Abstract
Background: Bullying tends to peak during adolescence, and it is an important risk factor of self-harm and suicide. However, research on the specific effect of different sub-types of bullying is limited.Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the associations between four common forms of bullying (verbal, physical, relational, and cyber) and self-harm, suicidal ideation (SI), and suicide attempts (SA).Method: This was a cross-sectional study of a sample including 4,241 Chinese students (55.8% boys) aged 11 to 18 years. Bullying involvement, self-harm, SI, and SA were measured via The Juvenile Campus Violence Questionnaire (JCVQ). The association was examined through multinomial logistic regression analysis, adjusted for demographic characteristics and psychological distress.Results: Bullying victimization and perpetration were reported by 18.0 and 10.7% of participants. The prevalence of self-harm, SI, and SA were 11.8, 11.8, and 7.1%, respectively. Relational bullying victimization and perpetration were significantly associated with SI only, SI plus self-harm, and SA. Physical bullying victimization and perpetration were risk factors of self-harm only and SA. Verbal victimization was significantly associated with SI only. Cyber perpetration was a risk factor of SA.Conclusions: The findings highlight the different effects of sub-types of bullying on self-harm and suicidal risk. Anti-bullying intervention and suicide prevention efforts should be prior to adolescents who are involved in physical and relational bullying.
Highlights
Suicide is a substantial public health concern worldwide and is the third leading cause of death among youth aged 15– 19 [1]
Most participants lived in a two biological parent family (89.3%), while 8.2% were from a single biological parent family and 2.5% from other type of family
The different impact of these two forms of bullying may be rooted in that verbal bullying is more common than physical bullying among adolescents, which affects the risk to a lesser degree [46, 47]
Summary
Suicide is a substantial public health concern worldwide and is the third leading cause of death among youth aged 15– 19 [1]. Suicide has become the leading cause of death among Chinese young adults [2]. Evidence significantly demonstrates that the presence of suicidal ideation (SI, thoughts and plans of ending one’s life) and suicide attempts (SA, engagement in potentially self-injurious behavior that does not result in death) are the most important risk factors for suicide [3]. In response to the high prevalence, researchers have identified risk factors for SI and SA, which range from psychopathology to interpersonal adversity, such as bullying [5]. Bullying tends to peak during adolescence, and it is an important risk factor of self-harm and suicide. Research on the specific effect of different sub-types of bullying is limited
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