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Suicidal Ideation among Adolescent School

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Article in Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior February 1999

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 Suicidal Ideation among Adolescent School
Children, Involvement in Bully-Victim
Problems, and Perceived Social Support
Ken Rigby, PhD, and Phillip Slee, PhD

Relationships among suicidal ideation, involvement in bully-victim problems at school,

a n d perceived social support were investigated with samples of adolescent students ( N =
1103 a n d N = 845) attending secondary school in South Australia. Results obtained from
self-reports and peer nomination procedures to identify bullies and victims indicated t h a t
involvement in bully-victim problems at school, especially for students with relatively
little social support, was significantly related to degree of suicidal ideation.

For some time it has been recognized that
negative peer relations may significantly
contribute to depression and even suicidal
behavior in some children and adolescents
(Topol & Reznikoff, 1982). The situation
for young people appears to be particularly
acute when children are victimized by
their peers and suffer a serious loss of self-
esteem. Pfeffer (1990) put the matter as
follows: Probably one of the most critical
factors in precipitating suicidal ideation-
arising from interpersonal problems is hu-
miliation-feelings of disgrace andpublic
disparagement may shatter a youngsters
healthy sense of narcissism and sense of
identity, and loss of a basic sense of ones
worthwhileness is a powerful force to in-
crease thoughts of self-annihilation (p.
81). Not surprisingly, it has been sug-
gested that being repeatedly bullied by
peers a t school constitutes one potential
source of public humiliation that can have
tragic consequences for the victim.
The study by Topol and Reznikoff (1982)
was concerned, among other things, with
serious peer problems as indicated by
the Mooney Problem Check List (Moon-
ey & Gordon, 19501, which includes bully-
ing but also other factors that suggest in-
terpersonal difficulties. In this article, we
focus specifically upon the concept of bul-
lying, a form of interpersonal aggression
that can be defined, along lines proposed
by Farrington ( 1993), a s repeated oppres-
sion-physical or psychological-by a more
powerful person or group of persons.
Thus defined, bullying can take many
forms. It may be physical, as in hitting or
kicking; verbal, as in teasing and name
calling; and indirect, as in exclusion from
groups and in rumor spreading. Often vic-
tims are subjected to all of these treat-
ments. In the population of interest in this
study, Australian adolescents attending
secondary school, it has been estimated on
the basis of surveys of over 17,000 stu-
dents in this age group (see Rigby, 1996)
that approximately 1 male in 6 and 1 fe-
male in 8 is bullied by peers on a weekly
basis. Many adolescents occasionally en-
gage in bullying their peers in Australian
schools, either as individuals or in groups.
Those who repeatedly engage in this be-
havior (on a weekly basis) are relatively

