Intersectional discrimination, bullying/cyberbullying, and suicidal ideation among South Korean youths: a latent profile analysis (LPA)

ABSTRACT This study examined intersectional discrimination using latent profile analysis and assessed the associations between membership in discrimination-prone groups and online/offline bullying and suicidal ideation among South Korean youths. The data of 6,169 middle- and high-school students from the 2018 Korean Children and Youth Human Rights Status Survey were analysed. The latent profile analysis revealed that a four-class; the data were divided into low discrimination (85.2%), moderate intersectional discrimination (2.6%), high intersectional discrimination (1.3%), and gender discrimination (10.9%) groups. In the multinomial logistic regression, compared to the low-discrimination class, all three discrimination classes were more likely to suffer from higher rates of bullying and suicidal ideation. Online/offline bullying and suicidal ideation were linked to the degree of intersectional discrimination experienced, especially gender discrimination. Therefore, it is crucial to guarantee that vulnerable adolescents who have been subjected to intersectional discrimination are not bullied further and put at risk of suicide.