OBJECTIVE To explore the mediating effect of depressive symptom on the relationship between peer bullying patterns and suicidal ideation and to provide suggestions for school bullying and suicide prevention for adolescents.
METHODS A follow-up cohort was established in a junior middle school in Suixi County Anhui Province in September 2019 T1. The first follow-up was conducted in September 2020 T2. A total of 1 687 junior high school students participated in this study. Self-designed peer bullying questionnaire center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for children and questions regarding suicide-related behaviors were administered.
RESULTS Prevalence of suicidal ideation victimization and bullying were 28.3% 27.0% and 24.4% respectively. The latent class analysis LCA identified three heterogeneous peer bullying classes low aggressive-victims 71.4% high aggressive-victims 3.3% high verbal and relational aggressive-victims 25.3%. The low aggressive-victims class was used as the reference group T1 depressive symptom mediated the association between high aggressive-victims mediating effect= 0.43 P< 0.05 high verbal and relational aggressive-victims class mediating effect= 0.29 P<0.05 and T2 suicidal ideation.