Ken Righy is Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Social Science, University of South
Australia, Underdale. Phillip Slee is Senior Lecturer in Education, School of Education, Flinders University,
Adelaide, South Australia.
Address correspondence to Dr. K. Rigby, c/o ARI,University of South Australia, Underdale Campus,
Holbrooks Road, Underdale 5032, South Australia, Australia.
The authors thank the Australian Rotary Health Association for the grant that cnahled them to under-
take this study, and Rohyn Cunningham who provided research assistance.
Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, Vol. 29(2), Summer 1999
0 1999 The American Association of Suicidology 119
120
few, comprising about 8%of boys and 4%of
girls. We should recognize also that some
children may be categorized as bully/vic-
tims (Olweus, 1993):that is, they continu-
ally bully others and are themselves vic-
timized.
Much of the current research interest in
bullying or peer victimization in schools
was triggered by claims of cases of suicide
among children who had been victimized
by their peers at school. For example, the
antibullying campaign started in Norway
in 1983 was strongly motivated by news-
paper reports of three boys in northern
Norway who committed suicide allegedly
as a result of severe bullying by peers (01-
weus, 1993). Subsequently, reported sui-
cides of schoolchildren in England and Ja-
pan have similarly focused attention on
the possible contribution of adverse peer
relations to such actions. It is, however,
difficult to draw firm conclusions from
such reports. Cases of adolescent suicide
are relatively rare and generally unaccom-
panied by reliable data on the nature of
the peer relations of the suicide victim.
Evidence from survey research that has
assessed the quality of childrens peer re-
lations and related it to indicators of psy-
chological well-being suggests that chil-
dren who become involved repeatedly in
interpersonal conflicts at school experi-
ence more severe mental health problems.
Research reports from Norway (Olweus,
1992), Ireland (OMoore & Hillery, 1991),
England (Boulton & Underwood, 19921,
and Australia (Rigby, 1996; Rigby & Slee,
1993) have concurred in finding that vic-
timized children commonly experience low
self-esteem. There is also evidence that
children who bully others at school are
frequently more unhappy than others
(Rigby & Slee, 1993) and also more prone
to be depressed than average (Slee, 1995),
even in later years when they become
adults (Dietz, 1994).
These reported associations do not, how-
ever, amount to demonstrations that in-
volvement in bully-victim problems causes
reduced psychological well-being: conceiv-
ably, low states of well-being may elicit
victimization from others, or, alterna-
SUICIDE AND LIFE-THREATENING BEHAVIOR
tively, motivate children to bully others.
They do, however, suggest that it may be
useful to examine more directly whether
adverse peer relations may be related to
suicide ideation. For example, we might
find that involvement in bully-victim
problems puts a child at greater risk of
self-destructive cognitions or behavior.
What such associations could mean in
terms of causative influences remains to
be examined in the Discussion section.
Although suicidal ideation is relatively
common among adolescents-in some sam-
ples it has been reported as including 63%
of high school students in the United
States (Smith & Crawford, 1 9 8 6 j i t is
clear that its occurrence considerably in-
creases the risk of a student engaging in
life-threatening behavior. In South Aus-
tralia, where the present study was con-
ducted, the incidence of suicidal ideation
among adolescent schoolchildren ages 13-
17 years, as indicated by agreement with
the statement I have thoughts about sui-
cide, was estimated at 24.5% (Martin,
1992). According to a recent study under-
taken with adolescent schoolchildren in
Western Australia, approximately 7.5% of
all adolescents in that state between the
ages of 12 and 16 have deliberately tried
to hurt or kill themselves (Zubrick et al.,
1995). The researchers estimate that
these comprise about one third of adoles-
cents who reported having had suicidal
thoughts.
Although the likelihood of suicidal ide-
ation can be expected to be greatest among
adolescents who are continually involved
in conflict with their peers at school, one
might also anticipate that suicidal ide-
ation would be less evident among chil-
dren who could claim to have substantial
social support from others. Research has
provided support for this hypothesis; for
example, reported illness and poor psycho-
social health has been found to be less com-
mon among people for whom either social
integration or support was greatest (Blax-
ter, 1990).It has further been proposed, in
the so-called buffering hypothesis, that
social support is especially beneficial to
individuals who experience more extreme
RIGBY AND SLEE
stressful conditions (Cohen& McKay, 1984).
Sources of support for adolescent school-
children appear likely to be found princi-
pally from their families or at school. Pre-
vious research has suggested that support
from parents is most crucial in offsetting
the effects of stress, including suicidal ide-
ation (Hollis, 1996; Kienhorst, De Wilde,
Van Den Bout, Diekstra, & Wolsters, 1990;
Martin, Rozanes, Pearce, & Allison, 1995;
Rubenstein, Heeren, Housman, Rubin, &
Stechler, 1989). The potential effects of
support provided at school appear less cer-
tain, as reflected in a number of conflict-
ing reports addressing this issue. Thus,
Topol and Reznikoff (1982) reported that
the hospitalized suicidal adolescents in
their study were significantly less likely
t o have a close confidante than a control
group of nonhospitalized coping young-
sters. Subsequently, failure to obtain peer
support was suggested as a major factor
in the suicidal reactions of adolescents
(Harter & Marold, 1990).In addition, Lew-
insohn, Rohde, and Seeley (1993)have re-
ported that perceived support from friends
was negatively correlated with past sui-
cide attempts, although this relationship
was not significant after controlling for
depression. On the other hand, in a recent
study of native Hawaiian high school stu-
dents, peer support was found to be uncor-
related with suicide attempts (Yuen et al.,
1996). There appears to be a lack of infor-
mation as to whether perceived support
from teachers can have a significant ef-
fect. One object of this enquiry was to ex-
amine whether suicidality, as inferred
from a measure of suicidal ideation, was
related to the perception of being sup-
ported generally, and/or by specific others
(parents, peers, and teachers) among ado-
lescents attending secondary school in
Australia.
HYPOTHESES
Given that poor mental health, such as is
indicated by low self-esteem and by high
levels of depression, has been found to be Social Support Measures
associated with involvement in bully-vic- (i) Students were asked t o say how much
tim problems at school, it was hypothe- help they thought they would get from the
121
sized that schoolchildren who are victim-
ized by peers or, alternatively, engage in
bullying others would be more prone to
suicidal ideation than others. Also, given
that the availability or otherwise of social
support has been shown to be related lev-
els of stress, it was further hypothesized
that the perception of such support as be-
ing more readily available would be associ-
ated with reduced tendency toward sui-
cidal ideation.
STUDY 1
Instruments
Suicidal Ideation Scale
This scale assessed proneness of students
to think about suicide and consisted of four
items from the Goldberg Health question-
naire (Goldberg & Williams, 1988)For ex-
ample, students indicated whether over
the last few weeks they had found the
idea of taking your own life kept coming
into your mind. A 4-point scale is used to
record frequency for each item, and scores
are summed for the Suicidal Ideation
Scale.
The Bully Scale
This scale is a measure of the tendency of
students to engage in bullying others at
school. This 6-item self-report scale has
been shown to have good reliability and
concurrent validity (Rigby & Slee, 1993).
An example is I am part of a group that
goes around teasing others, to which stu-
dents may answer on a 4-point scale rang-
ing from never to very often.
The Victim Scale
This 5-item scale (Rigby & Slee, 1993)reli-
ably assesses the extent to which students
are bullied by others. Students report how
frequently they experience being bullied
(e.g., I get picked on by others) on a 4-
point scale of frequency.
122 SUICIDE AND LIFE-THREATENINGBEHAVIOR

