Bullying 2.0: Cyberbullying and Suicide...

...(or "cyberbullicide*"--did we need a cute nickname for that?)

*p207

Expanding on a variety of existing research that strongly links perpetrators and victims of “traditional” bullying with suicidal ideation, this study attempted to find links between bullying (with a particular focus on cyberbullying) and suicidal ideation or suicide attempts in a sample of American adolescents. The researchers found that “cyberbullying victims were 1.9 times more likely and cyberbullying offenders were 1.5 times more likely to have attempted suicide than those who were not cyberbullying victims or offenders” (216), which they concluded was a “small but significant variation found in suicidal thoughts and actions based on bullying and cyberbullying” (217).

As the researchers concede, this study did not span any significant period of time, but instead relied on students’ recollection on one day of their recent experiences, so it’s difficult to draw meaningful conclusions about cause and effect (i.e., cyberbullying specifically among all possible factors leading to suicidal ideation), but I think the results demonstrate enough likelihood of a correlation to compel further research and focused treatment of the issue by school leaders and parents—particularly (and this was a shock to me) because, “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2007) reported that suicide was the third leading cause of death among adolescents in 2004.” (206)

I would want to know more about what other factors tend to combine with cyberbullying to result in suicidal thoughts and actions in young people, because as the researchers point out,  “it is unlikely that experience with cyberbullying by itself leads to youth suicide. Rather, it tends to exacerbate instability and hopelessness in the minds of adolescents already struggling with stressful life circumstances” (Hinduja & Patchin, 2009).”  Are there particular groups who show this link more strongly than others, who are more likely to experience cyberbullying and suicidal ideation--for example, students with a disability, students living in poverty, students with a particular cultural background? The researchers briefly noted for example some variation in the results between “white” and “non-white” respondents, but (as those two frankly simplistic demographic categories confirm), they acknowledge that a detailed analysis of the links among cyberbullying, suicide and race were beyond the scope of this study. 

Reference:

Hinduja, S. and Patchin, J.(2010). Bullying, Cyberbullying, and Suicide. In Archives of

Suicide Research, 14: 3, pp. 206-22. Retrieved 8-3-11 at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2010.494133