Architecture of Silence: Cyberbullying, Adolescent Mental Health, and Institutional Response in India

Abstract

Cyberbullying has emerged as a major adolescent mental health concern in digitally mediated societies, yet existing scholarship often treats victimisation, non-disclosure, and institutional failure as separate problems. This conceptual paper develops an integrated framework combining General Strain Theory, Spiral of Silence, and Ecological Systems Theory to explain how cyberbullying and related forms of digital victimisation generate cumulative psychological strain, suppress disclosure, and intensify harm when protective systems fail. Drawing on publicly reported cases from India and one comparative case from Canada, the paper offers a structured analytical comparison of how strain, silence, and ecological breakdown interact across contexts. The analysis shows that adverse mental health outcomes are most severe when digital abuse is repetitive, public, difficult to escape, and met with fear, stigma, legal ambiguity, or institutional inaction. The paper contributes a multilevel conceptual model for understanding cyberbullying-related harm in the Indian context and identifies implications for clinical practice, school-based intervention, platform governance, and legal reform. Because the study is conceptual and based on public cases rather than primary data, its claims are illustrative and theory-building rather than causal. The framework nevertheless provides a useful basis for future empirical testing.