Bullying, Weapons Carrying, and Mental Health Outcomes Among U.S. High School Students

Abstract

Using data from the 2007-2017 cycles of the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), this researcher aimed to understand how weapons carrying mediates the association between bullying and mental health outcomes. I dichotomized four bullying outcomes to create one new carried a weapon after bullied (CWB) (no/yes; e.g. did not carry a weapon post-bullying vs. did carry a weapon post-bullying) for each bullying type. Mental health outcomes included (all dichotomized, past 2 weeks, no/yes): felt sad or hopeless, seriously considered suicide, had a plan for suicide and attempted suicide. I used descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression adjusted for YRBS sampling methods and weighting (Stata 15.0).

Initial results showed that weapons carrying has a complex relationship with mental health after bullying. One notable finding is that individuals who had been in a physical fight were the most likely to carry a weapon (N = 268), followed by those who had been threatened at school (N = 233). Additionally, more students who had been bullied at school (N = 185) carried a weapon than those who were victims of cyberbullying (N = 166). Another interesting result found that across all bullying types, males were 2 to 3 times more likely to carrying a weapon as a result of being bullied. In terms of mental health, being threatened at school was the most significant bullying type in relation to suicidal ideation.