scholarly journals Effect of Subjective Economic Status During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Depressive Symptoms and Suicidal Ideation Among South Korean Adolescents

2021 ◽  
Vol Volume 14 ◽  
pp. 2035-2043
Author(s):  
Jong Min Han ◽  
Hyunjong Song
PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0250794
Author(s):  
Tay Jeong

It is widely held in socio-behavioral studies of suicide that higher levels of stress and lower levels of economic status amplify suicidal vulnerability when confronted with a proximal stressor, reflecting the traditionally prevalent understanding in health psychology and sociology that associates adverse life circumstances with undesirable mental health outcomes. However, upon reflection, there are strong theoretical reasons to doubt that having more stress or being in a more stressful environment always increases suicidal vulnerability given the occurrence of a crisis. Using large nationally representative public survey data on South Korean adolescents, I show that the association between recent psychosocial crisis and suicidal ideation often gets stronger with more favorable levels of perceived stress and improving levels of family economic status. Overall, the increase in the probability of suicidal ideation from recent exposure to a psychosocial crisis is consistently the smallest around medium levels of stress or family economic status and larger at low or high levels. A supplementary exercise suggests that the identified moderation effects operate mainly in virtue of individual-level stress or family economic status in the relative absence of contextual influences at the school level. The findings present preliminary evidence of the stress inoculation hypothesis with regard to suicidal ideation. Research on suicidal vulnerability could benefit from increased attentiveness to the mechanisms through which being in an adverse or unfavorable life situation could protect against the suicide-inducing effects of proximal stressors.


Author(s):  
Wonjeong Jeong ◽  
Yun Kyung Kim ◽  
Hyeon Ji Lee ◽  
Jieun Jang ◽  
Selin Kim ◽  
...  

Study Objectives: In comparison to other countries, the South Korean population has a short average sleep duration, and studies have suggested that insufficient sleep is a risk factor for suicidal behavior. This study aimed to examine the association of bedtime with suicidal ideation and with suicide planning, respectively, among Korean adolescents. Methods: This study included 48,218 participants from the 2017 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey. Participants were divided into three categories: pre-23:00 bedtime, 23:00–01:30 bedtime, and post-01:30 bedtime. Suicidal ideation and suicide planning were the main dependent variables, and multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the target association. Results: For both male and female respondents, compared to those who had a pre-23:00 bedtime, those whose bedtime was after 01:30 were more likely to have suicidal ideation (post-01:30 bedtime for men: OR = 1.29, 95% CI = 1.16–1.45; for women: OR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.20–1.44). For suicide planning, the results were also significant for both genders (post-01:30 bedtime for men: OR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.16–1.70; for women: OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.03–1.43). Odds of suicidal ideation were higher for those who had a post-01:30 bedtime on weekdays but not weekends. Conclusions: We found that, among adolescents, going to bed after 01:30 is significantly associated with suicidal ideation and suicide planning, after adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, and health-related characteristics. Therefore, late bedtime should be the timepoint of a suicide intervention for adolescents, in order to prevent developing suicidal ideations and suicide planning.


Author(s):  
Mi Ah Han

This study assessed alcohol-induced harm to those not drinking and investigated its association with mental health in Korean adolescents. The 14th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey (2018) was used and 60,040 adolescents were analyzed. Harm from others’ alcohol consumption was assessed by four criteria: teasing in public places, being scared in public places, sleep problems, and unsafety of public places due to people drinking alcohol. Mental health included stress, depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and attempted suicide. Harm reported due to the alcohol use of others was 5.8% for teasing in public places, 33.6% for being scared in public places, 5.6% for sleep problems, and 40.2% for unsafety of public places among total study participants. Experiences of teasing in public places due to people who drank alcohol were associated with an increased risk of stress, depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts. Similarly, experiences of being scared in public places, sleep problems, and unsafety of public places due to people who drank alcohol were associated with poor mental health. In the stratified analysis, alcohol-induced harm was associated with poor mental health in both non-drinkers and drinkers. Harmful experiences from others’ alcohol consumption were associated with poor mental health among Korean adolescents.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shimin ZHU ◽  
Wong Wai Ching

