Abstract
Despite adolescents’ suicidal thoughts and behaviors being major health problems, sparse literature exists on the roles of adolescents’ disclosing their feelings to caregivers in their suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This study examined whether adolescents’ comfort in disclosing their feelings and problems to caregivers predicts subsequent suicidal thoughts and behaviors and whether difficulties in emotion regulation mediate this association. High school students (N = 5,346 from 20 schools, 49% female-identified adolescents, and 35% 9th graders, 33% 10th graders, and 32% 11th graders) participated in the study for two years with four waves, each six months apart: fall semester in Year 1 (Wave 1), spring semester in Year 1 (Wave 2), fall semester in Year 2 (Wave 3), and spring semester in Year 2 (Wave 4). The degree to which adolescents felt comfortable disclosing their feelings and problems to caregivers at Wave 1 predicted lower suicidal thoughts and behaviors at Wave 4 directly and indirectly via higher emotional clarity at Wave 2 and feeling more able to handle negative emotions at Wave 3. Moreover, when female-identified adolescents reported feeling unable to handle negative emotions at Wave 3, they reported engaging in more suicidal thoughts and behaviors at Wave 4 than male-identified adolescents. Therefore, enhancing adolescents’ comfort in disclosing their feelings and problems to caregivers and adolescent emotion regulation and taking a nuanced approach to support female-identified adolescents regarding their ability to handle negative emotions could prevent adolescents’ suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Brenda Miller and Joel Grube for reading this manuscript and providing us with their feedback for revision.
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Analyzing the data and writing the manuscript by SY.C. were largely supported by a grant T32-MH20061 from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Revising the manuscript by SY.C. was supported by grants P60-AA006282 and T32-AA014125 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Sources of Strength study was funded by a grant R01 MH091452 from NIMH. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIAAA or NIH or NIMH.
Data Sharing and DeclarationThe datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the Principal Investigator of the Sources of Strength adolescent suicide prevention study on reasonable request.
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SY.C. conceived the conceptual model, devised the theoretical framework, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript; L.J.L. contributed to the theoretical framework, analytic plans, and writing; J.P.M. contributed to statistical analyses and writing; P.A.W. provided data as the Principal Investigator of the Sources of Strength adolescent suicide prevention study and contributed to the analytic plans and writing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Choe, S.Y., Lengua, L.J., McFall, J.P. et al. Adolescents’ Comfort in Disclosing to Caregivers Predicts Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Directly and Indirectly Through Difficulties in Emotion Regulation. J Youth Adolescence 52, 1721–1737 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01785-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01785-8