Although suicide ideation, plans, and attempts increase during adolescence, it remains unclear whether boys' and girls' risk for these outcomes peaks at different ages. We used longitudinal categorical data (never, once, 2+ times) from the Family Transitions Project (N = 1248 rural European Americans ages 11-19) to investigate whether yearly prevalence rates of adolescent suicidal episodes follow different patterns by sex. Multiple-group growth models revealed that peak levels of past-year ideation and plans occurred during mid adolescence for girls, but slowly increased through late adolescence for boys. We found that prevalence patterns for attempts were very similar for boys and girls, with both increasing through mid adolescence and then declining, although girls' risk declined slightly more rapidly. This information may help alert gatekeepers to developmental periods during which boys and girls are particularly vulnerable to suicide-related experiences, and also may help inform the timing of preventive efforts. Keywords adolescent suicidality; sex differences; age differences Youth suicide constitutes a recognized public health concern (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2002). Treatment and prevention efforts often target suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts, since these thoughts, feelings, and behaviors predict completed suicide and themselves signify intense suffering. Suicidal crises are also the most common precipitants to psychiatric hospitalization (IOM, 2002). Further, adolescent suicidal episodes predict psychiatric disorders and diminished functioning in the realms of work, education, and social relationships during young adulthood (Fergusson et al., 2005;Reinherz et al., 2006). Suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts among adolescents therefore deserve attention as serious mental health outcomes, and consequently constitute the focus of this study.We investigate the yearly prevalence patterns of suicidal thoughts and behavior by age among European American adolescent boys and girls. European American adolescent girls and boys have higher rates of completed suicide than do Asian and African American adolescents of both sexes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2008), so understanding suicide-related phenomena in this population is important. Although numerous studies have assessed specific associations of adolescent suicidality with age and sex (Kessler, Borges & Walters, 1999;Lester, 1991) Developmentally, we have reason to suspect that trends in suicidality may differ between girls and boys: pubertal onset occurs earlier for girls, on average, than for boys, and this biological transition can be a time of risk for girls, in particular (Caspi, Lynam, Moffitt, & Silva, 1993;Ge, Conger, & Elder, 2001). Depression carries one of the highest risks of any psychiatric disorder for suicide ideation, plans, and attempts (Kessler, et al. 1999), and rates of depressive symptomology increase more rapidly for girls in early adolescence than for boys (Ge, Lorenz, Conger, Elder, & Simons, 19...

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We examined the interplay between three explanatory hypotheses for why older adults appear to rate their problems as less stressful than do younger adults: age-related differences in personality, in types of problems, and in the appraisal process-specifically, the number of primary stress appraisals. A sample of 1054 men from the Normative Aging Study (mean age = 65.02; range = 45 to 92) were interviewed about a problem in the past week. Personality did not mediate the effect of age on stress ratings. While general hassles and health problems both increased with age, they had opposite influences on stress ratings. Accounting for covariates, older men reported fewer appraisals, and the number of appraisals mediated the association between age and stress ratings. We found no moderating effects of problem type on these processes. Thus, lower stress ratings for everyday problems in later life may result from developmental changes in primary appraisal processes.

This study of a cohort of 451 adolescents examined associations between trajectories of problem behaviors and the timing of entry into work, marriage, and parenthood. We used data from 12 assessments across adolescence, through emerging adulthood and into young adulthood. We employed 2-phase mixed-effects models to estimate growth in substance use and antisocial behavior across adolescence, deceleration in the period that follows, and the change point that marks the transition between the 2 phases. We then examined the degree to which the timing of entry into a specific adult role was associated with change in problem behaviors and the change point between the 2 phases. We hypothesized that earlier entries into adult roles would be associated with earlier transitions to the decline in problem behaviors generally observed during adulthood but that later entries would be associated with more quickly declining rates of problem behaviors during adulthood. As proposed, earlier entries into marriage and parenthood predicted earlier transitions to declining trajectories in both substance use and antisocial behavior during adulthood. The findings also indicated that delayed marriage and parenthood were associated with more quickly decreasing rates of change in substance use, but not antisocial behavior, during adulthood. Thus, the results are consistent with the idea that substance use decreases earlier but not as quickly during adulthood for those with earlier entries into marriage and parenthood. However, the timing of entry into work did not predict trajectory changes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Although studies have established associations between parenting characteristics and adolescent suicidality, the strength of the evidence for these links remains unclear, largely because of methodological limitations, including lack of accounting for possible child effects on parenting. This study addresses these issues by using autoregressive cross-lag models with data on 802 adolescents and their parents across 5 years. Observed parenting behaviors predicted change in adolescent suicidal problems across one-year intervals even after controlling for adolescents’ effects on parenting. Nurturant-involved parenting continued to demonstrate salutary effects after controlling for adolescent and parent internalizing psychopathology: over time, observed nurturant-involved parenting reduced the likelihood of adolescent suicidal problems. This study increases the empirical support implicating parenting behaviors in the developmental course of adolescent suicidality.