Victims of bullying – and the bullies themselves – are at increased risk of suicidal thinking and are also more likely to attempt suicide than their peers who aren’t involved in bullying, according to a systematic review of 37 studies conducted in 16 different countries.
And those who were both bullies and victims were at greatest risk, Dr Young Shin Kim of Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and Dr Bennett Leventhal of the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago found.
‘It is imperative that there now be a common goal to intervene actively to reduce bullying in all communities and to seek out both victims and perpetrators to protect them from suicidality and other potential lethal adverse consequences of this serious public health problem,’ the researchers conclude in the International Journal of Adolescent Mental Health.
Kim and Bennett reviewed the quality of existing research examining the relationship between suicide and bullying. About thre...
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