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Traditional bullying typically occurs in schools and has been associated with a myriad of mental health problems. Recent evidence has indicated that cyberbullying may just be traditional bullying that is extended to the online world, but this possibility has received only limited study in Asian countries. This study explored the co-occurrence of traditional and cybervictimization and its association with mental health among 3319 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years in Singapore. Victims of bullying were categorized into mutually exclusive groups: traditional-only victims, cyber-only victims, or combined traditional and cybervictims. Results indicated that there were substantial overlaps between victimization in traditional bullying and cyberbullying and that traditional victimization was more prevalent than cybervictimization. Being a victim of either form of bullying (i.e., traditional-only or cyber-only victims) was associated with higher reports of internalizing and externalizing problems, and combined traditional and cybervictims reported the most internalizing problems. However, there were no significant differences in problem scores between traditional-only victims and cyber-only victims. The findings highlight the need to consider the extensive overlap between traditional and cybervictimization when investigating their differential association with adolescents' mental health. Prevention and intervention efforts by school staff and mental health practitioners need to target both traditional bullying and cyberbullying in an integrated manner, and extra attention should be provided to adolescents who are victims of both forms of bullying.

Child maltreatment is associated with significant negative long-term outcomes. Behaviors considered to be more serious and abusive are more likely identified as maltreatment and reported. Therefore, studying child maltreatment perceptions among professionals and the public who regularly work with children could inform practice. Existing studies examining professionals' and the public's perceptions of maltreatment have reported mixed findings, motivating a more comprehensive study of maltreatment perceptions. Our study compared perceived abusiveness and seriousness of behaviors (a) across professional groups (educators, counselors/social workers, nurses, doctors, and police officers), and (b) between professional groups and the public. We surveyed 1,022 professionals and 500 members of the public. Respondents completed an 18-item measure on their perceived abusiveness of potential maltreatment behaviors, and rated the seriousness of 21 vignettes depicting maltreatment behaviors. We found that educators surveyed in our study perceived all child maltreatment behaviors as more serious, and emotional maltreatment behaviors as more abusive, than other professional groups. Conversely, police officers in our sample perceived neglect/emotional maltreatment behaviors as less serious than other professionals. Police officers also perceived physical abuse and emotional maltreatment behaviors as less abusive than other professionals. In our sample, professionals perceived maltreatment behaviors as less serious than the public, while the public was more hesitant to label behaviors as constituting abuse than professionals. These findings highlight the need to address inconsistencies in maltreatment perceptions across professionals and the public, to ensure the provision of appropriate intervention in suspected maltreatment cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]