Do Parental Involvement and Adult Support Matter for Students’ Suicidal Thoughts and Behavior in High School?

Abstract

Support from parents and school staff are important for adolescent well-being. However, few studies have examined the role of parental involvement and adult social support at school on high school students’ mental health, specifically, suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs). Data were collected from 362,980 high school students (51.85% female) from 412 schools in Georgia. Students reported perceptions of parental involvement, adult social support at school, experiences of face-to-face victimization, cyber victimization, and STBs. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) results showed that perceived parental involvement and adult social support at the student and school levels were negatively related to adolescent STBs. Face-to-face victimization and cyber victimization at the student and school levels were significant predictors for STBs. Student-level perceived parental involvement and adult social support mitigated the relationship between peer victimization and STBs. However, school-level perceived adult social support exacerbated the relationship between face-to-face and cyber victimization and STBs. It is essential to attend to the differential effect of student-level and school-level adult social support on youth mental health. It is also important to promote parental involvement and adult social support to promote mental health among high school students.

Impact and Implications

This study highlights the risk of both face-to-face and cyber victimization and the protective role of parental involvement on adolescent suicide. It also differentiates the effect of student-level and school-level adult social support for youth who experience peer victimization.

Keywords:

• suicidal thoughts and behaviors
• parental involvement
• adult social support
• bullying victimization

ASSOCIATE EDITOR:

• Dorothy Espelage

DISCLOSURE

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cixin Wang

Cixin Wang is an Associate Professor of School Psychology in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research focuses on bullying prevention, mental health promotion, and parenting, especially for youth from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Tamika La Salle

Tamika La Salle is an Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut. Her primary areas of research interests include culturally responsive education practices, school climate, and the interrelationships among cultural and ecological variables including the community, family, and school on perceptions of school climate.

Chaorong Wu

Chaorong Wu is currently a statistician/biostatistician in the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Iowa. He has a broad background in quantitative methodology, with specific focus on linear mixed models, latent variable models, categorical data analysis and causal models.

Jia Li Liu

Jia Li Liu is a Calvin J. Li Postdoctoral Fellow in the Asian American Studies program at the University of Maryland. Her research interests include cross-cultural parenting, the effects of child temperament on parental socialization, and the development of culture-sensitive parent education programs for Asian immigrant families.