Joint victimization patterns and adolescents’ internet-related addictive behaviors: a longitudinal study of gender differences

Objective Previous studies have examined traditional or cyber victimization separately in relation to internet-related addictive behaviors, such as internet gaming disorder (IGD) and short video addiction (SVA). However, adolescents are often exposed to both forms of victimization simultaneously, and little is known about how different joint patterns of traditional and cyber victimization, including jointly elevated and discrepant exposure patterns, shape addiction risk, as well as gender differences.Method The present longitudinal study followed 1917 adolescents (58.8% boys; Mage ± SD = 13.46 ± 0.81) over a six-month period. Polynomial regression and response surface analysis were employed to examine the joint associations of traditional and cyber victimization with IGD and SVA, and gender differences.Results The findings revealed that adolescents exposed to high levels of both traditional and cyber victimization exhibited greater risks of IGD and SVA than those with low levels of both. In addition, higher SVA was observed among adolescents characterized by high traditional victimization but low cyber victimization compared to the reverse pattern. Gender analyses further indicated that jointly high levels of traditional and cyber victimization were more strongly associated with addictive behaviors among girls.Conclusions These findings advance understanding of the complex interplay between traditional and cyber victimization and adolescents’ internet-related addictions, underscoring the importance of integrative prevention efforts that address victimization continuity across offline and online contexts and account for gender-specific vulnerabilities.