Prospective Relation Between Peer Victimization and Suicidal Ideation: Potential Cognitive Mediators

Moderated mediation analyses: Exploring the complex pathways between school bullying and suicidal ideation among vocational school students in China

BACKGROUND

School bullying can affect adolescent suicidal ideation (SI), but the mediating and moderating effects behind this association are still unclear, especially for students in vocational schools.

OBJECTIVE

This study explored the relationship between school bullying and suicidal ideation (SI) among vocational school students in China, and it constructs a moderated mediation model to examine the mediating effects of physical anhedonia (PA) and social anhedonia (SA), as well as the moderating effects of cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES).

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Convenience sampling was conducted. The sample included 13,675 vocational school students (57.7 % female) with an average age of 15.88 years (ranging from 13 to 21) from 13 vocational schools in Hainan Province, China.

METHODS

Participants completed questionnaires on demographics, school bullying, PA, SA, CR, ES, and SI.

RESULTS

The results showed that the prevalence rates of PA, SA, and SI among bullied students were significantly higher (40.7 %, 37.8 %, and 34.0 %, respectively). Mediation analysis revealed that school bullying had a significant indirect effect on SI through PA and SA (accounting for 42.4 % of the total effect), with SA being the key mediator. Moderated mediation analysis confirmed that CR moderated the mediating effects of school bullying via PA/SA on SI, and ES moderated the mediating effects of school bullying via SA on SI. ES did not moderate the relationship between school bullying and SA in the female group.

CONCLUSION

School bullying induces SI by impacting PA and SA, and CR and ES moderate this process. This provides theoretical support for developing effective intervention measures to alleviate the negative impact of bullying on mental health.

Applying the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide to inform the association between bullying victimization and suicidal ideation in college students

Objective: Victims of bullying are at increased risk for suicidal ideation. The purpose of the current study is to examine the impact of bullying victimization in childhood on college student's current report of suicidal ideation through two mechanisms derived from the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide. Participants: Our sample consists of 304 undergraduate college students from a large, southeastern university. Methods: We employed a cross-sectional design with self-report surveys to examine the indirect effects of childhood bullying victimization frequency on suicidal ideation through thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness. Results: The association between bullying victimization and suicidal ideation was explained by perceived burdensomeness, but not thwarted belongingness. Conclusions: Bullying victimization in childhood may have distal effects on suicidal ideation through influencing perceptions of worthlessness and self-hatred. Interventions in college settings that address the impact of bullying victimization on perceived burdensomeness may reduce potential for suicidal ideation among college students.

AI Technology panic-is AI Dependence Bad for Mental Health? A Cross-Lagged Panel Model and the Mediating Roles of Motivations for AI Use Among Adolescents

Background

The emergence of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), may manifest as technology panic in some people, including adolescents who may be particularly vulnerable to new technologies (the use of AI can lead to AI dependence, which can threaten mental health). While the relationship between AI dependence and mental health is a growing topic, the few existing studies are mainly cross-sectional and use qualitative approaches, failing to find a longitudinal relationship between them. Based on the framework of technology dependence, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of experiencing AI dependence, to examine the cross-lagged effects between mental health problems (anxiety/depression) and AI dependence and to explore the mediating role of AI use motivations.

Methods

A two-wave cohort program with 3843 adolescents (Male = 1848, Mage = 13.21 ± 2.55) was used with a cross-lagged panel model and a half-longitudinal mediation model.

Results

17.14% of the adolescents experienced AI dependence at T1, and 24.19% experienced dependence at T2. Only mental health problems positively predicted subsequent AI dependence, not vice versa. For AI use motivation, escape motivation and social motivation mediated the relationship between mental health problems and AI dependence whereas entertainment motivation and instrumental motivation did not.

Discussion

Excessive panic about AI dependence is currently unnecessary, and AI has promising applications in alleviating emotional problems in adolescents. Innovation in AI is rapid, and more research is needed to confirm and evaluate the impact of AI use on adolescents' mental health and the implications and future directions are discussed.

Interpersonal Well-Being and Suicidal Outcomes in a Nationally Representative Study of Adolescents: A Translational Study

Adolescent suicide continues to rise despite burgeoning research on interpersonal risk for suicide. This may reflect challenges in applying developmental psychopathology research into clinical settings. In response, the present study used a translational analytic plan to examine indices of social well-being most accurate and statistically fair for indexing adolescent suicide. Data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement were used. Adolescents aged 13-17 (N = 9,900) completed surveys on traumatic events, current relationships, and suicidal thoughts and attempts. Both frequentist (e.g., receiver operating characteristics) and Bayesian (e.g., Diagnostic Likelihood Ratios; DLRs) techniques provided insight into classification, calibration, and statistical fairness. Final algorithms were compared to a machine learning-informed algorithm. Overall, parental care and family cohesion best classified suicidal ideation, while these indices and school engagement best classified attempts. Multi-indicator algorithms suggested adolescents at high risk across these indices were approximately 3-times more likely to engage in ideation (DLR = 3.26) and 5-times more likely to engage in attempts (DLR = 4.53). Although equitable for attempts, models for ideation underperformed in non-White adolescents. Supplemental, machine learning-informed algorithms performed similarly, suggesting non-linear and interactive effects did not improve model performance. Future directions for interpersonal theories for suicide are discussed and clinical implications for suicide screening are demonstrated.

