Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Sep 19, 2025; 15(9): 110352
Published online Sep 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i9.110352
Tracing the hidden links between sadness, aggression, and peer victimization in adolescents
Haewon Byeon
Haewon Byeon, Worker’s Care and Digital Health Lab, Department of Future Technology, Korea University of Technology and Education, Cheonan 31253, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea
Author contributions: Byeon H contributed to this paper; Byeon H designed the study, involved in data interpretation, developed methodology.
Supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, No. NRF-RS-2023-00237287.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Haewon Byeon, PhD, Director, Worker’s Care and Digital Health Lab, Department of Future Technology, Korea University of Technology and Education, 1600, Chungjeol-ro, Cheonan 31253, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea. bhwpuma@naver.com
Received: June 5, 2025
Revised: June 25, 2025
Accepted: July 21, 2025
Published online: September 19, 2025
Processing time: 83 Days and 1.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Bai et al’s study demonstrates that specific symptoms especially sad mood, sleep disturbance, and cyberbullying victimization drive the reciprocal relationship between peer bullying and adolescent mental health problems. This finding calls for early, symptom-focused interventions and comprehensive school-based strategies that address both traditional and cyber forms of bullying. For lasting impact, future research and prevention efforts should prioritize multi-source data and culturally adaptable approaches.