Low Emotional Trust in Mothers is Associated with Increased Suicide Attempts in Inpatient Adolescents with Depressive Symptoms

Abstract

Emotional trust is conceptualized as an individual's belief that others are not critical of personal disclosures and will maintain their confidentiality. Accordingly, adolescents who hold high emotional trust in their parents are inclined to disclose troubling thoughts (e.g., those related to depression or suicide), and in turn receive emotional support as well as practical assistance in managing these thoughts, thereby mitigating the risk of suicide attempts. To date, emotional trust has not been examined in the context of depression and suicide attempts; the broad aim of the present study was to examine this relationship. Three hundred and twenty-one adolescents were administered measures of emotional trust in mothers, depressive symptoms, and suicide attempts. Negative Binomial regression analyses indicated that adolescents’ emotional trust in mothers moderated the relation between depressive symptoms and suicide attempts. When emotional trust in mothers was low or medium, depressive symptoms were posi...