following people if they were having a seri- Results

ous problem at school: Your class teacher;
your best friend; students in your class; Scale Reliabilities
your mother (if alive); your father (if
alive). Response categories on a 5-point Coefficient alpha was computed for each
scale range from a lot (5) to none or scale to assess reliability. The obtained
values for 912 students for whom there
hardly any (1). To provide a Social Sup-
port Scale item scores are summed. were no missing values were as follows:
Suicidal Ideation Scale, .91; Bully Scale,
(ii) A single item measure of Overall .85; Victim Scale, .86; Social Support
Support was also included: In general, do Scale, .71. In each case the scales reliabil-
you feel you can count on most people to ity was supported.
help you when you are having a bad time?
The response categories are Yes, defi- Mean Scores and Gender Comparisons
nitely; Yes, usually; I cant say; Not The mean scores on each of the Likert
usually; Definitely not. Scales and the 5-point rating scales are
given in Table 1. The results for this first
Participants
study indicated that boys reported bully-
In 1993 schoolchildren from two coedu- ing others and being victimized by others
cational secondary schools in Adelaide, significantly more than girls ( p > .001).
South Australia, answered questionnaires No significant difference, however, was
in class. Questionnaires were adminis- found between boys and girls on the Sui-
tered to 542 boys and 561 girls, with ages cidal Ideation Scale ( p > .OW. With respect
ranging from 12 to 18 years. For boys the to support from others, girls generally re-
mean age was 15.00 years (SD= 1.451,for ported that they received more support
girls, M = 14.94 years (SD = 1.38).All stu- than boys, especially from best friends
dents answered some of the questions, but and students in class ( p < .001) and also
there was at least one omission for 21.8% on the general measures of Overall
of the sample. (In reporting the results, Support and the Social Support Scale
N s are given for particular analyses.) ( p < .001).

TABLE 1
Means Scores and Sex Differences on Measures of Peer Relations, Suicidal Ideation,
and Perceived Support from Others
First Study Second Study
Boys Girls t p < Boys Girls t p <

Peer Relations
Bully Scale 9.88 8.01 9.70 .001 9.01 8.03 5.45 .001
Victim Scale 8.79 7.62 6.77 .001 9.00 8.21 4.15 .001
Suicidal Ideation Scale 7.72 8.04 1.78 ns 5.89 6.57 2.79 .01
Support from others
Teachers 3.14 3.17 0.42 ns 3.08 3.08 .OO ns
Best friend 3.91 4.44 8.15 001 3.64 4.29 8.32 .001
Students in class 3.07 3.39 4.89 ,001 3.06 3.26 2.72 .01
Mother 3.91 4.08 2.20 .05 4.11 4.21 1.05 ns
Father 3.71 3.65 0.72 ns 3.88 3.73 1.62 ns
Social Support Scale 17.76 18.71 3.65 .001 17.89 18.69 2.80 .01
Overall Support 3.80 4.08 4.67 .001 3.62 3.99 5.47 ,001
~~

Note. There are slight variations in numbers completing each question. In Study 1: boys, N > 489; girls,
n > 500. In Study 2: boys, n > 396; girls, n > 356.
RIGBY AND SLEE 123

TABLE 2
Partial Correlations for Self-Report Measures with
Suicidal Ideation, Controlling for Age
Study 1 Study 2
Boys Girls Boys Girls
Peer Relations
Bully Scale .12** 1g***
Victim Scale 21*** 1 5 ~
Social Support
Teacher - 16*** -.15***
Best Friend -.27*** -.12*
Students in class - 1g*** -.07ns
Mother - 26*** -.25***
Father -.33*** -.20***
Social Support Scale -.33*** -.24***
Overall support -.23*** -.24***
Note. Due to missing values there were variations in numbers employed in
computing correlations between dependent variables and dependent variable
In Study 1: for boys, N > 458; for girls, N > 468. In Study 2: for boys, N > 386;
for girls, N > 348.
*p < .05;**p < .01;***p < .001; ns = not significant. All are two-tailed tests.

Correlations with Suicidal Ideation
To assess relationships with Suicidal Ide-
ation, partial correlations were computed
for each gender separately controlling for
age. The results are given in Table 2. The
results from Study 1indicated that scores
for both boys and girls on the Bully Scale
and the Victim Scale correlated positively,
as predicted, with Suicidal Ideation. The
correlations were in each case small but
significant at the .001 level (two-tailed
test). For indices of social support, again,
as predicted, correlations were negative
(and all but one-students in classm- sig-
nificant at the .05 level), implying that
suicidal ideation was less common among
children who believed they had access to
support from others. On the Social Sup-
port Scale the r values were -.33 (for boys)
and -.24 (for girls); in each case, p < .001.
Notably the highest correlations with
specified sources of support were with
mother and with father.
To examine whether social support in
general might compensate, as it were, for
negative peer relations, correlations be-
tween the peer relating variables and Sui-
cidal Ideation were computed again, this
time partialing out for scores on the Social
Support Scale and also (given the age
range of these students) age in years. The
magnitude of the correlations was re-
duced, but remained significant at the .05
level (two-tailed test) for the Victim Scale:
for boys, partial r = .lo; for girls, .ll ( p <
.05). With the Bully Scale the result was
significant for girls (partial r = .17, p <
.001) but not for boys (partial r = .06,
p > .05, two-tailed test). These results
suggested that the relationship between
peer victimization and suicidal ideation,
though small, remains significant for both
sexes after taking into account degree of
perceived social support.
Regression Analysis
To examine the relative contributions of
peer victimization, bullying behavior, so-
cial support, gender, and age to suicidal
ideation, a multiple regression analysis
was conducted. Given the suggestion that
social support may have a buffering ef-
fect such that students who were involved
124 SUICIDE AND LIFE-THREATENING BEHAVIOR

more in bully-victim problems would ben- ness to engage in bullying behavior or to

efit more (as indicated by lower Suicidal be victimized by others was inferred from
Ideation Scale scores) by higher levels of the judgments of peers.
perceived social support, two additional
variables were created to assess relevant Instruments
interaction effects. These consisted of Vic-
tim Scale x Social Support Scale scores Peer Rating Measures
(Victim-Support interaction) and Bully To provide measures of engagement in bul-
Scale x Social Support Scale scores (Bully- lying behavior and being bullied by others,
Support interaction). The results after in- students were asked to indicate which stu-
dependent variables had been included, dents of the same gender as themselves
including the interaction variables, are fitted various descriptions. Those signify-
given in Table 3. ing bullying were enjoys upsetting oth-
It is evident that the Bully Scale, the ers, always teasing others, shows oth-
Victim Scale, and the Social Support ers hes (or shes) the boss, and likes to
Scale each made an independent and sig- scare others. Those signifying being a vic-
nificant contribution to Suicidal Ideation tim were gets picked on a lot, kids make
( p < .05). Sex (being female) also contrib- fun of him or her, gets hit and pushed
uted to Suicidal Ideation. However, nei- around, and gets left out by others.
ther of the interaction variables was sig- Eight filler items were included, such as
nificant ( p > .05), nor was the age of the always losing things. A list of names of
student. Overall, however, the amount of the students in each group was provided.
variance accounted for by the combination Students received scores on each of the 8
of variables, though significant, was rela- items according to the numbers of stu-
tively low-less than 10%. dents whom they had indicated fitted the
description divided by the number of stu-
dents involved in making the judgments.
STUDY 2 Adding together scores for bullying behav-
iors and peer victimization provided scale
A possible weakness of the first study was scores for Peer-Rated Bullying and Peer-
that it relied upon reports provided exclu- Rated Victimization, respectively.
sively by the students about themselves.
Other Measures
An alternative and complementary ap-
proach was used in the next study, con- In order to replicate results from Study 1
ducted in 1995,wherein estimates of prone- with a fresh set of subjects, the self-report

