Parental monitoring and adolescent suicidality: Exploring differences by sex in the 2021 national survey on drug use and health

Abstract

Background

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents in the U.S. Existing research demonstrates an inverse relationship between perceived parental monitoring and suicidal ideation among youth. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between parental monitoring and suicidality by sex among adolescents with the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).

Methods

Participants were n = 10,055 youth (12–17 years old; 48.18 % female). We examined the relationship between parental monitoring and two measures of suicidality (ideation; planned attempts). Models controlled for sex, age, race/ethnicity, past 30-day alcohol use, household income, and past 12-month major depressive episode. We tested for sex differences in this association via interaction models (sex ∗ perceived parental monitoring) and conducted sex-stratified models.

Results

Approximately 13.1 % of participants reported suicidal ideations and 6.0 % reported planning a suicide attempt. Every unit increase in perceived parental monitoring was associated with significantly lower odds of reporting suicidal ideations (aRRR: 0.89; 95 % CI: 0.87–0.91) and planned attempts (aRRR: 0.87; 95 % CI: 0.84–0.91). In sex-stratified models, the association between perceived parental monitoring and suicidal ideations was significantly (p = .012) stronger among females (aRRR: 0.86; 95 % CI: 0.84–0.89) relative to males (aRRR: 0.92; 95 % CI: 0.88–0.97); the same was observed for planned attempts among females (aRRR: 0.84; 95 % CI: 0.80–0.88) relative to males (aRRR: 0.92; 95 % CI: 0.85–0.99).

Discussion

Future research should examine dyadic assessments of both adolescent and parental appraisals of parental monitoring, and adolescent suicide prevention interventions should integrate mechanisms involving perceived parental monitoring.