Association Between Victimization, Internet Overuse, and Suicidal Behaviors Among Adolescents

The aim of this study was to identify the association between violence exposure and suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts among adolescents and to test whether these relationships were mediated by internet overuse.

We used a cross-sectional design and analyzed the raw data of 101,440 high school students (52.1% male; mean age = 16.43 years, SD = 0.03) from the 10th-12th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey.

A series of multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted. Violence exposure incurred a significantly higher risk of suicidal ideation (crude odds ratio, 95% confidence interval = 4.44, 4.07-4.87), suicidal plans (crude odds ratio, 95% confidence interval = 8.89, 7.94-9.96), and suicidal attempts (crude odds ratio, 95% confidence interval = 11.17, 9.86-12.66). The Sobel test showed evidence of the mediating role of internet overuse in the relationship between violence exposure and each suicidal variable: ideation (p = .004), plans (p = .004), and attempts (p = .012).

The findings suggest a need to organize the protective procedures for victimized high school students so that they can use the internet more securely. In particular, adolescents who are prone to being victimized or bullied should have restricted access to the internet or monitored with caution to prevent internet overuse. Counseling for this population is suggested to reduce the risk of suicide by assessing the motivations and patterns of internet use. It is necessary to spread awareness among potential violence exposure group on coping with violence experience and using the internet appropriately.