TABLE 3
Results for Regression Analyses for Two Samples of Data, with
Suicidal Ideation as the Dependent Variable
Sample 1 Sample 2
beta t p< beta t P<

Victim Scale (VS) .08 2.09 .05 .21 5.83 .001

Bully Scale (BS) .09 2.71 .01 .21 5.64 .001
Social Support Scale (SS) -.25 -7.38 .001 -.20 -5.53 .001
Sex (1 = male; 2 = female). .13 3.93 .001 .19 5.29 .001
VS x SS (interaction) -.04 -1.13 ns -.06 -1.60 ns
BS x SS (interaction) -.05 -1.56 ns .oo .OO ns
Age (years) .05 1.52 ns .oo .OO ns

Note. For Sample 1, multiple R = .33, df= 7,867, p < ,001; for Sample 2, multiple R = .41,
df= 7,699, p < .001.
RIGBY AND SLEE
measures of bullying others and being vic-
timized were included in the question-
naire together with the measures of social
support and the Suicidal Ideation Scale
from the Goldberg Scale (Goldberg & Wil-
liams, 1988).
Procedure
Questionnaires were administered in class-
rooms at three coeducational secondary
schools in Adelaide to students of both
genders between the ages of 12 and 16.
The nomination of students from the list
of names as fitting or not fitting each de-
scription was the first task. A set of names
for male or females classmates of the sub-
jects own gender was provided. The num-
ber of names on the list varied between 6
and 26. Subsequently respondents an-
swered questions about themselves. In to-
tal, questionnaires were answered fully or
partially by 450 boys and 395 girls. The
mean age for boys was 14.02 years, SD =
.77; for girls, M = 13.92 years, SD = .71.
Results
Replications
The reliabilities of the scales with the
fresh sample of students who completed
all items of the scales (N = 788) were again
found to be satisfactory, with alpha values
of .92 for the Suicidal Ideation Scale, .80
for the Bully Scale, .87 for the Victim
Scale, and .69 for the Social Support Scale.
Gender differences were in most cases rep-
licated (see Table 1).As before, boys scored
significantly higher on the Bully Scale and
on the Victim Scale. However, in this sec-
ond study the mean difference between
scores on the Suicidal Ideation Scale
reached statistical significance ( p < .Ol),
with girls scoring higher. On perceived
support from others, girls again scored sig-
nificantly higher on the Social Support
Scale and also on support from peers (i.e.,
best friend and students in class).
Correlations with Suicidal Ideation also
followed a similar pattern (see Table 2).
125
Scores on the Bully Scale and the Victim
Scale again correlated significantly, as
predicted, with the Suicidal Ideation Scale
for boys and for girls. Scores on the Social
Support Scale correlated negatively and
significantly with Suicidal Ideation for
both sexes. Again, correlations with per-
ceived support from parents were higher
than those obtained in relation to other
sources of support; notably, for boys the
negative correlations with perceived sup-
port from best friend and students in
class, although in the predicted direction,
failed to reach an acceptable level of signif-
icance. Thus, although the results from
the two studies indicated relatively low
correlations between the independent
variables and Suicidal Ideation, they
were, apart from correlations with mea-
sures of peer support, statistically signifi-
cant and provided a high level of consis-
tency across samples.
As in the analyses of results obtained
in Study 1, we examined whether the rela-
tionships between the Suicidal Ideation
Scale and the Victim Scale and the Bully
Scale, respectively, remained significant
after partialing out for perceived social
support as indicated by the Social Support
Scale, and also age. With the Victim Scale,
the partial correlations remained signifi-
cant at the .05 level (two-tailed test) with
partial rs of .17 for boys and .30 for girls.
Results for the Bully Scale were signifi-
cant at this level for boys (partial r = .27)
but not for girls (partial r = .lo, p > .05).
Thus, for both studies the results indi-
cated that the relationship between peer
victimization (but not reported bullying of
others) and suicidal ideation was signifi-
cant for both sexes after taking into ac-
count perceived level of social support.
We may note from Table 3 that the re-
gression analysis conducted using scale
scores and demographic variables from
Study 2 provided results similar t o those
