Associations Between Attempted Suicide, Violent Life Events, Depressive Symptoms, and Resilience in Adolescents and Young Adults

Abstract

Were violent/nonviolent traumatic life events and victimization by/witnessing violence associates of attempted suicide among depressed adolescents who were also less resilient at early adulthood? The present study examined a subset of mainly depressed, age- and gender-matched, adolescents derived from a representative sample of 2464 students (T1, mean age = 13.7 years) followed up after 1 year (T2Q) and reassessed 5 years later (T3, n = 252, mean age = 20.0 years, 73% participation), with a questionnaire, including the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale and The Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Present and Lifetime version psychiatric interviews, which also tapped traumatic life events. Logistic regression analyses revealed that attempters were victims, not witnesses of violence, more depressed, and less resilient than nonattempters, and that resilience was a moderator of lifetime violent events and attempted suicide, even in the presence of antecedent depression.