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Parent-Adolescent Agreement About Adolescents' Suicidal Thoughts
Jason D Jones1, Rhonda C Boyd2,3, Monica E Calkins3
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and jonesjd@email.chop.edu.
Pediatrics
|January 16, 2019
Summary
Parent and adolescent reports show low agreement on suicidal thoughts, with many parents unaware and adolescents denying them. This highlights the need for multi-informant approaches in suicide risk assessment.
Area of Science:
- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Mental Health Research
- Suicidology
Background:
- Accurate assessment of adolescent suicidal thoughts is crucial for early intervention.
- Discrepancies exist between adolescent self-reports and parental awareness of suicidal ideation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate agreement between parent and adolescent reports of suicidal thoughts.
- To identify factors influencing agreement in adolescent suicide risk assessment.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from 5137 adolescents (11-17 years) and collateral informants (primarily parents).
- Employed clinical interviews assessing lifetime suicidal thoughts in a large community sample.
Main Results:
- Moderate agreement for thoughts of self-harm (κ=0.466), low agreement for thoughts of death (κ=0.171).
- Significant parental unawareness (50-75%) and adolescent denial (48-67%) of suicidal thoughts were observed.
- Demographic and clinical factors were associated with reporting discrepancies.
Conclusions:
- High rates of unawareness and denial suggest many at-risk adolescents may be missed.
- Recommends multi-informant suicide screening in pediatric settings.
- Advocates for personalized assessment using risk factors for unawareness and denial.