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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1483408
This article is part of the Research Topic Experiences of Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention View all 10 articles

The effects of student bullying on non-suicidal self-injurious behavior in rural adolescents: the chain-mediated effects of alexithymia and ruminate thinking

Provisionally accepted
jing wen jing wen 1Qinghong Xu Qinghong Xu 2Yongzhi Jiang Yongzhi Jiang 1Min Li Min Li 1*
  • 1 Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, Tongliao, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China
  • 2 Yulin University, Yulin, Shaanxi, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Bullying among students is a significant risk factor for non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), which can adversely impact the physical and mental health development of individuals. To explore the mechanisms by which student bullying affects adolescent non-suicidal self-injury, 701 adolescents were selected as participants. The assessment tools included the Bullying Questionnaire, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Ruminative Responses Scale, and Adolescents Non-suicidal Self-injury Assessment Questionnaire, which were used to measure the experiences of bullying, levels of alexithymia, rumination tendencies, and the severity of non-suicidal self-injury, respectively. This study aimed to examine whether there is a chain mediation effect of alexithymia and rumination in the relationship between student bullying and non-suicidal self-injury. The results indicated that: (1) Student bullying has a significant positive impact on adolescent non-suicidal self-injury (63.62%) and indirectly influences it through alexithymia and rumination (12.69%); (2) There are gender differences in the chain mediation effect between student bullying and non-suicidal self-injury, with the chain mediation effect of rumination and alexithymia being significantly greater in females (0.12) compared to males (0.06). This study not only provides a cognitive-emotional perspective and a gender difference perspective on the effects of bullying on adolescent non-suicidal self-injury but also focuses on rural adolescents, who often face more physical and mental health issues. Therefore, the conclusions enrich the understanding of the complex mechanisms between student bullying and non-suicidal self-injury, offering new theoretical guidance for preventing bullying and intervening with victims of bullying.

    Keywords: Student bullying, Non-suicidal self-injury, alexithymia, rumination, goal progression theory, gender differences

    Received: 19 Aug 2024; Accepted: 29 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 wen, Xu, Jiang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Min Li, Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, Tongliao, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.