Vasilia Yordanova
Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Abstract: It is generally known that community and family support is a major factor in suicide prevention, while trauma incidents in childhood increase the risk of suicide in adulthood. However, no pre-existing studies have explicitly looked at the connection between adolescents’ relationship with their parents and considering suicide in adulthood. The sample included participants from the first and fifth waves of the AddHealth study, who were adolescents in the 1994-95 school year and adults in their 30s and 40s between 2016 and 2018. Their relationships with their mother and father figures were measured by asking about how close they felt to these parental figures and how much they felt their parental figures cared about them. Suicidal thought in adulthood was measured with the question “During the past 12 months, have you ever seriously thought about considering suicide?”. X^2 tests revealed significant relationships between closeness to mother figures and considering suicide in adulthood, and closeness to father figures and considering suicide in adulthood. Those who were not at all close to their mother figures during adolescence have 3.5 times higher odds of considering suicide in adulthood than those who are very close to their mother figures. There also appears to be a significant relationship between closeness to a father figure and considering suicide in adulthood, but not when controlling for closeness to a mother figure.
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QAC201_ParentRelationship_ConsideringSuicide