Distinguishing the role of adverse life events in suicidality and non-suicidal self-injury in Spanish adolescents and young adults.

Abstract

Adverse life events have been shown to increase the chances of harmful thoughts, or behavior against oneself. This study aims to fill this gap by identifying how adverse life events (witnessing a friend’s or family member’s self-injury, eating behavior problems, concern about sexual orientation, physical or sexual abuse) experienced by adolescents and young adults are associated with different indicators of suicidality and non-suicidal self-injury behaviors, according to gender and age. Participants were 625 young people aged between 12 and 25 years (Mean=15.91, SD=2.44), of whom 61.7% were girls. Of total participants, 53.44% reported adverse life events. Physical or sexual abuse was more associated with suicidality and non-suicidal self-injury compared to being witness to a friend’s self-injury. Girls who experienced physical abuse had more suicidal ideation than boys, while boys who experienced sexual abuse had more suicidal ideation than girls. Young adults who had experienced sexual abuse and those who witnessed a friend’s self-injury reported more non-suicidal self-injury attempts than adolescents in the same situations. For eating problems, adolescents showed more non-suicidal self-injury attempts than young adults. The findings underline the importance of considering adverse life events in order to prevent suicidality and non-suicidal self-injury behavior.