The Association of Bullying and Suicidality: Does it Affect the Pediatric Population?

Therese Limbana; Farah Khan; Noha Eskander; Mina Emamy; Nusrat Jahan

doi:10.7759/cureus.9691

The Association of Bullying and Suicidality: Does it Affect the Pediatric Population?

Cureus. 2020 Aug 12;12(8):e9691. doi: 10.7759/cureus.9691.

Authors

Therese Limbana¹, Farah Khan¹, Noha Eskander¹, Mina Emamy², Nusrat Jahan³

Affiliations

¹ Psychiatry, California Institute of Behavioural Neurosciences and Psychology, Fairfield, USA.
² Research, California Institute of Behavioural Neurosciences and Psychology, Fairfield, USA.
³ Internal Medicine, California Institute of Behavioural Neurosciences and Psychology, Fairfield, USA.

Abstract

Over the last few years, bullying has been identified as one of the significant issues in the pediatric population. Reports also found that bullied youth have a higher risk of developing suicidality. Although preventable, suicide remains the leading cause of death in young people. This literature review aims to establish the association of bullying and the suicidality of the pediatric group (0-18 years of age). A PubMed search was conducted to find studies associating bullying and suicidality in the pediatric population. MeSH keyword strategy, along with subheadings, was used to retrieve appropriate literature. A total of 42 articles were included after the careful examination and application of exclusion and inclusion criteria. This study showed a strong association between bullying and suicidality, albeit the presence of some contradictory ideas.

Keywords: bullying; bullying and suicide; bullying and suicide psychology; suicide; suicide psychology.

Publication types

Review