A study co-authored by a researcher from Effat University’s Psychology Department suggests that subclinical psychotic symptoms may play a key role in explaining why cyberbullying raises suicide risk among young adults.
Cyberbullying is one of the more visible mental health challenges of the digital age. Its links to depression, anxiety, and suicidal thinking have been documented extensively. But the question that research has been slower to answer is not whether cyberbullying and suicide are connected — it is what happens in between. What internal psychological processes translate the experience of being bullied online, or bullying others, into thoughts of ending one’s life?
A study published in BMC Psychiatry in early 2024, co-authored by Souheil Hallit of the Psychology Department at Effat University‘s College of Humanities, takes a significant step toward answering that question. The paper, developed as part of the PEARLS project — a binational cross-cultural study conducted across Lebanon and Tunisia — set out to test whether psychotic experiences mediate the path from cyberbullying to suicidal ideation in otherwise healthy young adults.
The Research
The study drew on data from 3,103 healthy community participants in Lebanon, surveyed between June and September 2022. The sample had a mean age of 21.73 years, was 63.6% female, and included only individuals with no prior history of diagnosed mental illness or antipsychotic medication use. Of those surveyed, 18.8% reported experiencing suicidal ideation.
Participants were assessed using validated instruments measuring their involvement in cyberbullying — both as perpetrators and as victims — alongside their levels of suicidal ideation and psychotic experiences. The study distinguished between positive psychotic experiences, such as unusual perceptions, and negative psychotic experiences, such as emotional withdrawal and reduced motivation, assessing each separately.
Mediation analysis showed that both types of psychotic experiences partially mediated the relationship between cyberbullying and suicidal ideation. Higher involvement in cyberbullying, whether as a bully or a victim, was associated with more severe psychotic experiences. More severe psychotic experiences were in turn associated with higher levels of suicidal ideation. A direct association between cyberbullying and suicidal ideation was also confirmed, independent of this indirect pathway.
The Implications
The significance of these findings lies in what they suggest for prevention. Eliminating cyberbullying entirely is not a realistic goal in a fully connected world. But identifying and addressing the psychological factors that sit between cyberbullying and suicide risk opens up more actionable intervention targets.
The study argues that screening for attenuated psychotic symptoms — the subclinical experiences that fall below the threshold of a formal psychiatric diagnosis — should become a more central component of suicide risk assessment, particularly for young people known to be involved in cyberbullying as either victims or perpetrators. This kind of assessment has historically been absent from most prevention frameworks, which have tended to focus on depression and anxiety as the primary mediating factors.
The researchers also call for multilevel suicide prevention approaches that address both the external, environmental dimension of cyberbullying and the internal, individual dimension of psychological vulnerability. Evidence-based interventions covering digital citizenship, empathy training, communication skills, and coping strategies are highlighted as tools capable of reducing suicide risk in affected young people.
A Gap in MENA Research
The study also draws attention to a specific gap in the regional research landscape. Suicide rates across the Middle East and North Africa are widely considered to be underreported, partly due to the cultural stigma attached to suicide for both the individuals involved and their families. At the same time, cyberbullying has grown substantially in Arab countries alongside expanding access to digital platforms, making the need for locally grounded research on this topic more pressing.
The researchers are transparent about the study’s limitations. Its cross-sectional design means that causality cannot be established from these findings, and the sample — predominantly female, unmarried, and highly educated — limits the generalizability of the results. Longitudinal research in larger and more diverse populations is identified as a clear priority for future work.
