Contribution of Risk and Resilience Factors to Suicidality among Mental Health-Help-Seeking Adolescent Outpatients: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Peer victimization is an established risk factor for youth suicidal thoughts and behavior (suicidality), yet most peer-victimized youth are not suicidal. More data are needed pertaining to factors that confer resilience to youth suicidality. Aim: To identify resilience factors for youth suicidality in a sample of N = 104 (Mean age 13.5 years, 56% female) outpatient mental health help-seeking adolescents. Methods: Participants completed self-report questionnaires on their first outpatient visit, including the Ask Suicide-Screening Questions, a battery of risk (peer victimization and negative life events) and resilience (self-reliance, emotion regulation, close relationships and neighborhood) measures. Results: 36.5% of participants screened positive for suicidality. Peer victimization was positively associated with suicidality (odds ratio [OR] = 3.84, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.95–8.62, p < 0.001), while an overall multi-dimensional measure of resilience factors was inversely associated with suicidality (OR, 95% CI = 0.28, 0.11–0.59, p = 0.002). Nevertheless, high peer victimization was found to be associated with a greater chance of suicidality across all levels of resilience (marked by non-significant peer victimization by resilience interaction, p = 0.112). Conclusions: This study provides evidence for the protective association of resilience factors and suicidality in a psychiatric outpatient population. The findings may suggest that interventions that enhance resilience factors may mitigate suicidality risk.

Perceived Stressful Life Events and Suicide Risk in Adolescence: The Mediating Role of Perceived Family Functioning

“…Knowing the level of impact perceived by adolescents regarding the different SLEs that they report in consultation can help clinicians assess the risk of suicidal behavior and establish clinical objectives to buffer the SLE impact. These findings are consistent with those of studies that highlight resilience in the face of adversity as a protective factor (e.g., [57]).…”

“…Our results support the hypothesis that adolescents with poor family functioning are more likely to exhibit suicidal behaviors when they experience SLEs with greater perceived impact. Previous studies [27,28,57] have pointed out the buffering role of the family when facing SLEs, as well as its protective role with respect to suicide risk. Our study reveals that the family also plays a protective role against the perceived impact of SLEs on suicide risk.…”