Name: Eshban William

Roll no: 19-11232

Sociology 201

Research Paper

Topic: Bullying Leads to suicidal thoughts

Introduction

In today’s modern era bullying has become a source of fun in the youth. Each student has to face

it whenever he or she enters a college or a university for the first time. The senior students bully

their juniors and make fun of them. In many universities and colleges it’s a normal ritual that is

to be followed whenever the new badge come. Many students think that teasing other or making

fun of someone does not harm them. Some seniors bully their juniors which force victims to kill

themselves or make some suicidal plans. There are many ways in which bullying is done. It can

be either verbal or harassing anyone and etc. Girls are mostly harassed while bullying which

leads them to commit suicide. The major reason why a bully bullies is maybe he/she has gone

through a worst bullying and he want his/her revenge and second can be that he/ she likes to

tease other students. In most cases the extreme bullying is only done by such a student who

wants his/her revenge. This article includes bullying from two broad perspectives; cyber bullying

and harassment. There are many cases of bullying in today’s modern world which has took lives

of many people and some had effected the minds of some teenagers in such a way that they are

afraid of going to a university or college hence the main reason of this research article is to know

about the effects of bullying on teenage. What do people think about bullying and in what ways

it is affecting teenagers? Second reason is to find out the tips to prevent or reduce bullying

amongst teens. A child can also become a victim of bullying because of the discrimination of

culture, language, cast and color. In many children the major sign that shows him/her as a victim

is he/she starts making them isolated, their academic reports/ grades drops down and most of the

time children denies to go to school or college.

Literature review

Causation of bullying

Bullying leads to suicide. Yes it is true. Bullying has a great connection with suicides, many

teenagers commit suicide just because they were extremely bullied. This connection is also

known as “bullycide”. Research on this area shows that many teenagers who extremely bullied

have more chances of committing or attempting suicide. In 2010 some teenagers in USA commit

suicide as they were bullied of being gay. The statistics from Centre of Disease Control shows

that 4400 teenager deaths occur due to suicide every year. The study shows that 10-14 years old

girls and boys are more likely to commit suicide due to bullying. Most parents are afraid of

sending their children to school after listening to such news.

Bullying is the main cause that affects the self-esteem of the victim in very profound way. In a

survey held in 2013 by Andrew Adesman it is proved that suicide is more common in teenagers

who have been bullied. In his research he said that cyber bullying is more hurtful as it is easy to

spread among the others. Due to bullying he says students or the victims started to remain absent

from the school/college, or started carrying weapons to the school/ college. (April 27, 2015).

Suicidal reports due to bullying

The suicide prevention resource center defines suicide as death by a self-inflicted injury. In this

article some other affects caused by bullying are discussed also, these are ongoing sadness,

rejecting to eat, lack of sleep and etc. This kind of behavior causes more depression stress and at

last person kills him/herself. This is the third leading cause of death among youngsters. According

to a 2011 study by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), bully victims in a middle school were 6.6 time
likely to report then the others who were not bullied. Some research studies shows that people who

complete suicide after being bullied had some other suicide risk factors i.e. mental health, a family

history of suicide and etc. (September/October, 2011)

A chart was reviewed for the patients of 18 years of age that were admitted to the hospitals of

Canada from January 2011 and 2015. The chart showed that 77% people were victims of

bullying while 68.9% had suicidal thoughts. 11.5% people were victim of cyber bullying

whereas 8.4% were victim of verbal bullying. This study included 270 patients with the aged

from 8-18. These were 104 males and 166 females. Out of these 270 patients, 208 were victim of

bullying that they experienced during their lifetime and 186 were those who had suicidal

thoughts after they were bullied. (July, 2017)

In a study taken from American Pew research Centre they found that 9/10 teens were the victims

of brutal bullying. This studied showed that 43% kids were bullied online.

70% of students report seeing frequent bullying online. Over 80% of teens use a mobile phone

regularly, making it the most common medium for cyber bullying. 68% of teens agree that cyber

bullying is a serious problem. 81% of young people think bullying online is easier to get away

with than bullying in person. 90% of teens who have seen social-media bullying say they have

ignored it. 84% have seen others tell cyber bullies to stop. Only 1 in 10 victims will inform a

parent or trusted adult of their abuse. Girls are about twice as likely as boys to be victims and

perpetrators of cyber bullying. About 58% of kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things

to them online. More than 4 out 10 say it has happened more than once. Bullying victims are 2 to

9 times more likely to consider committing suicide. About 75% of students admit they have

visited a website bashing another student. (May, 2014).

