(PS2-D92) Assessing the Association Between Reasons for Living and Suicidal Thoughts Among Adolescents Concurrently and Longitudinally

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents in the United States and despite a growing number of research aimed at improving suicide prevention, the devastating impact of suicide has remained constant and may be on an incline in this population. Specifically, a report from 2021 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that emergency department visits for suicide attempts among adolescents ages 12-17 increased by 31 percent from 2019 to 2020 alone. Further research focusing on suicide prevention in adolescents is therefore crucial. At present, most studies on suicide prevention have focused on identifying risk factors associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors (SITB) and few studies have examined protective factors of suicide. Additional research assessing the impact of protective factors on SITB may therefore help improve the prevention and intervention of SITB.

 
Reasons for living (RFL), a construct that examines a person’s self-reported reason for not killing themselves has been found to be significantly associated with lower levels of suicidal ideation (SI) which has subsequent strong predictive validity of future suicide attempts. However, limited studies have examined the relationship between RFL and SI in adolescents. The current study assessed the association between RFL and SI in a sample of 280 (53.6% female; 86.1% White; 88.6% heterosexual) adolescents (M = 13.17 years, SD = 1.08) recruited from middle and high schools. RFL was measured at baseline using the Reasons for Living Inventory for Adolescents, a 32-item youth self-report questionnaire measuring the overall levels of reasons for living including subscales of future optimism, suicide-related concerns, family alliance, peer acceptance and support, and self-acceptance. Suicidal ideation was measured at baseline, six-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up using youth self-report on the Suicide Ideation Questionnaire-JR, a 15-item questionnaire assessing the frequency and intensity of suicide thoughts within the last month. Analyses were conducted with SPSS utilizing bootstrapping technique with 1000 bootstrap samples. Results revealed a significant negative association between RFL and SI at baseline (β = -.57, SE = 1.17, p = .001), six-month follow-up (β = -.41, SE = 1.15, p = .001), and 12-month follow-up (β = -.29, SE = 1.18, p = .005). Controlling for the effect of other RFL subscales the results revealed that self-acceptance had a significant negative association between SI at baseline (β = -.55, SE = 1.33, p = .002), six-month follow-up (β = -.49, SE = 1.54, p = .009), and 12-month follow-up (β = -.56, SE = 2.14, p = .013). Contrary to our hypothesis, the results also revealed that peer acceptance was significantly positively associated with SI at 12-month follow-up (β = -.41, SE = 1.8, p = .028) while controlling for other RFL subscales. Peer acceptance was not associated with SI at baseline or six-month follow-up. The remaining RFL subscales did not have significant associations with suicidal ideation at all time points. The current study provides insight into the relationship between reasons for living and suicidal ideation concurrently and longitudinally among adolescents.