We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
To examine whether self-reported exposure to bullying during childhood is associated with suicide attempts over the life course, and if so, what mechanisms could account for this relationship.
Subjects and methods
A random probability sample comprising 7461 respondents was interviewed for the 2007 survey of psychiatric morbidity of adults in Great Britain. Survey respondents were asked about suicidal attempts and whether they were bullied in childhood.
Results
Recall of being bullied in childhood decreased with age from 25% of 16–24-year-olds to 4% among those 75 or over with few differences in the proportions between men and women. Bullying co-occurred with several victimisation experiences including sexual abuse and severe beatings and with running away from home. Even after controlling for lifetime factors known to increase the risk of suicidal behaviour, adults who reported bullying in childhood were still more than twice as likely as other adults to attempt suicide later in life.
Discussion
Being the victim of bullying involves the experience of suffering a defeat and humiliation that in turn could lead to entrapment, hopelessness, depression and suicidal behaviour.
Conclusions
Bullying is already known to be associated with substantial distress and other negative consequences and this further evidence of a strong correlation with the risk of suicide in later life should increase further the motivation of society, services and citizens to act decisively to reduce bullying in childhood.
Recommend this
Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this to your organisation's collection.