The Bridge between Cybervictimization and Suicidal Ideation among Adolescents: A Vicious Cycle of Hopelessness

Cybervictimization has been shown to relate to suicidal ideation. However, few studies have fully clarified the directionality of this relationship, and little is known about the potential mediating and moderating mechanisms of this relationship. To address these gaps, the current study tested bidirectional relationships among cybervictimization, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation across three years using a cross-lagged design and examined whether these relationships varied by openness, family socioeconomic status, perceived economic stress, and sex. A total of 2,407 Chinese adolescents (50.23% female, M_age = 12.75, SD = 0.58 at baseline) from seven schools participated in the present study. The results indicated that cybervictimization was related to hopelessness and suicidal ideation. There was a vicious cycle between cybervictimization and hopelessness after controlling the effects of cyberbullying at T1. There were significant reciprocal relationships between hopelessness and suicidal ideation. Hopelessness at T2 mediated the relationship between cybervictimization at T1 and suicidal ideation at T3. Openness moderated the relationships among cybervictimization, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation. Family socioeconomic status, perceived economic stress, and sex did not play a moderating role. These findings will help to understand that intervening with hopelessness is a promising way to reduce adolescents' cybervictimization and suicidal ideation, and promoting adolescents' openness is an effective approach to alleviate the negative outcome of cybervictimization.

Integrating the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide Into the Relations Between Cyber-Victimization and Suicidality Among Adolescents: A Short-Term Prospective Study

The relation between cyber-victimization and suicidality among adolescents has been well documented; however, the mechanisms underlying this association have not been well investigated. Drawing upon the interpersonal theory of suicide, this study aimed to examine the mediating mechanisms (i.e., thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness) underlying longitudinal, bidirectional relations between cyber-victimization and suicidal ideation/attempts among adolescents and explore gender differences in the mechanisms. Participants were 497 Chinese adolescents (46.1% male; M_age = 13.28, SD = .66), who completed the assessment of cyber-victimization, thwarted belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness, suicidal ideation/attempts at three-time points. The time interval between each two assessments is two weeks. Results showed the reciprocal relations between cyber-victimization and thwarted belongingness/perceived burdensomeness, between thwarted belongingness and suicidal ideation/suicide attempts, and between perceived burdensomeness and suicide attempts. Longitudinal mediation analyses indicated that Time 2 thwarted belongingness mediated the relation between Time 1 cyber-victimization and Time 3 suicidal ideation/suicide attempts. Besides, the reverse pathway from Time 1 suicidal ideation to Time 3 cyber-victimization was also mediated by Time 2 thwarted belongingness, but it was only significant in females, as suggested by multiple-group analyses. According to the aforementioned results, the interpersonal theory of suicide provides a useful framework for understanding relations between cyber-victimization and suicidality. Findings suggest that intervention targeted at improving the need to belong may help reduce suicide risk and lower cyber-victimization. Anti-cyber-victimization should be integrated into suicide intervention and prevention programs, and gender differences should be taken into account in order to enhance the program's effectiveness.

Investigating the relationship between bullying involvement and self-harmful thoughts and behaviour in young people: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

There is a complex and inconsistent relationship between bullying involvement and self-harmful thoughts and behaviour (SHTB) in young people. This novel systematic review aims to establish key interacting, moderating and mediating variables associated with SHTB in young people involved in bullying.

METHODS

The systematic review was registered with PROSPERO: CRD42020192023. A search was conducted (until February 2021) across databases: PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO (Ovid), Cochrane Library, Scopus (Elsevier), Web of Science, ERIC and CINAHL (EBSCOhost). Observational studies containing quantitative primary or secondary data analyses were included in the review, on the basis that they examined interactions, moderators, or mediators between bullying involvement and SHTB in young people. Versions of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale were used to assess risk of bias in the included studies.

RESULTS

A total of 57 studies were included. Overall, 3 studies identified interactions, 25 studies identified moderators and 21 studies identified mediators. 9 studies identified moderator-mediators. The findings were categorised as either self-harmful thoughts or self-harmful behaviours and synthesised under the following themes: socio-demographic; depression; parental; personality/psychological; and social/environmental.

LIMITATIONS

This review uncovered significant heterogeneity and a paucity of replicated studies in the field, therefore, tentative conclusions have been drawn.

CONCLUSIONS

This comprehensive review highlights the key role of depression as a mediator between traditional/cyber victimisation and SHTB in young people. The moderating effects of gender on mediation models investigating the role of depression suggest the possibility that females involved in bullying may be at increased suicide risk.

Social rejection, popularity, peer victimization, and self-injurious thoughts and behaviors among adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) are significant public health problems in adolescence. The current article provides a comprehensive systematic review examining the relationship between events leading to perceived low relational evaluation (e.g. social rejection) and SITBs among adolescents. Theoretical work posits that low relational evaluation is experienced as psychologically painful, a known correlate of SITBs. Therefore, events leading to low relational evaluation may be particularly informative in understanding the context of SITBs. The current review examines how experiences of low relational evaluation that are hypothesized to elicit psychological pain, such as social rejection, low popularity, and peer victimization are related to engagement in SITBs in adolescence. A total of 56 articles meeting inclusion criteria were identified. The hypothesis of an association between indicators of low relational evaluation and SITBs was generally supported throughout the literature, with more consistency found among studies examining suicidal ideation specifically. However, interpretation of the findings is constrained by various methodological limitations of studies. The present review concludes with a theoretical conceptualization of the relationship between perceived relational value and SITBs, leveraging social and evolutionary psychological theory, to guide future research into this topic.