The associations between peer and parental relationships and suicidal behaviours in early adolescents

To investigate associations between suicidal behaviours, including suicidal ideation and attempts, and poor peer and parental relationships in a nationally representative sample of Canadian adolescents aged 12 to 13 years.

We used Statistics Canada's National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth as the dataset. This cross-sectional sample included 1049 girls and 1041 boys aged 12 to 13 years. We obtained answers to self-report questionnaires that included measures of peer relationships, parental nurturance, and parental rejection, as well as information regarding suicidal ideation and attempts. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models were used for the analysis. We included depression in the multiple logistic regression analysis. Analyses were run separately for boys and girls.

The unadjusted logistic regression models found that, among early adolescent boys and girls, depression, poor peer relationships, decreased parental nurturance, and increased parental rejection were all significantly associated with suicidal ideation and attempts. However, after adjusting for all other variables in the multiple logistic regression models, poor peer relationships were no longer significantly associated with suicidal ideation among early adolescent boys and were only weakly associated among early adolescent girls.

Poor parental relationships and depression were more powerfully associated with suicidal ideation and attempts than were peer relationships in a nationally representative sample of boys and girls aged 12 to 13 years, and these factors may be important early intervention targets.