The influence of negative life events on adolescent suicidal ideation: Longitudinal mediating effect of emotional problems

Youth suicide is a worldwide public health and social issue. Suicidal ideation (SI), which spans a spectrum of thoughts from mild cognitions about death to serious and specific plans about taking one's life, is a significant risk factor for actual completed suicide. Thus, it is important to identify the environmental factors and psychological mechanisms that affect SI in adolescents.A sample of 607 Chinese high school students (Mage = 16.20, SD = 0.55) participated. Latent growth curve modeling was used to examine developmental trends in emotional problems and SI, incorporating a four-wave longitudinal design over a 1-year interval. A longitudinal mediation model was constructed to examine the effects of the intercept and slope of emotional problems in the relation between negative life events and SI.The results indicated that: (1) adolescents demonstrated a linear decrease in emotional problems and SI during the follow-up period, and the higher the initial level, the slower the growth rate; (2) negative life events demonstrated a significant positive predictive effect on the initial level of adolescent SI; and (3) negative life events played an indirect role in the initial level of adolescent SI through the initial level of emotional problems.Negative life events and emotional problems are influential factors in the level of SI in adolescents; however, further research is needed regarding the rate of change in SI.