2015, there were five. In 2016, there were 13. So far this year, seven. The most shocking

was the January death of 8-year-old Gabriel Taye, who killed himself two days after

peers knocked him unconscious in a restroom at Cincinnati's Carson Elementary School. A

security camera video shows other students touched and kicked Gabriel until an

administrator arrived and roused him. A Cincinnati homicide detective described it as bullying

that bordered on criminal assault. (May 30, 2017)

As recorded from a research of 2013 amount of suicides among teens aged between 15-19 years

old was 1748. Out of which “some of these deaths may have been recorded as accidental.”

“Suicide risk can only be reduced, not eliminated,” writes AAP lead author, Benjamin Shain,

MD, PhD, but if social media is to blame for this higher rate, then should teens be pulled out of

this social craze? In fact, reports show that 43% of teens have reported being bullied online,

compared to 19.6% of those at school. With teen suicide rates being higher, the correlation

between these deaths and social media may not be so far off. (August 11, 2016)

A study led by Dr. Dieter Wolke and his team who assumed that the effect of bullying is same on

both i.e. the one who are bullied by their peers and the one who are bullied by the seniors or

adults, but he says that the ones who are bullied by their peers have a severe and long term effect

because they spend more time with them. While all children face conflict, disagreements

between friends can usually be resolved in some way. But the repetitive nature of bullying is

what can cause harm, Wolke said (Ashley Strickland, May 8, 2015)
A study based on death events was reported in an English newspaper from 1 January, 1950

through 31 December, 2007. The term used in this paper was bullying, ragging and death. The

number of deaths reported in this newspaper due to bullying in last 57 years was 250. The

majority of the reports of bullying related deaths (62.3%) originated in Europe, with most of

them (93%) occurring in the United Kingdom. Sixty-seven percent of bullying-related deaths

were reported during the last 10 years. (20 Apr-20 Jun, 2008)

Another research reviews the findings "establish with more certainty that bullying is related to

suicide thoughts and attempts," said study lead author Mitch van Geel, a researcher with the

Institute of Education and Child Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. The new

results, published March 10 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, are based on 43 previous studies.

They don't confirm that bullying directly pushes kids to be suicidal, however. It's possible that

the connection is more complex, or even that suicidal kids are more likely to be bullied, the

researchers said. (By Randy Dotinga)

A research conducted in 2016 showed 53 students aged 11 and younger attempted suicide due to

bullying. It also mentioned that rising number of children were admitted to hospitals for suicidal

attempts. According to CDC children who have disabilities or difference of language, gender

identity or culture have more chance to being bullied. (Sept. 10, 2018)

A world health organization report shows that since 2014 the leading cause of death in Japan is

suicide among the children aged 10-19. The main reason reported for this growing rate of death

is depression and bullying. Kenzo Denda, a professor at Hokkaido University, reports that in
Japan 1 in 12 primary school students and 1 in 4 secondary school students suffer from

depression, which causes many of them to commit suicide. (February 27, 2017).

Some research suggests that anywhere between 18% and 31% of kids are affected by bullying.

Cyber bullying affected between 7% and 15% of kids, and it's on the rise. There are also

vulnerable subgroups at a higher risk for bullying, including kids who are obese or disabled, who

identify as LGBT or who have fewer peers of the same ethnicity within their school. (June 21,

2017)
Chapter: 3

Hypothesis

If a person is bullied then he/she may commit suicide.

Independent Variable: Bullying

Dependent Variable: Suicide

Operational hypothesis: If a person is bullied or is harassed then there are many chances of

his/her to commit suicide or have suicidal thoughts.

Methodology

Universe: Forman Christian College (A chartered university) was taken as the universe in this

research.

Sample: Sample size taken for this research was 100 students

Population: population that was covered in this research was 100 students from the bachelors.

50 were the males and 50 were the females.

Method of study: The method of study in this research is quantitative.

Survey method: The population was supposed to answer the questionnaire. Each student

answered the question physically. The question asked was simple, short and understandable by

every student.

Scale: Likert scale was used in this research. The scale had a range from 1-5. The point 1

represented “strongly disagree” point 2 represented “disagree” point 3 was “neutral” point 4 was

for “agree” and point 5 showed “strongly agree”. The responded found it easier while answering

the questions.