Adolescents’ Bipolar Experiences and Suicide Risk: Well-being and Mental Health Difficulties as Mediators

Ascensión Fumero, Rosario J. Marrero, Alicia Pérez-Albéniz and Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero
Additional contact information
Ascensión Fumero: Department of Clinical Psychology, Psychobiology and Methodology, University of La Laguna, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
Rosario J. Marrero: Department of Clinical Psychology, Psychobiology and Methodology, University of La Laguna, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
Alicia Pérez-Albéniz: Department of Educational Sciences, University of La Rioja, 26002 Logroño, La Rioja, Spain
Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero: Department of Educational Sciences, University of La Rioja, 26002 Logroño, La Rioja, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: Bipolar disorder is usually accompanied by a high suicide risk. The main aim was to identify the risk and protective factors involved in suicide risk in adolescents with bipolar experiences. Of a total of 1506 adolescents, 467 (31%) were included in the group reporting bipolar experiences or symptoms, 214 males (45.8%) and 253 (54.2%) females. The mean age was 16.22 ( SD = 1.36), with the age range between 14 and 19. Suicide risk, behavioral and emotional difficulties, prosocial capacities, well-being, and bipolar experiences were assessed through self-report. Mediation analyses, taking gender as a moderator and controlling age as a covariate, were applied to estimate suicide risk. The results indicated that the effect of bipolar experiences on suicide risk is mediated by behavioral and emotional difficulties rather than by prosocial behavior and subjective well-being. Specifically, emotional problems, problems with peers, behavior problems, and difficulties associated with hyperactivity were the most important variables. This relationship was not modulated by gender. However, the indirect effects of some mediators varied according to gender. These results support the development of suicide risk prevention strategies focused on reducing emotional difficulties, behavioral problems, and difficulties in relationships with others.

Keywords: adolescents; suicide risk; bipolar disorder; emotional problems; peer problems; well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3024/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3024/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3024-:d:517398

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().