Objective  To investigate the prevalence of bullying victimization and suicidal psychological behavior and to explore the correlation between different bullying victimization and suicidal behaviors among high school students in Chongqing municipality.

  Methods   Using stratified cluster random sampling and a self-designed questionnaire, we conducted a survey among 8 276 junior and senior high school students in 4 districts and counties in Chongqing municipality during November – December 2019.

  Results  The participants reported an incidence rate of 9.63% for total bullying victimization during past 30 days and the reported incidence rates were 5.10%, 2.04%, 2.67%, 4.10%, and 0.57% for verbal, physical, relational, sexual, and cyber bullying victimization, respectively. The reported prevalence rates were 23.90%, 10.58% and 2.68% for suicide ideation, plan and attempt during previous 12 months. After controlling for potential confounding variables, multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that following victimizations were significant risk factors for different suicidal psychological behaviors: verbal bullying for suicidal ideation/plan/attempt (odds ratio OR = 1.777/1.714/2.256, all P < 0.05); physical bullying for suicidal ideation/attempt (OR = 1.484/1.995, both P < 0.05); relational bullying for suicidal ideation/plan (OR = 1.802/1.970, both P < 0.05); sexual bullying for suicidal ideation/plan (OR = 1.676/1.724 both P < 0.05); and cyber bullying for suicide attempt (OR = 3.190, P < 0.05).

  Conclusion  School bullying victimization is an important factor for suicide-related psychological behaviors and should be actively managed among high school students.