Bullying and Suicidal Behaviors among Middle School Adolescents: Does Reporting Bullying Impact the Suicidal Behaviors?

Background: Bullying is highly prevalent and has been associated with suicidal behaviors among adolescents. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among adolescents. This study examined whether the reporting of bullying had an impact on suicidal behaviors among middle school adolescents (aged 11-15 years) in a Northeast Central Ohio county.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 6^th - 8^th grade adolescents (n=581) using a modified Middle School Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). The modified YRBS instrument included questions on demographics, health risk behaviors, suicidal behaviors and bullying. The questions on bullying included whether the adolescents had told anyone about being bullied and whether the reporting made bullying better, worse or made no difference.  

Results: Overall, 50.3% (n=292) of the sample were male and 87.8% (n=510) were white. Twenty-two percent, 13.0%, and 9.0% reported suicide ideation, planning, and attempt, respectively. Twenty-six percent of the bullied adolescents indicated that reporting bullying made it better while 22.0% indicated reporting made it worse. Adolescents who indicated that reporting bullying made it better had 1.95 (95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.89-4.23), 1.99 (0.76-5.20), and 3.16 (0.92-10.87) odds of suicide ideation, planning, and attempt than those not bullied. Those who indicated reporting bullying made it worse had 6.00 (2.96-12.15), 4.70 (2.05-10.78), and 11.10 (3.98-30.97) odds of suicide ideation, planning, and attempt than those not bullied.

Conclusions: Reporting bullying significantly increased the odds of suicidal behaviors among middle school adolescents when reporting it led to an increase in bullying experienced by the adolescents.