AbstractBackground: Fixed mindsets, or beliefs about the non-malleability of self-attributes have been linked to a wide range of clinical psychological outcomes. Yet, their impact on suicidality has not been examined. Objectives: To examine the association of fixed mindset of depression, anxiety and stress and suicidal ideation (SI) and its mediating role underlying the association between depression and SI.Methods: A sample of 1393 adolescents (Mage = 13.04, SD = 0.85, 640 boys) from eleven middle schools voluntarily participated in a two-wave longitudinal study with 9-month interval. Results: Both depression and fixed mindset positively and significantly associated with concurrent and future suicidality, after controlling demographic and socio-economic status and previous SI. Participants with stronger fixed mindset presented stronger association with suicidality than those with only depressive symptoms. Also, fixed mindset of depression, anxiety and stress mediated the association between depression and suicidality in both cross-sectional and longitudinal models. Conclusion: Findings of the current study not only shed light on the role of fixed mindset on suicidality and the mechanisms linking depression and suicidality among adolescents, but also provide an empirical basis for formulating prevention and/or intervention programs aimed at reducing the development of suicidality and minimizing the negative psychological reactions to challenges during human development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianya Hou ◽  
Xiaofei Mao ◽  
Xiaoqin Shao ◽  
Fen Liu ◽  
Wei Dong ◽  
...  

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly spread worldwide. The harmful impact of COVID-19 is beyond just physical health concern. The unprecedented public health crisis has also taken its toll on the mental health of adolescents. The present study aims to estimate the prevalence of suicidal ideation and attempts and investigate the similarities and differences in the influential factors for suicidal ideation and attempts among left-behind children (LBC) and non-left-behind children (NLBC) in rural China during the COVID-19 pandemic.Method: A total of 761 rural Chinese students, of whom 468 were left behind, completed the cross-sectional questionnaires including demographic data, Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire, seven-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, suicidal ideation, and suicidal attempts. Chi-square test, independent-sample t-test, and logistic regression were performed in the statistical analysis.Results: Overall, 36.4 and 10.4% of rural Chinese students reported suicidal ideation (37.8% for LBC vs. 34.1% for NLBC) and attempts (11.3% for LBC vs. 8.9% for NLBC) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among LBC, parental educational level (adjusted odds ratio, Adj. OR = 1.60), maladaptive strategies (Adj. OR = 1.04), anxious symptoms (Adj. OR = 2.61), and depressive symptoms (Adj. OR = 3.85) were significantly associated with suicidal ideation, while age (Adj. OR = 0.56), maladaptive strategies (Adj. OR = 1.08), symptoms of anxiety (Adj. OR = 3.85), and symptoms of depression (Adj. OR = 2.68) were significantly related to suicidal attempts during the COVID-19 outbreak. Among NLBC, gender (Adj. OR = 2.20), parental educational level (Adj. OR = 1.77), perceived family economic status (Adj. OR = 0.39), anxious symptoms (Adj. OR = 2.38), and depressive symptoms (Adj. OR = 2.77) were significantly associated with suicidal ideation, whereas only anxious symptom (Adj. OR = 5.85) was significantly related to suicidal attempts.Conclusion: Suicidal ideation and attempts are prevalent among students in rural China during the COVID-19 outbreak. Our findings also revealed the shared and unique factors for suicidal ideation and attempts among LBC and NLBC during the COVID-19 epidemic. With regard to the differences between LBC and NLBC, the use of maladaptive strategies and age might be vital factors for suicide prevention measures directed specifically toward LBC, whereas interventions sensitive to gender and perceived social economic status should be specifically designed for NLBC amid the COVID-19 pandemic.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document