reported for the same analysis using data
from Study 1.The Victim Scale, the Bully
Scale, the Social Support Scale, and Sex
were each independently related to Sui-
cidal Ideation; neither of the two interac-
tion effects was significant, nor was age.
126
The main differences lay in the higher
beta values obtained in Study 2 with the
peer relations variables (the Victim and
Bully Scales), and the greater amount of
variance accounted for. These differences
are considered further in the discussion
section.
Given that the measures of peer victim-
ization, bullying others, and social support
made significant independent contribu-
tions in accounting for suicidal ideation,
it was of interest to examine the amount
of variance explained by combinations of
these variables for each sex. Drawing on
data for the later study in which students
had been first sensitised to bullyhictim
behaviors by having to rate others on rele-
vant behaviors, the joint contribution of
reporting being victimized and having low
social support was 6.7% for boys and
17.1%for girls, and for bullying others and
having low social support, 12.1%for boys
and 11.5%for girls. The combination of
being victimized and bullying others ac-
counted for 15.0%and 14.6%of the vari-
ance for boys and girls, respectively. When
all three factors-peer victimization, bul-
lying others, and low socal support were
combined, the variance accounted for in
suicidal ideation was 15.5%for boys and
18.7%for girls.
Comparisons of Findings Based on
Peer and Self-Reports
Given the highly skewed nature of results
obtained from peer reports, with a rela-
tively large number of students receiving
low scores on the Victim measure and on
the Bully measure, respectively, the re-
sults were treated as nominal data so that
students were categorized as bullies or
nonbullies and also as victimsor non- of suicidal ideation. However, for perpetra-
victims. Total scores were computed for
each student, these being the sum of all
nominations received indicating that the
student behaved as (1) a bully and (2) a
victim. These total scores were then di-
vided by the number of raters, to provide
standardized bully and victim scores,
ranging from 0 (no nominations) to 4 (nom-
inated by all raters). Students were classi-
fied as bullies or as victims if they received
SUICIDE AND LIFE-THREATENING BEHAVIOR
a score of 1.5 or more on the relevant scale.
The use of this criterion yielded approxi-
mately the same proportions of bullies
and victims as indicated in previous re-
search using self-report data according to
which victims were operationally de-
fined as reporting being bullied at least
once a week at school by peers and bul-
lies as reporting engaging in bullying oth-
ers often(see Rigby, 1997).Among boys,
11.3%were classified as bullies; among
girls, 7.8%.Those classified as victims
consisted of 16.4% of boys and 9.1% of
girls. The results obtained for the same
constructs from self-reports and peer nom-
inations were significantly ( p < .01) but
not highly correlated. Point biserial corre-
lations between the self-report Victim
Scale and the categories of high and low
levels of peer victimization from peer nom-
inations were .44 ( N = 445) for boys and
.48 (N = 392) for girls. The corresponding
correlations based on self-report and peer
nomination results for bullying were
somewhat lower, .17 for boys and .36 for
girls.
Suicidal Ideation of Students
Classified According to Types
Mean scores on the Suicidal Ideation
Scale were computed for students classi-
fied as bullies, victims, and othersf7
using categories derived from self-reports
and peer nominations. Analyses by two-
way ANOVA were used with type and gen-
der as factors. The results are given in
Table 4.
As predicted, results obtained from both
peer and self-reports consistently sup-
ported the prediction that victims of peer
bullying tend to have relatively high levels
tors of bullying, the evidence that they,
too, were more prone to suicidal ideation
was weaker, being unequivocally support-
ed by data from self-reports only. Mean
Suicidal Ideation for peer-nominated bul-
lies was, as predicted, higher than for
peer-nominated n~nbullies~ but signifi-
cant by t test ( t = 1.67) only by one-tailed
test; for girls, mean differences were not
significant ( t = .60, p > .05). The results
RIGBY AND SLEE 127

