The Effect of Bullying Victimization on Adolescent Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: The Mediating Roles of Alexithymia and Self-Esteem

Abstract

Background & Aim

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in adolescents is a serious public health issue influenced by the interaction of multiple factors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the multiple mediating roles of alexithymia and self-esteem in the association between bullying victimization and NSSI in a sample of Chinese adolescents.

Methods

A survey of 1299 adolescents from two public middle schools in Henan Province, China, was undertaken. Data were collected using the Chinese version of the Delaware bullying victimization scale-student (DBVS-S), the Toronto Alexithymia-20 Scale (TAS-20-C), the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSES), and the adolescent self-injury questionnaire. Besides, we performed a structural equation modeling (SEM) with latent variables using AMOS 26.0 to examine the relationship between variables and the mediating effects.

Results

The SEM analysis found that not only can bullying victimization directly impact NSSI, but that alexithymia and self-esteem have a chain mediating effect in the association between bullying victimization and NSSI. This mediating effect contributed 22.47% to the total effect.

Conclusion

These findings validate bullying victimization, alexithymia, and low self-esteem are important variables that affect NSSI among Chinese adolescents. Educators need to implement some prevention and intervention strategies to ameliorate the campus atmosphere and adolescents’ mental health aimed at avoiding NSSI behavior in adolescence.

Keywords:

• bullying victimization
• non-suicidal self-injury
• alexithymia
• self-esteem
• adolescents

Data Sharing Statement

The datasets supporting the conclusions of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethics Approval

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by Institutional Review Board of Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Psychology and Behavior (reference: 20230516001).

Informed Consent

Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants and their parents included in the study.

Acknowledgments

Xiajun Guo and Sijia Wu are co-first authors for this study. The authors would like to thank the article editor and anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. Thanks to the school administrators, teachers, and students who actively cooperated with the researchers to collect data.

Disclosure

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Topics for Research in Philosophy and Social Science in Kaifeng (ZXSKGH-2023-1122, ZXSKGH-2023-1905).