Interparental Conflict Relative to Suicidal Ideation in Chinese Adolescents: The Roles of Coping Strategies and Meaning in Life

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the paths between interparental conflict and Chinese adolescents’ suicidal ideation. Altogether 931 adolescents (Mage = 17.84, SD = 0.77, females = 531) completed the Dyadic Consensus Scale, Self-Report Coping Scale, Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and Positive and Negative Suicide Ideation questionnaires. Mediation analyses were conducted, focusing on the relations between interparental conflict and suicidal ideation along with coping styles and a sense of meaning in life. The results showed that interparental conflict indirectly predicted adolescents’ suicidal ideation via three mediators: coping-approach strategies, presence of meaning, and the joint serial effects of coping-approach strategies and presence of meaning in Chinese adolescents. In addition, boys were more likely to be at risk for suicidal ideation than girls, so were 10th graders compared to 11th graders. These findings supported a combined distress-to-meaninglessness line of thinking along with the use of coping-approach strategies to depress self-harm ideation. Generally, interparental conflict should be kept out of youngsters’ immediate vicinity as a preventive measure of suicidal ideation.

“It was like nobody cared about what I said?” Iranian women committed self- immolation: A qualitative study

“…Another study found that married women were at the greatest risk of suicide by burning mostly due to quarrels with a family member, a relative, or a friend [36]. In addition, as reported in previous studies, family problems and cultural issues lead to self-immolation [7,30,31,35]. These factors and triggering events support the pre-motivation phase one of the IMV model [15].…”

Meaning in life among adolescents: Factorial invariance of the purpose in life test and buffering effect on the relationship between emotional dysregulation and hopelessness

“…This is quite important because MiL is associated with strong motivation and plays an important role in developing a goal‐oriented life and predicting psychological and subjective well‐being in adolescents (Côté, ; Damon, ; Rathi & Rastogi, ). At the same time, it is a protective factor against negative patterns of behaviour, such as suicidal ideation, drug use, promiscuity, and eating disorders, among others (e.g., Brassai et al, 2011; Zhang et al, ). In addition, a lack of MiL is a risk factor for developing psychological distress and psychopathology (e.g., Butėnaitė, Sondaitė, & Mockus, ).…”

“…To a large extent, an authentic and goal-oriented life is the result of personal development during adolescence (e.g., Burrow, O'Dell, & Hill, 2010;Côté, 2002). Therefore, to develop a strong sense of MiL during adolescence could be a resource of resilience, a strong protective factor for successfully dealing with life's negative circumstances, psychopathological symptoms, and self-disturbances (Brassai, Piko, & Steger, 2015;Brouzos, Vassilopoulos, & Boumpouli, 2016;Fu & Law, 2017;Henry et al, 2014;Zhang, Li, Chen, Ewalds-Kvist, & Liu, 2017). Likewise, MiL is a strong predictor of wellbeing, mental health, and healthy behaviours both during adolescence (e.g., Wilchek-Aviad & Ne'eman-Haviv, 2018;Wilchek-Aviad, Ne'eman-Haviv, & Malka, 2016) and during adulthood (e.g., Lightsey, 2006;Ostrowski, 2015).…”

It Was Like Nobody Cared About What I said? Iranian women committed self- immolation: A Qualitative Study

“…On the other hand, Kashfi et al found that self-immolation was most prevalent in the age group of 25 to 44 years old and stated that the highest cause of self-immolation attempts was due to family disputes [17]. In China, it was also found that family quarrel instigated suicidal ideation in young people [3]. Furthermore, Saadati et al revealed in their review that women were subject to selfimmolation more so than men.…”

“…Recently, suicideattempts as the cause of mortality have increased across the world. Family conflicts may cause suicidal ideation in young persons in different ways such as malfunctioning coping strategies, lack of feeling of purpose in life [3] as well as lack of positive personality capital in forms of hope, selfefficacy, resilience and optimism about the future [4]. The countries of the former USSR have the highest suicide rates [5].…”