Bullying Victimization and Suicidal Thoughts: Emotional Distress and Neighborhood Conditions

Abstract

The study aims to examine (1) the association between bullying victimization and suicidal thoughts and (2) neighborhood conditions as a moderated mediated model of the association between bullying victimization, emotional distress, and suicidal thoughts. The sample consists of 414 African American youths (ages 12–17) in Chicago’s Southside neighborhoods. Variables included suicidal thoughts, bullying victimization, emotional distress, neighborhood conditions, age, sex, and government assistance. Analyses included descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and multivariate regression analyses. The study found that bullying victimization was not directly associated with suicidal thoughts. However, bullying victimization was positively associated with emotional distress, which was related to suicidal thoughts. Moreover, emotional distress as a mediator of the association between bullying victimization and suicidal thoughts was observed when neighborhood conditions were a moderator. The findings suggest that bullying victimization and suicidal thoughts are major concerns for African American adolescents, and prevention and intervention need to be cost-effective.

Keywords:

• African American adolescents
• bullying victimization
• neighborhood
• suicidal thoughts
• urban

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the last author’s previous institution. The last author collected the data for the study, and the authors take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. There were no ethical issues concerning human participants/animals in the study. Informed consent was obtained before the data collection. The data in this study are available upon request to the last author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy and confidentiality reasons.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Center for Health Administration Studies and the STI/HIV Intervention Network at the University of Chicago, which were awarded to Dr. Dexter R. Voisin.

Notes on contributors

Jun Sung Hong

Jun Sung Hong, PhD, School of Social Work, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA; Department of Social Welfare, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea.

Jungtae Choi

Jungtae Choi, PhD, Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.

Viktor Burlaka

Viktor Burlaka, PhD, School of Social Work, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.

Julia Burlaka

Julia Burlaka, PhD, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Christina N. Marsack-Topolewski

Christina N. Marsack-Topolewski, PhD, School of Social Work, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI, USA.

Dexter R. Voisin

Dexter R. Voisin, PhD, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.