Factors Associated with Suicidal Behaviour in Adolescents in Latvia. Summary of the Doctoral Thesis

Abstract

Introduction. Suicides are one of most relevant public health problems in Latvia – standardised suicide mortality rates rank Latvia at the high second place among the European Union countries. An important risk factor for completed suicide is suicidal behavior, including suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, that is a risk factor for completed suicide and is often used in research of associated risk factors and is esspecially relevant in adolescent populations. Factors related to family environment, peer environment and individual factors have an important role in relation with adolescent’s suicidal behavior, in particular taking in consideration the fact that prevalence of several of these potential risk factors in Latvia is estimated as high. The aim of the Thesis was to assess prevalence of self-reported suicidal behaviour and its association with family and peer environment related factors, as well as individual factors in the population of 14 to 17-year-old adolescents in Latvia. Material and methods. Data from representative cross-sectional study “European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs” was used, including the data about 7,299 respondents. The instrument of the study was approbated standardised survey questionnaire. Statistical data processing was based on frequency distribution, cross tabulation and Chi-Square (χ2) Test. To assess the associations odds ratio, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and multiple logistic regression was used. Results. Suicidal ideation during lifetime have been noted by 15.7 % of Latvian 14‒17-year-old adolescents – 11.7 % boys and 19.4 % girls, while suicide attempts during their life time have been noted by 8.2 % of aldolescents – 5.9% boys and 10.2% girls. The prevalence of suicidal ideation was higher among adolescents who evaluate their family’s material status as low; among girls also a higher prevalence of suicide attempts was observed among respondents who evaluated material status as low. Factors related to family environment that independently increase the odds for suicidal ideation in both gender groups are suicidal experience in the family, domestic physical violence, rarely/never and sometimes experienced emotional support from parents, but separately for boys - not living with both biological parents. Factors related to family environment that independently increase the odds for suicide attempt in both gender groups are suicidal experience in the family, domestic physical violence, rarely/never experienced emotional support from parents and not living with both biological parents, but separately for boys – sexual harassment in the family and seperatly for girls – sometimes experienced emotional support from parents. Factors related to peer environment that independently increase the odds for suicidal ideation in both gender groups are suicidal experience among peers, always/often and sometimes experienced bullying at school, but separately for girls ‒ rarely/never and sometimes experienced emotional support from peers. Factors related to peer environment that independently increase the odds for suicide attempt in both gender groups are suicidal experience among peers, always/often and sometimes experienced bullying at school, but separately for girls ‒ rarely/never experienced peer emotional support. Individual factors that independently increase the odds for suicidal ideation in both gender groups are high and moderately high level of depressive symptoms, low and moderately low level of self-esteem, lifetime drug use and current smoking, but separately for girls – dissatisfaction and moderate satisfaction with own health and lifetime alcohol intoxication. Individual factors that independently increase the odds for suicide attempt in both gender groups are high and moderately high level of depressive symptoms, low and moderately low level of self-esteem, current smoking and dissatisfaction with own health, but separately for girls – alcohol intoxication in lifetime and separately for boys – lifetime drug use. Conclusions. Significant proportion of Latvian 14‒17-year-old adolescents report lifetime suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, both types of suicidal behavior are more prevalent among girls. Significant association exists between suicidal behavior and factors related to family environment, peer environment and individual factors. It sould be taken into consideration during the development of public mental health policy and in the planning of the suicide prevention interventions in adolescent population.