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. 2024 Dec 18;12(1):762.
doi: 10.1186/s40359-024-02253-z.

The effect of cyberbullying victimization, traditional bullying victimization and suicidal ideation among college students: do specific affective problems play a mediate role?

Fang Chen  1   2 , Irene Yinglin Li  3 , Chenyi Ling  2   4 , Hongyu Zou  5   6   7
Affiliations

The effect of cyberbullying victimization, traditional bullying victimization and suicidal ideation among college students: do specific affective problems play a mediate role?

Fang Chen et al. BMC Psychol. .

Abstract

Background: Suicidal ideation among college students and adolescents represents a significant public health issue worldwide. Research has indicated that emotional difficulties may mediate the relationship between bullying victimization and suicidal ideation. However, insights from Thomas Joiner's interpersonal theory and Klonsky's The Three-Step Theory suggest that suicidal ideation arises not merely from emotional distress but from the interplay of hopelessness along with these emotional challenges. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether variouse affective problems mediated the relationship between bullying victimization and suicidal ideation among college students.

Methods: In this study, we utilized a convenience sampling method to collect data from 2717 college students (mean age = 19.81 years, 22.49% male) in South China. We examined the relationships between variables using Spearman's correlation analysis. To analyze potential mediation effects, we employed PROCESS model 4 within SPSS.

Results: Our findings revealed that different forms of bullying victimization can predict experiences of depression, anxiety, and social anxiety. However, these emotional responses did not significantly influenced suicidal ideation among college students. Additionally, while different forms of bullying victimization did not directly correlate with feelings of hopelessness, hopelessness was closely associated with the prevalence of suicidal ideation. Furthermore, our results highlighted a significant mediating role of psychiatric prodromal experiences in the relationship between different forms of bullying victimization and suicidal ideation.

Conclusions: The results suggested that affective problems may not serve as a significant mediating factor in the relationship between bullying victimization and suicidal ideation. We proposed an integrated emotion-response model that enhances understanding of suicidal ideation among college and offers a framework for more effective prevention strategies.

Keywords: Affective problems; Bullying victimization; College students; Mediation model; Suicidal ideation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Psychology, South China Normal University, with ethical approval number: SCNU-PSY-2022-217. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Consent for publication: All authors have contributed to and have approved the final manuscript. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The mediation model of different affective problems (other affective problems not as covariates)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The mediation model of different affective problems (other affective problems as covariates)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The integrated emotion-response model of suicidal ideation
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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