Childhood maltreatment and suicidal ideation in Chinese children and adolescents: the mediation of resilience

Xue Chen; Linling Jiang; Yi Liu; Hailiang Ran; Runxu Yang; Xiufeng Xu; Jin Lu; Yuanyuan Xiao

doi:10.7717/peerj.11758

Childhood maltreatment and suicidal ideation in Chinese children and adolescents: the mediation of resilience

PeerJ. 2021 Jul 6:9:e11758. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11758. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Xue Chen^#^{1

2}, Linling Jiang^#³, Yi Liu³, Hailiang Ran¹, Runxu Yang³, Xiufeng Xu³, Jin Lu³, Yuanyuan Xiao¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Health, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China.
² The Second Affiliated Hospital, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China.
³ The First Affiliated Hospital, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Childhood maltreatment could increase the risk of suicidal ideation (SI) in adolescents. However, the mediation of resilience in this association remains unclear.

Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study has been done among 3,146 Chinese adolescents. We collected relevant information from the study participants by using self-administered questionnaire. Chinese version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), the Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescents (RSCA), and the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSSI) were used to measure childhood maltreatment, resilience, and SI, respectively. Univariate and multivariate binary Logistic regression models were employed to estimate crude and adjusted associations between childhood maltreatment, resilience, and SI. Path analysis has subsequently been performed to measure the mediation of resilience in this association.

Results: Multivariate Logistic regression models revealed that compared to non-abused counterparts, adolescents who had ever experienced any type of childhood maltreatment was 1.74 times likely to report SI. Among the specific types of childhood maltreatment, emotional abuse showed the strongest association with SI (adjusted OR = 3.01, 95% CI [2.37-3.82]). Path model suggested that over one-third (39.8%) of the total association between childhood maltreatment and SI was mediated via resilience. Emotion regulation and interpersonal assistance were the most prominent mediators among all dimensions of resilience.

Conclusions: Resilience played as a significant mediator in the association between childhood maltreatment and SI. Resilience-oriented intervention measures could be considered for suicidal risk prevention among abused Chinese adolescents.

Keywords: Adolescents; Childhood maltreatment; Resilience; Suicidal ideation.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82060601), the Yunnan Applied Basic Research Projects-Kunming Medical University Union Foundation (No.2018FE001(-132)), the Yunnan Health Training Projects of Highly Level Talents (No. D-2017048), the Research Project of Medical and Sanitary Institution of Yunnan Province (No. 2018NS0110), the Top Young Talents of Yunnan Ten Thousand Talents Plan (No. qYNWR-QNBJ-2018-286) and the Innovative Research Team of Yunnan Province (No. 202005AE160002). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.