TABLE 4
Mean Scores on the Suicidal Ideation Scale for Students according to Gender
and Mode of Assessment of Bully-Victim Status, with Results f;;r ANOVA
Self-Reports Peer Nominations
Male Female Male Female
Victim status
Victim 7.07 8.78 6.37 7.77
( n = 81) ( n = 40) ( n = 68) ( n = 31)
Nonvictim 5.60 6.31 5.81 6.47
( n = 342) ( n = 340) (n = 359) ( n = 349)
ANOVA results F(Victim)= 39.26, p < .001 F(Victim)6.70, p < .01
F(Sex)= 11.86,p < .001 F(Sex)= 8.20, p < .001
F(Sex x Victim) = 1.94, ns F(Sex x Victim) = 1.06, ns
Bully status
Bully 7.38 6.95 6.56 6.94
( n = 45) ( n = 20) ( n = 48) ( n = 31)
Nonbully 5.70 6.55 5.81 6.54
(n= 376) ( n = 353) ( n = 379) ( n = 349)
ANOVA results F(Bul1y)= 5.61, p < .05 F(Bul1y) = 2.10, ns
F(Sex)= 0.22, ns F(Sex)= 2.09, ns
F(Bul1y x Sex)= 2.10, ns F(Bu1ly x Sex) = 0.22, ns

