Bullying, Suicide, and Suicide Prevention

• In Event: Bullying and Sexual Violence in Education

Abstract

In the United States today, bullying and suicide are two of the major public health problems facing youth (CDC, 2015; Srabstein & Leventhal, 2010). Prevention efforts have been developed to address each, given that both affect a significant number of adolescents (Kann et al., 2014). Although experts recommend that prevention efforts for both bullying and suicide attend to multiple levels of the social ecology (Espelage et al., 2015), schools are often tasked with prevention efforts given that adolescents spend most of their time in schools. This talk summarizes research on bullying and suicide, examines evidence on the association between bullying and suicidal ideation and behaviors, and highlights evidence-based school prevention programs.

Nationally representative samples of 6th through 10th graders and high school students have found that between 10.6% and 22% of students report being a target of bullying (Kann et al., 2014; Nansel et al., 2001; Robers et al., 2015). Additionally, 13% of students report perpetrating bullying and 6.3% of students report being both a target and a perpetrator of bullying (Nansel et al., 2001). The rate of suicide is also alarming, with the CDC (2014) reporting that suicide is the second leading cause of death. In the 2013 YRBS, 17% of high school students reported seriously considering suicide in the last year, 8% reported attempting suicide in the last year, and 2.7% indicated being treated by a doctor or nurse for their suicide attempt (Kann et al., 2014).

These public health concerns also have a definitive yet complex relationship (CDC, 2014). Although the media often portrays that being a target of bullying leads to suicide, research identifies an association, but not a causal relationship between the two public health concerns. A meta-analysis of 23 studies found that bullying involvement of any type, and particularly for bully-victims, was associated with more suicidal ideation and behaviors (Holt, et al., 2015). Research has also demonstrated that cyber bullying involvement might be more strongly associated with suicidal ideation than school-based bullying involvement (van Geel, et al., 2014) and that there may be different patterns of association between bullying involvement and suicidal ideation/behavior for boys and girls (e.g., Klomek et al., 2009). Notably, the existing research highlights that bullying and suicidal ideation and behaviors are public health problems that share a number of risk factors.

Despite these overlapping risk factors, school-based prevention programs have largely focused on either bullying or suicide. Duong & Bradshaw (2015) note that prevention programs that address early common risk factors have the potential to reduce the likelihood that youth become involved in bullying or experience suicidal ideation or behaviors. Similarly, research on school climate highlights the associations between school climate and bullying, and school climate and suicide, so efforts to improve school climate may decrease students’ risk for bullying involvement and suicide ideation and behaviors (Birkett, et al., 2009; Cornell & Huang, 2016; Denny et al., 2016). This talk will conclude by highlighting some emerging school-based prevention programs (e.g., LET’s CONNECT) that seek to address both bullying and suicide.

Authors

• Chelsey Bowman, Boston University

• Melissa K. Holt, Boston University

• Anastasia Alexis

• Alyssa Murphy