Parents’ right strategy on preventing youngsters’ recent suicidal ideation: a 13-year prospective cohort study

Abstract

Background

Suicide remains the second leading cause of death among youths. Family-related factors are considered important determinants of children’s suicidal ideation, whereas their short-/long-term influence is seldom quantified.

Aims

We aim to confirm the simultaneous/lagged effects of family-related factors on the occurrence of recent suicidal ideation from childhood to young adulthood (aged from 10 to 22 years old).

Method

Data were derived from a longitudinal prospective cohort study. Participants included 2065 students who were followed up for 13 years. Generalized estimating equations were used to clarify the influential effects of family-related factors on suicidal ideation during the past month.

Results

The peak of the rate of recent suicidal ideation arrived during junior high school years. Family interaction, family support, family involvement, and parental punishment had simultaneous effects on recent suicidal ideation. Family involvement, parental conflict, and psychological control had lagged and lasting effects on suicidal ideation. Notably, the lasting protective effects of family involvement were more obvious than simultaneous effects.

Conclusions

Providing parents with sustained support and education to improve their “positive parenting literacy” can help with their children’s mental health development. This is especially the case during COVID-19 quarantine periods when families spend the most time together at home.

Keywords:

• Suicidal ideation
• family factors
• cohort study
• children
• adolescent
• generalized estimating equations
• latent growth curve modeling

Acknowledgments

We express our sincere appreciation to all research assistants and investigators for their dedicated assistance in the data collection of the Child and Adolescent Behaviors in Long-term Evolution (CABLE) program. Miss Yushan Du and Miss Chang Sun are also acknowledged for helpful comments on our earlier draft or revised manuscript. We would especially like to thank our participants in the study for their time and willingness to participate.

Ethics statement

The Child and Adolescent Behaviors in Long-term Evolution (CABLE) study was approved by the Institutional Review Board in National Health Research Institutes (No. EC9009003 and No. EC1010801). The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from each child’s parents before the baseline survey.

Disclosure statement

None of the authors have any financial conflicts of interest to report.

Additional information

Funding

In addition, the project was supported by the Scientific Research Grant of Fujian Province of China (No. Z0230104), and the National Health Research Institutes in the Taiwan area (No. PH-110-PP-23). The sponsors of the project had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, or data interpretation. The authors have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest.