(PS2-B31) Post-pandemic Mental Health and Suicide Risk in Adolescents: Emotion Regulation as a Mediator Between Anxiety and Depression and Suicide Ideation

Background and

Objective: In the United States, rates of suicide ideation significantly increase during the transition to adolescence, which is a crucial developmental period for cognitive, neurological, and behavioral change. These changes may impact emotion regulation, which is a construct that includes awareness, comprehending and accepting emotions, controlling impulsive behavior, and the ability to regulate the intensity and duration of emotions and moods. Anxiety and depression symptoms have been found to limit an individual’s ability to access effective emotion regulation constructs during adolescence, which can associate with suicide ideation. Recent research has shown that symptoms of anxiety and depression, suicide ideation, and emotion regulation difficulties in adolescents have increased since the pandemic began, possibly due to lack of social interaction and environmental stressors. Further research is needed on the effects of COVID-19 to understand how it may have affected adolescents’ adaptive coping. The current study examined emotion regulation difficulties as a mediator in the relationship between anxiety and depression and suicide ideation in a sample of adolescents from whom data were collected after the COVID pandemic began.

Methods: Data from a sample of high school students (n=206) were used. Within this sample, 57.8% identified as female, 79.13% were white, and the mean age was 15.65 (SD=1.17). Participants completed self-report measures on recent suicide ideation, emotion regulation, and depression (CES-DC) and anxiety (BAI). Data were collected in Fall 2021, when students resumed full-time in-person school.

Results: The mean BAI score was 17 (moderate range), and the mean CES-DC score was 23.12 (clinical cut-off is 15). The PROCESS Macro for SPSS was used to test mediation hypotheses. Results showed that emotion regulation difficulties significantly mediated the relationship between anxiety symptoms and recent suicide ideation severity (indirect effect: b=.223, CI=[.064, .398], p=.002). Results showed that emotion regulation difficulties were not a significant mediator in the relationship between depression symptoms and recent suicide ideation severity, (indirect effect: b=.100, CI=[-.098, .278], p=.176).

Conclusion: The mean anxiety and depression levels were relatively high in students who had recently returned to school in person, after COVID-19 disruptions. Anxiety symptoms were indirectly associated with suicide ideation through emotion regulation difficulties. Depression symptoms were also relatively elevated, but the same mediating relationship with emotion regulation in predicting suicide ideation was not found. These results may indicate that elevated anxiety is more relevant to emotion regulation than depression. Future research can aid the understanding of how high levels of anxiety and depression post-pandemic is impacting adolescent’s ability to regulation strong emotions, and thoughts of suicide.