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J Youth Adolescence (2013) 42:675684 DOI 10.1007/s10964-013-9925-5
EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
Cyber Bullying and Physical Bullying in Adolescent Suicide: The Role of Violent Behavior and Substance Use
Brett J. Litwiller Amy M. Brausch
Received: 6 November 2012 / Accepted: 29 January 2013 / Published online: 5 February 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract The impact of bullying in all forms on the mental health and safety of adolescents is of particular interest, especially in the wake of new methods of bullying that victimize youths through technology. The current study examined the relationship between victimization from both physical and cyber bullying and adolescent suicidal behavior. Violent behavior, substance use, and unsafe sexual behavior were tested as mediators between two forms of bullying, cyber and physical, and suicidal behavior. Data were taken from a large risk-behavior screening study with a sample of 4,693 public high school students (mean age = 16.11, 47 % female). The studys ndings showed that both physical bullying and cyber bullying associated with substance use, violent behavior, unsafe sexual behavior, and suicidal behavior. Substance use, violent behavior, and unsafe sexual behavior also all associated with suicidal behavior. Substance use and violent behavior partially mediated the relationship between both forms of bullying and suicidal behavior. The comparable amount of variance in suicidal behavior accounted for by both cyber bullying and physical bullying underscores the important of further cyber bullying research. The direct association of each risk behavior with suicidal behavior also underscores the importance of reducing risk behaviors. Moreover, the role of violence and substance use as mediating behaviors offers an explanation of how risk behaviors can increase an adolescents likelihood of
suicidal behavior through habituation to physical pain and psychological anxiety.
Keywords Adolescence Suicide Bullying Cyber
bullying Substance abuse Violence
Introduction
For American youth between the ages of 10 and 24, suicide ranks as the third leading cause of death (Murphy et al. 2012). Recent increases in adolescent suicide rates have motivated attempts to identify and understand the causes of adolescent suicide (Cash and Bridge 2009). Research ndings (e.g., Klomek et al. 2010) and media reports of adolescent suicides (e.g., Cloud 2010) have identied bullying as an environmental stress that substantially increases an adolescents suicide risk. A large amount of theoretical and empirical...