Being Bullied at School: Gratitude as Potential Protective Factor for Suicide Risk in Adolescents

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Lourdes Rey¹  Cirenia Quintana-Orts¹  Sergio Mérida-López²  Natalio Extremera² 

[1] Department of Personality, Universidad de Málaga;Department of Social Psychology, Universidad de Málaga

关键词: bullying victimization;    suicidal thoughts and behaviors;    depressive symptoms;    gratitude;    adolescence;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00662

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Bullying victimization has been recognized as a risk factor for social, physical, and psychological problems in adolescence. One promising resource that seems to protect adolescents from adversity and traumatic events is gratitude. However, no analysis of the specific role of gratitude in bullying context has been performed as yet. Thus, the aim of this research was to explore the associations between bullying victimization, gratitude and suicide risk (i.e., depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts and behaviors) and gender-based differences. We also investigated whether levels of gratitude moderated the relationship between victimization and suicide risk for girls and boys. A convenience sample of 1,617 adolescents (50.5% girls; M age = 14.02) participated in this research. Adolescents completed a paper-and-pencil questionnaire about their bullying victimization, gratitude, depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Gratitude was found to be negatively related to victimization and suicide risk. While no gender differences were found in gratitude, it was observed that girls reported higher levels of suicide risk. However, the victimization × gratitude interaction contributed to variance in suicide risk, but only for girls: Those girls who were victims of bullying with high gratitude scores reported lower suicide risk than their counterparts who showed less gratitude. Thus, the findings from this present cross-sectional study suggest that gratitude is related to suicide risk in the context of bullying victimization, especially among adolescent girls. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of our novel contributions to the understanding of gratitude as a protective factor against consequences of bullying victimization are discussed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY