Psychotic-Like Experiences and Suicidal Ideation Among Adolescents: The Chain Mediating Role of Insomnia Symptoms and Resilience

Abstract

Background

Individuals who experience psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are at significant risk of suicide-related behaviors. This two-wave longitudinal study aimed to investigate the relationships among PLEs, insomnia symptoms, resilience, and suicidal ideation (SI) among adolescents.

Methods

A total of 2231 college students [mean age (standard deviation) = 20.02 (1.39) years] completed two web-based surveys. Participants completed self-report measures of sample characteristics, PLEs, insomnia symptoms, resilience, and SI.

Results

The findings indicated a significantly positive correlation between PLEs and SI that was sequentially mediated by insomnia symptoms and resilience. Furthermore, insomnia symptoms and resilience played a chain-mediating role between PLEs and adolescent SI.

Conclusion

These findings suggest potential mechanism for the PLEs-SI link, which helps us better understand how PLEs can influence individual SI and provides important information for early prevention.

Keywords:

• psychotic-like experiences
• insomnia symptoms
• resilience
• suicidal ideation
• adolescents

Data Sharing Statement

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding authors (Dr. Dongfang Wang).

Ethics Statement

The investigation was carried out in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration as revised 1989 and approved by the Ethics Committees of Hunan Normal University. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the major project of National Social Science Fund of China (17ZDA326), and the youth project of Social Science Fund of Hunan Province (18YBQ069).