based on peer nominations thus are less
conclusive than those based on self-re-
ports and suggest a trend only for male
bullies to be more inclined toward suicidal
ideation than other males.
DISCUSSION
The results support the view that adoles-
cent students who are more frequently vic-
timized by peers at school and feel gener-
ally unsupported by others when they
have a problem are, in general, more likely
to experience suicidal ideation than oth-
ers. Although data from self-reports indi-
cate that students who engage in bullying
others are also at some risk of more than
average suicidal ideation, results based on
peer nominations of bullies and nonbullies
suggest that this generalization may
apply to boys only.
The main features of the results re-
ported in Study 1 are consistent with those
reported in the Study 2; however, there
are some differences that should now be
considered. The second study contained an
important variation in method. Students
in that study were asked first to rate each
other according to whether they fit de-
scriptions that emphasized behaviors
typical of bullies or victims. It seems ex-
tremely likely that this would have in-
creased the salience of peer relations for
subjects, leading to more considered self-
ratings of how they behaved with their
peers. It was under these conditions that
peer relations emerged as more closely re-
lated to suicidal ideation and accounted
for considerably more variance in suicidal
ideation (see Table 3).
Analyses based on results from peer
nominations as opposed to self-reports
also produced differences in outcomes
with respect to hypothesized effects of bul-
lying others, most notably for comparisons
between girl bullies and girl nonbullies
(see Table 4). One possible reason for this
may lie in the greater difficulty in observ-
ing and accurately identifying bullying
among girls. Bullying by girls is less com-
mon than by boys (Rigby, 1996) and gener-
ally more covert (Sharp & Cowie, 1994).
In accounting for the obtained associa-
tions between involvement in adverse peer
relations at school and suicidal ideation,
128
alternative explanations should be consid-
ered. Both being victimized and engaging
in bullying others could conceivably result
from psychiatic illness and/or social mal-
adjustment, with either or both of these
conditions giving rise to suicidal ideation.
However, evidence has been accumulating
that suicide risk in young people is reliably
associated with psychosocial factors, in-
cluding school problems and the experi-
ence of stressful life events (of which bully-
ing is an example) after controlling for
psychiatric illness (Gould,Fisher, Parides,
Flory, & Shaffer, 1996). In a recent study
school adjustment problems such as social
isolation and avoidance of others were pre-
dicted from measures of peer victimiza-
tion, but indices of maladjustment prior
to victimization were not found to be sig-
nificant predictors of being victimized at
school by peers (Kochenderfer & Ladd,
1996).
The results of this study are also consis-
tent with earlier findings that low psycho-
logical well-being-of which suicidal ide-
ation is an extreme manifestation-is
commonly viewed, a t least by students,
as a consequence of peer victimization.
Among Australian adolescents who re-
ported being bullied at least once a week at
school, substantial proportions indicated
feeling worse about themselves after be-
ing bullied: 48.8% of boys and 62.5% of
girls (Rigby, 1997a). The percentages in-
creased markedly with reported frequency
of being victimized, as did the proportions
of students reporting feeling sad and mis-
erable after being bullied, and also stay-
ing away from school because of bul-
lying.,
Although self-reports of bullying others
were repeatedly found to be associated
with relatively high levels of suicidal ide-
ation, the failure to obtain consistent re-
sults using data obtained from peer nomi-
nations of bullies, especially among girls,
must limit the generalizability of the asso-
ciation. The present pair of studies sug-
gest that bullying others may be an indi-
cator of a greater likelihood of suicidal
ideation among boys only. Again, alterna-
tive explanations for such an association
SUICIDE AND LIFE-THREATENING BEHAVIOR
may be entertained. It is possible that the
relatively high levels of suicidal ideation of
male bullies are related to generally high
levels of aggressiveness; alternatively, the
explanation may lie in psychological ef-
fects of having engaged repeatedly in un-
justifiable acts of aggressiveness against
less powerful individuals, that is, to hav-
ing bullied their peers. The first possibil-
ity is consistent with earlier claims that
aggressive children are especially prone
to suicidal behavior (see Pfeffer, Plutch-
nik, & Mizruchi, 19831, and the second
is consistent with research revealing that
acts of unjustified aggression such as bul-
lying typically induce feelings of shame
and depression (Rigby, 1997b),which can
lead to self-injury(James, 1995).These pos-
sibilities need to be evaluated further.
The study also suggests that low social
support may make a significant contribu-
tion to suicidal ideation for both boys and
girls. The failure to obtain a significant
result in the regression analysis (Table 3)
for the interaction of either peer victimiza-
tion or bullying others with social support
indicates that social support cannot be
said to have bufferingrole, in the sense
that students who are more frequently vic-
timized by peers or alternatively, who are
more inclined to bully others benefit from
social support in the form of a reduction
in proneness to suicidal ideation. How-
ever, on the basis of self-report data from
Study 2, the additive effects of social sup-
port on those of the bully-victim variables
increase the variance in Suicidal Ideation
accounted for quite substantially, to ap-
proximately 15% for boys and 19% for
girls.
The question of whether involvement in
bully-victim problems at school consti-
tutes a risk factor for suicidal ideation de-
pends upon the criteria set for making
such a decision. As far as peer victimiza-
tion is concerned, the results showing as-
sociations between measures of being bul-
lied a t school and suicidal ideation are
statistically significant and replicated in
two studies using different methods (peer
reports and peer nominations) to assess
peer victimization, for both boys and girls.
RIGBY AND SLEE
This finding thus appears to be robust. On
the other hand, the amount of variance
in Suicidal Ideation accounted for by peer
victimization is quite low, especially for
boys. However, when the contribution of
low social support is added, there is much
more substantial evidence of risk. Know-
ing that a student is frequently involved
in bully-victim problems at school and has
low social support can more readily be ac-
cepted as a n indicator that the student is
at risk of having relatively high levels of
suicidal ideation.
There is currently a need for longitudi-
nal studies in this area to determine
which, if any, of the pychosocial factors
associated with suicidal ideation have a
causal influence. These include factors de-
rived from students experiences in fami-
lies as well as school. Recent studies have
shown that reports from students of family
dysfunction or strained relations with par-
ents are associated with both involvement
in bully-victim problems (Rigby, 1993,
1994) and also suicidal ideation (Martin
et al., 1995). Furthermore, the present re-
search suggests the positive effects of so-
cial support by schools in reducing suicidal
ideation; future studies could usefully in-
corporate measures of the perceived help-
fulness of teacher and counselor support
services.
In conclusion, as Lewinsohn et al. (1993)
have argued, suicide should be viewed as
a function of the number of risk factors
that are present in individual cases.
Among these, adverse peer relations, espe-
cially under conditions of low social sup-
port, may play a significant part. Longitu-
dinal research is still needed, however, to
determine the nature of causal connec-
tions that may link high levels of peer vic-
timization and low social support to a
proneness to high levels of suicidal ide-
ation, which can, in some circumstances,
lead to suicidal behavior.
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Received: April 11, 1997
Revision Accepted: March 15,1998