Adversity and suicidality during youth

ABSTRACT

This analysis examined relationships between childhood adversities and the odds of suicide attempt(s) prior to age 17. Respondents (N = 2072) completed the survey through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing platform. The sample was represented disproportionately by young adult women who identified as Caucasian. The sample was differentiated into subsets with versus without suicide attempt(s) prior to age 17. Suicide attempt(s) in this sample (22.4%) varied in number (once, n = 200; 9.7%; twice, n = 114, 5.5%; multiple, n = 150, 7.2%). The odds of suicide attempt(s) prior to age 17 were significantly (p < .001) higher for respondents reporting childhood sexual abuse (OR = 5.0), physical abuse (OR = 4.9), emotional abuse (OR = 3.7), peer bullying (OR = 3.1), parental neglect (OR = 1.6), and maternal battering (OR = 2.15). All adversities but exposure to maternal battering accounted for unshared variance in suicide attempts prior to age 17. Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire exposure counts were associated with child and adolescent suicide attempts. Suicide risk did not appear to increment progressively by additional exposures after two co-occurring stressors. The odds of early suicide attempt(s) were markedly higher in this sample among respondents who were exposed to one or more forms of childhood adversity.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescent suicide
• childhood adversity
• sexual abuse
• physical abuse
• emotional abuse
• maternal battering

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Informed consent

This project was approved by the institutional review board of the University of North Dakota (IRB-201903-238). Informed consent was obtained from all respondents in this survey study.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by The Joyce and Aqueil Ahmad Endowment within the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of North Dakota.