ABSTRACT

Peer victimization is a major stressor adolescents often face in the school environment, and has been linked to depression and suicidal risk. This study analyzed the associations between three behavioral coping strategies (avoidance, seeking social support from adults/peers, and retaliation) and depression and suicidal ideation. Participants included 4,254 victimized students who were part of the Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe (SEYLE) study that compared three school-based prevention interventions and collected information on health risk behaviors in adolescents from 11 European countries. Results showed behavioral avoidance to be associated with an increase in levels of depression, as compared to the other coping strategies (adult social support, peer social support, retaliation). Seeking social support from adults was associated with lower depression and suicidal ideation rates. A more than 25% increase in suicidal ideation was associated with behavioral avoidance, compared to seeking social support from adults. By contrast, retaliation to peer victimization was not found to be associated with increased depression or suicidal ideation. The findings support the Coping Deficit model and may suggest that abstaining by doing nothing when victimized can be associated with certain adverse emotional outcomes.

摘要

同伴受害是青少年在学校环境中经常面临的主要压力源，并与抑郁和自杀风险有关。这项研究分析了三种行为应对策略（回避，寻求成年人/同伴的社会支持以及报复）与抑郁和自杀意念之间的关联。参与者包括4,254名受害学生，他们是欧洲“拯救和增强年轻人的生命”（SEYLE）研究的一部分，该研究比较了三种基于学校的预防干预措施，并收集了来自11个欧洲国家的青少年健康风险行为的信息。结果显示，与其他应对策略（成人社会支持，同伴社会支持，报复）相比，避免行为与抑郁水平的升高有关。寻求成年人的社会支持与抑郁症和自杀意念率降低有关。与寻求成年人的社会支持相比，自杀观念的增加超过25％与避免行为有关。相比之下，未发现对同伴受害的报复与抑郁症或自杀意念的增加有关。这些发现支持应对赤字模型，并且可能表明受害时不做任何事情的弃权可能与某些不良的情绪结果有关。