Fadhli, Siti Aisyah Mohd
(2022)
Association between cyberbullying
and suicidal behaviour among
adolescents in Peninsular Malaysia.
Masters thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Abstract
Background: Suicidal behaviour among adolescents’ incidence is on the rise
and becoming a worldwide public health concern. In addition, the growth in
technology and social media engagement has contributed to the rise of cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying habits are becoming more pervasive and have recently triggered tragic
suicides where previous studies reported significant association between
cyberbullying and suicidal behaviour. There are limited studies on association between
cyberbullying and suicidal behaviour among adolescents which the main key of this
study.
Objective: To determine the association between suicidal behaviour and
cyberbullying amongst adolescents in Peninsular Malaysia.
Methodology: A crosssectional school study was conducted among 1290 secondary school adolescents aged
13 to 17 years old in Peninsular Malaysia via multistage cluster sampling. Malay
version of cyberbullying scale, study proforma and Malay version of Patient Health
Questionnaire-9 were used to assess suicidal behaviour (dependent variables),
cyberbullying (independent variable), and other confounders of suicidal behaviour
(independent variables) among adolescents. Simple and multiple logistic regression
were used to determine the association between cyberbullying and suicidal behaviour
using SPSS version 26.
Results: The response rate of this study was 89.6%. The
prevalence of cyberbullying victimization among adolescents was 13.7% and
cyberbullying perpetrator was 3.8%. The prevalence of suicidal behaviour among
adolescents was 17.1% where 11.9% had suicidal thought, 10.2% had suicidal plan
and 8.4% had suicidal attempt. Multiple logistic regression revealed that those who
were cyberbullying victimization had 2.35 times odds of suicidal behaviour as compared to those who were not cyberbullying victimization (AOR:2.35,95% CI:
1.50, 3.69; p <0.001), when adjusted for other confounders. Frequency of
cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying perpetrator were not significant factors
(p=0.264, p= 0.984 respectively). Other significant factors were age (95% CI: 0.69,
0.94; p=0.005), gender (95% CI: 2.11, 6.25; p <0.001), perceived social support from
family members (95% CI: 1.52, 4.09; p <0.001), perceived social support from friends
(95% CI: 1.21, 3.19; p=0.006), history of abuse (95% CI: 1.47, 3.54; p <0.001), parents
engage in fight in front of children (95% CI: 1.38, 3.49; p=0.001) and depression status
(95% CI: 5.04, 11.28; p <0.001).
Conclusions: An alarming number of adolescents in
Peninsular Malaysia who were involved in cyberbullying and its significant
association with suicidal behaviour warrant the need to strengthen the present program
to curb the issues.
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