Associations among bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide in high school students

• Published in: Journal of adolescence (London, England.) Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 341 - 350
• Main Authors: Bauman, Sheri, Toomey, Russell B, Walker, Jenny L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2013; Elsevier; John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subjects: Adolescence; Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aggression; Arizona; At Risk Students; Biological and medical sciences; Bullying; Bullying - psychology; Correlation; Crime Victims; Cyber-victimization; Cyberbullying; Depression; Depression (Psychology); Emotional disorders; Female; Females; Gender; Gender Differences; High School Students; Humans; Internet; Male; Medical sciences; Middle School Students; Mood disorders; Pediatrics; Prevention; Prevention programs; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Risk Assessment; Secondary school students; Sex; Students - psychology; Suicide; Suicides & suicide attempts; Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires; Victimization; Victims; Arizona; Bullying; Adolescence; Cyberbullying; Victimization; Depression; Suicide; Cyber-victimization; Human; Mood disorder; Psychological harassment; Suicide attempt; Correlation analysis; Adolescent; Internet
• ISSN: 0140-1971; 1095-9254
• DOI: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2012.12.001

Abstract This study examined associations among depression, suicidal behaviors, and bullying and victimization experiences in 1491 high school students using data from the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Results demonstrated that depression mediated the association between bullying/victimization and suicide attempts, but differently for males and females. Specifically, depression mediated the link between traditional victimization and suicide attempts similarly across gender, whereas depression mediated the link between cyber victimization and suicide attempts only for females. Similarly, depression mediated the link between traditional bullying and suicide attempts for females only. Depression did not mediate the link between cyberbullying and suicide attempts for either gender. Implications of the findings are discussed, including the importance of greater detection of depression among students involved in bullying, and the need for a suicide prevention and intervention component in anti-bullying programs. Findings suggest that bullying prevention efforts be extended from middle school students to include high school students.