Pathways From Bullying Perpetration, Victimization, and Bully Victimization to Suicidality Among School-Aged Youth

Abstract

In the wake of several highly publicized adolescent suicides attributed to bullying victimization, national attention has been brought to bear on the profound public health problem of bullying. This article reviews the extant literature on the associations between bullying perpetration, victimization, and thoughts of or attempts at suicide and proposes five potential mediators, namely depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, loneliness, and hopelessness, that may explain this relationship. Numerous studies have found empirical support for the interrelations between internalizing behaviors and both bullying perpetration and victimization and suicide. We find that further longitudinal research needs to be conducted to more conclusively determine the role and causal ordering these various psychosocial factors may play in bullying perpetration, victimization, and suicide. Although the research literature implies causal directions among all these potential mediators, untangling the unique influence of bullying perpetration, victimization, and bully victimization on suicide and its mechanisms of action has major research and practice implications.

The role of bullying in depressive symptoms from adolescence to emerging adulthood: A growth mixture model

“…” Craig and Pelper (2003) consider bullying as a relational problem between perpetrators and vulnerable victims. Both bully victimization and perpetration have been linked with elevated depressive symptoms in high school students (e.g., Klomek et al, 2007; Klomek et al, 2013; Hong, Kral, & Sterzing, 2014;), though some studies have failed to identify a link between bully perpetration and depressive symptoms (i.e., Perren et al, 2010). …”

Bi‐directional longitudinal associations between different types of bullying victimization, suicide ideation/attempts, and depression among a large sample of European adolescents

“…Kodish et al., ). Longitudinal studies are crucial to determine the direction of the association between victimization and adverse outcomes (Hong, Kral, & Sterzing, ). Most longitudinal studies have examined the impact of victimization on depression (Sweeting, Young, West, & Der, ; Takizawa, Maughan, & Arseneault, ; Zwierzynska, Wolke, & Lereya, ), while others have examined the impact of depression on becoming victimized (Tran, Cole, & Weiss, ).…”

Harassment and Bullying among Students in Higher Education Institutions: Manifestation of Single Cases of Harassment and Bullying in Aspects of Demographic Variables

“…Students' safety is an important part of higher education institution's policy, which affects not only students' psychological well-being. Bullying is a strong source of stress (Hoel, Zapf and Cooper, 2002) and very negatively affects victim's physical and mental health, it is related to induced depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, loneliness and hopelessness, which might lead to suicide attempts (Hong, Kral and Sterzing, 2014). Harassment and bullying also negatively affect study process, and influence a decision to choose one or another university, taking into account public responses -it is determined that selections of future students depend on how an education institution guaranties safety (Shelley et al, 2017).…”