Depending on the country of origin, between 5 percent and 20 percent of children become victims of bullying. Some forms of bullying include physical, verbal, and intentional exclusion. Also, studies have shown that bullying is a strong risk indicator for adolescent suicide.
A new study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, suggests that cyberbullying is more strongly related to suicidal thoughts in children and adolescents than traditional bullying.
The researchers reviewed data from 34 studies focusing on the relationship between bullying and suicide inventiveness. Assault, sexual abuse and robbery were not included in the meta-analysis consisting 284,375 participants to limit their evidence to studies on “peer victimization”. Also, self-harm studies were excluded from the analysis because the participants may have various reasons to inflict harm on themselves.
They found that children who experienced bullying were 2.2 times more likely to contemplate suicide and 2.5 times more likely to attempt it than their fellow neighbors who were not bullied. Children who were cyberbullied were 3.2 times more likely to consider suicide than their peers. The researchers did not find any significant difference between older and younger children or boys and girls in how likely they were to have suicidal thoughts.
The authors suggest a reason for why they found a stronger association of cyberbullying with suicide. They write, “Potentially, the effects of cyberbullying are more severe because wider audiences can be reached through the internet and material can be stored online, resulting in victims reliving denigrating experiences more often.”
Debra Pepler, co-director of PREVNet, a federally funded national network of bullying researchers and resources, believes the relationship between bullying and suicide is quite complex. Though victims are at a higher risk for suicide, so are the adolescents who are doing the bullying. Although there is increasing discussion dealing with stopping bullying, schools need to adopt a system that helps each student feel they have a trusted adult to speak to about bullying.
Additional Resource:
Relationship Between Peer Victimization, Cyberbullying, and Suicide in Children and Adolescents
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