Suicidal Ideations and Behaviors in victims of cyberbullying

Abstract

Background: Involvement in bullying as well as cyberbullying has been identified as a risk factor for depression and anxiety symptom as well as suicide ideation/behavior. Results from community samples suggest that youth who are bullied, are at an elevated risk for suicidal thoughts, attempts, and completed suicides. Statistically both victims of cyberbullying as well as offenders proved to be much more likely to have attempted “bullycide,” the act of committing suicide due to the effects of bullying, than youth who had not been affected. The Aim of this study: To determine the correlation between being a cyberbullying victim and suicidal ideation and/or behavior in adults and young adult population. Patients and Methods: This is a cross-sectional, analytical study that includes 408 subjects of both genders of online social-media above the age of 18. All subjects have been screened using GHQ28 for the exclusion of mental illness at the time of study. Then subjects completed Cyberbullying Self Rated Questionnaire (CBQ) and Suicide Probability Scale (SPS) both in Arabic. Results: suicidal probability was found to be increased proportionately in a statistically significant way with the degree of exposure to cyberbullying. Conclusion: There is a significant increase in suicidal ideations/ behaviors among cyberbullying victims whom have been exposed to higher levels of cyberbullying, even in the absence of major psychiatric disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]