Adolescent Suicide Ideation, Depression and Self-Esteem: Relationships to a New Measure of Gender Role Conflict.

Cormac O’Beaglaoich,Paul F Conway,Jessica Mccutcheon,Joan Hanafin,Todd G Morrison

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00111

Cormac O’Beaglaoich, Paul F Conway + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00111

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Abstract

Among 15–24 year olds in Ireland, completed suicide was responsible for 4.1 times more male deaths than female deaths in 2014 (World Health Organization [WHO], 2017). Few international research studies have investigated the relationship between masculinity [as assessed by a measure of gender role conflict (GRC)] and suicide ideation, and none have done so with Irish adolescents. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationships between a new measure of GRC developed specifically for use with Irish adolescents (I-GRCS-A; O’Beaglaoich et al., 2016), and depression, self-esteem, and negative/protective suicide ideation. A sample of 176 adolescent boys (M = 16.9, SD = 0.94) from a non-clinical population participated in the study. Regression analyses and tests of mediation revealed that depression significantly mediated the relationship between GRC and negative suicide ideation, whilst self-esteem and depression significantly mediated the relationship between GRC and positive suicide ideation. Implications and limitations of the current study are outlined and directions for future research are discussed.

Highlights

Official statistics provided by the World Health Organization [WHO] (2014a) indicated that 1.4% of all global deaths (803,900 persons) in 2012 occurred via suicide1
The results showed that the indirect coefficients of gender role conflict (GRC) for both depression, b = −0.148, SE = 0.033, p < 0.001, 95% CI = −0.218, −0.091, as well as self-esteem, b = −0.152, SE = 0.034, p < 0.001, 95% CI = −0.223, −0.093, were statistically significant
In the first study to examine the direct and indirect relationships between GRC and negative suicide and protective suicide ideation among a large sample from a non-clinical population of Irish adolescent boys, the results indicated that, while GRC correlates significantly with both factors protecting against and contributing to suicide ideation, these associations become statistically non-significant when depression and self-esteem are taken into consideration

Summary

Introduction

Official statistics provided by the World Health Organization [WHO] (2014a) indicated that 1.4% of all global deaths (803,900 persons) in 2012 occurred via suicide. Adolescent Suicide Ideation three to four times more often than do females (Värnik, 2012), indicating that factors associated with gender relate to increased prevalence of completed suicides. Adolescent suicide has emerged as a critical public health concern (e.g., Beautrais, 2000; Gould et al, 2003; Bridge et al, 2006; Hinduja and Patchin, 2018; Toomey et al, 2018) and is the second highest cause of death among young adolescents and young adults (15–29 year olds; World Health Organization [WHO], 2014a). Other factors that have been associated with adolescent suicide include gender identity (e.g., Skagerberg et al, 2013; Yadegarfard et al, 2014), sexual orientation (e.g., Beautrais, 2000; Baams et al, 2015) and socioeconomic disadvantage (Yildiz et al, 2018)

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