Suicide Ideation, Depression, and Family Structure in Elementary Students

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Background: Little research has been done with suicidality in children under 12 but a growing amount of research suggests family systems play a role in childhood depression and suicide; to date, no measure for suicide ideation exists for children under 12. Aims: The aims of this paper are as follows: (1) to adapt a measure of suicide ideation for children under 12; (2) to test if this measure captures suicide ideation differently than depression; and (3) to determine if with whom children live serves as a protective factor against suicide. Method: A sample of 115 children between ages 8 and 12 from one school in rural Wisconsin completed surveys about their family life, depression, and suicidality. Results: Just over 50% of the children surveyed reported some amount of suicide ideation. Factor analyses showed distinct depression and suicide ideation factors. Living with mother correlated to lower depression levels, living with father correlated with lower suicidality levels; living with both parents correlated with lower depression and suicidality levels. Conclusion: The children in this sample appear to experience depression and suicidality as distinct phenomena and in a similar pattern (50% with some non-zero amount of suicide ideation) as many adolescent or adult samples; the role of a father and a mother in a child’s life both appear as protective factors with some distinct impact of each.