A Social-Ecological Approach to Understanding the Relationship between Cyberbullying Victimization and Suicidal Ideation in South Korean Adolescents: The Moderating Effect of School Connectedness

Abstract

Background: Cyberbullying victimization and suicidal ideation are both ongoing deleterious social problems in South Korea. Using the social-ecological approach, this study examined the association between cyberbullying victimization and suicidal ideation as well as the buffering role of school connectedness in this relationship. Methods: A nationally representative sample of 7333 adolescents from the 2016 Korean Children and Youth Right Study participated in the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Wald chi-square test, bivariate correlations, and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Results: Nearly 17.7% of adolescents were cyberbullied, and 28.4% had suicidal ideation in the past 12 months. Cyberbullying victims were at an increased risk of suicidal ideation. The results also found that parental abuse, family dysfunction, and perceived peer relationship stress were positively associated with suicidal ideation, while parental support for autonomy was negatively associated with suicidal ideation. Further, school connectedness moderated on the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and adolescent suicidal ideation. Conclusions: These findings suggest that various stakeholders should consider interventions and preventive programs that address school connectedness when working with adolescents who are victims of cyberbullying and exhibit suicidal behavior.

Measurement Invariance and Relationships Among School Connectedness, Cyberbullying, and Cybervictimization: A Comparison Among Canadian, Chinese, and Tanzanian Adolescents

“…Indeed, increased school connectedness predicted lower experiences of cyberbullying/victimization; thus, these connections appear to be universal, at least for the countries examined in this study. Overall, these findings align with previous work which has found that school connectedness moderates the relationship between cybervictimization and suicidal behavior in both North America and South Korea (Kim, et al, 2020; Lee et al, 2021).…”

“…Moreover, in China, teaching is teacher centered, with little student involvement during class (Fry & Bi, 2013). In such a school environment, Chinese students typically face a heavy academic burden, which may be associated with a greater dislike for their school and, as a result, reduce their sense of school connectedness (Lee et al, 2001). For example, Sun et al (2013) found that educational stress was related to less school connectedness among Chinese adolescents.…”

Stand by me or not? Academic context-related and individual contributors to university students’ intended reaction to cyberbullying.

“…Nevertheless, the above findings do not support Hypothesis 1 regarding the direct association of students’ perceived academic connectedness with their perceived likelihood of manifesting one of the three different reactions as hypothetical bystanders. Although perceived academic connectedness has been mentioned as a protective factor against students’ involvement in cyberbullying (Knox et al, 2021; Lee et al, 2021), this feeling does not seem to have the potential to be directly associated with students’ perceived likelihood of reacting to cyberbullying incidents. It could be that this association can occur only as long as university students are characterized by (cognitive, affective) empathic skills.…”

Correlational study on cyberbullying and social abilities in intercultural teenagers

“…In addition, it has been shown that, in ethnic, religious, and cultural minority groups, the absences of these skills are closely related to the appearance of depression, anxiety, and the decrease of self-control in adolescents (Lee et al, 2021;Przepiorka et al, 2021) that are reflected, in some cases, with hostile behaviors (Wasserman et al, 2021). Likewise, minority groups are less integrated into the environment, have lower levels of empathy, less self-control, greater impulsivity, and a higher index of antisocial behaviors, which makes it easier for them to assume the role of aggressor in racist or xenophobic cyberbullying (Zych and Llorent, 2021).…”