To explore the chain mediating role of social capital and anxiety between school bullying and suicidal behavior of bullying victims, and to provide a theoretical basis for preventing the suicidal behavior among primary and middle school students.

A cross-sectional survey design was employed. A total of 8 854 school students from 36 schools in Datong, Lvliang, and Linfen cities of Shanxi province were included as study participants in June-July 2024 using a multi-stage whole cluster random sampling method, and questionnaires were administered using the Delaware Bullying Victimization Scale-Student, European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire, Adolescent Students’ Social Capital Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 Item, and the Suicidal Behavior Questionnaire. Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine associations between variables. Wald tests assessed differences in standardized path coefficients for standardized bullying and cyberbullying on suicidal behavior. Structural equation modeling examined the chained mediating effects of school bullying victimization on suicidal behavior.

Both traditional and cyberbullying were positively correlated with suicidal behavior among bullying victims, and the associations between these two types of bullying and suicidal behavior exhibits significant differences (W=115.26, P<0.001).Social capital mediated only between cyberbullying and suicidal behavior, with an effect value of 0.016 (95% CI: 0.010-0.025), and anxiety mediated between both traditional bullying/cyberbullying and suicidal behavior, with effect values of 0.061 (95% CI: 0.046-0.077), 0.060 (95% CI: 0.045-0.078).Social capital and anxiety all had a chain-mediated effects between traditional bullying/cyberbullying and suicidal behavior, with effect values of 0.030 (95% CI: 0.024-0.037) and 0.010 (95% CI: 0.007-0.014), which accounted for 8.0% and 2.0% of the total effect, respectively (P<0.01).

Social capital and anxiety have chain-mediated effects between school bullying and suicidal behavior. Attention should be paid to bullying victims to improve their social capital and reduce anxiety, which can help prevent suicidal behaviors among primary and middle school students.