Structural Organisation of Destructive Messages of Teenagers in Social Networks

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Recieved: 07/10/2025

Accepted: 02/10/2026

Published: 03/13/2026

Keywords: markers of destructiveness; communicative behaviour; digital social environment; destructive messages; obscene language

Pages: 81–96

DOI: 10.11621/npj.2026.0206

Available online: 13.03.2026

To cite this article:

Nikishina, V.B., Gorbacheva, A.S., Vishnevskaya, A.A. (2026). Structural Organisation of Destructive Messages of Teenagers in Social Networks. National Psychological Journal, 21(2) , 81–96. https://doi.org/10.11621/npj.2026.0206

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Nikishina, V.B. Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University (Pirogov University)

Gorbacheva, A.S. Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University (Pirogov University)

Vishnevskaya, A.A. Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University (Pirogov University)

Abstract

Background. The growth of the user activity of teenagers in the digital social environment, namely in social networks and messengers, captures the tendency of destructive manifestations to consolidate as communicative stereotypes.

Objectives. This study is aimed at studying the structural organisation of destructive messages of teenagers in social networks.

Study Participants. The research was conducted in the Telegram messenger. The chat was selected based on the content of the messages (based on school and student topics). The total number of analysed speech messages was 10016 units. 98 users participated in the study.

Methods. The research methods included content analysis, the functional pragmatics method, the complex procedural method, as well as the еmethods of quantitative and qualitative data processing, namely descriptive statistics methods, the Mann-Whitney U-test, and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient.

Results. As a result of the conducted research, it was found that the size of a destructive speech message is 3.4 (SD = 3.1) linguistic units (number of words), and of a constructive one is 3.5 (SD = 3.03). In the destructive and constructive categories of messages, the presence of obscene vocabulary is recorded in all parts of speech. The presence of obscene, aggressive, and pejorative vocabulary, as well as of certain expressive forms (interjections and slang) is significantly associated with an increase in the likelihood of destructive speech messages. It has been revealed that destructive speech messages form repetitive semantic and pragmatic patterns expressed through direct or indirect aggression.

Conclusions. Teenagers’ speech messages in a digital social environment are characterised by a shortened grammatical structure. A high frequency of speech units such as obscene vocabulary, obscene interjections, insults, and speech units containing sexual and physical aggression is observed in destructive speech messages. The combination of certain parts of speech and speech units forms stable constructions that can act as linguistic and semantic markers of destructive communicative behaviour.

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To cite this article:

Nikishina, V.B., Gorbacheva, A.S., Vishnevskaya, A.A.. Structural Organisation of Destructive Messages of Teenagers in Social Networks. // National Psychological Journal 2026. 2. Pages81–96. doi: 10.11621/npj.2026.0206

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