The Relationship of Family Functioning and Suicidal Ideation among Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Defeat and the Moderating Role of Meaning in Life

Qin Yang, Yiqiu Hu, Zi-Hao Zeng, Shuang-Jin Liu, Tong Wu, Gang-Huai Zhang

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the relationship between family functioning and suicidal ideation among adolescents. Method: A total of 4515 junior and senior high school students were assessed using the Family APGAR, the Depressive Symptom Index-Suicidality Subscale, the Defeat Scale, and the Chinese Meaning in Life Questionnaire. Results: This study found pairwise correlations between suicidal ideation, family functioning, defeat, and meaning in life. Specifically, family functioning was an influencing factor of adolescent suicidal ideation, and defeat was a mediator of the relationship between family functioning and adolescent suicidal ideation; meaning in life was found to be a moderator of the first half of the mediation process by defeat, that is, it moderated the influence of family functioning on adolescent defeat. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the relationship between family functioning and adolescent suicidal ideation, as well as the influence of defeat and meaning in life on this relationship, constituted a moderated intermediary model. This finding has both theoretical and practical value for the implementation of a psychosocial model of adolescent suicide prevention and intervention.
Original languageEnglish
Article number15895
Pages (from-to)1-14
Number of pages14
JournalInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume19
Issue number23
Early online date29 Nov 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

This article belongs to the Special Issue: New Perspectives on Suicide Prevention and Postvention in Adolescents and Young Adults

Funding

This paper was fortunate to be supported by two projects: The first one is the National Educational Science Planning in China “Early warning mechanism and intervention countermeasures for adolescent psychological crisis in the context of major emergencies” (Project No.: BBA200032). This project is led by Yiqiu Hu. The second one is the Research and Innovation Project of Hunan Graduate Students “The Compilation and application of the Scale of Susceptibility to Psychological Crisis for Contemporary Adolescents” (Project No.: QL20220124). The project is led by Qin Yang.

FundersFunder number
National Educational Science Planning in ChinaBBA200032
Research and Innovation Project of HunanQL20220124

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