teacher vacancies and improve retention. 

Lead author Kevin Bastian, research associate professor in UNC's Department of Public Policy and director of EPIC, can discuss: 

• Why teaching assistants represent an overlooked teacher pipeline. 

• What the findings mean for North Carolina and other states facing teacher shortages. 

• How policymakers can better recruit and support TAs who want to become teachers. 

• Why former TAs are more likely to stay in the classroom. 

The study was recently published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.