Social stress, problem-solving deficits contribute to suicide risk for teen girls
Adolescents who have trouble solving interpersonal problems and experience greater interpersonal stress may be at elevated risk for suicidal behavior, study suggests
Peer-Reviewed PublicationTeen girls who have greater difficulty effectively solving interpersonal problems when they experience social stress, and who experience more interpersonal stress in their lives, are at greater risk of suicidal behavior, suggests research published by the American Psychological Association.
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among teens, and rates of suicidal behavior are particularly high among girls. Previous research has found that interpersonal stressors – such as conflict with peers, friends and family – are related to suicidal behavior. Some theories of suicidal behavior suggest that poor social problem-solving skills may contribute to the link, possibly because teens with poorer social problem-solving skills are more likely to see suicide as a viable solution to their distress when they feel they’ve exhausted other options.
The current study aimed to test these associations by considering both experimentally simulated and real-world measures of social stress. The research was published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science.
“The findings provide empirical support for cognitive and behavioral theories of suicide that suggest that deficits in abilities to effectively manage and solve interpersonal problems may be related to suicidal behavior,” said study lead author Olivia Pollak, MA, of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Clinically, this is notable, as problem-solving features prominently in several treatments for suicidal or self-harming behaviors.”
Participants were 185 girls ages 12 to 17 who had experienced some mental health concerns in the past two years. At the beginning of the study, participants completed surveys or interviews about their mental health symptoms and suicidal behaviors. Participants also completed a task assessing their social problem-solving skills, which involved responding to scenarios involving interpersonal conflicts or challenges with other people, such as peers, friends, family members and romantic partners. The teens were then asked to perform a task that has been shown in previous studies to induce social stress – they had to prepare and deliver a three-minute speech before what they thought was an audience of peers watching via video link. Immediately after the stressful task, they again completed the social problem-solving task to see whether experiencing social stress led to declines in their problem-solving ability.
The researchers also followed the girls for nine months, checking in every three months, to ask them about the stressors they were experiencing in interpersonal domains, such as with peers, friends and family members, as well as about suicidal behaviors.
Overall, the researchers found that girls who showed greater declines in problem-solving effectiveness in the lab, and who also experienced higher levels of interpersonal stress over the nine-month follow-up period, were more likely to exhibit suicidal behavior over the nine-month follow-up period.
“Importantly, problem-solving deficits under distress may increase risk for future suicidal
behavior only in combination with greater cumulative interpersonal stress in real life,” Pollak said. “Risk for suicidal behavior was higher among adolescents who showed greater declines in
effectiveness and who experienced high levels of interpersonal stress over nine-month follow-up, consistent with robust evidence for links between interpersonal life stress and suicidal behavior.”
ARTICLE: “Social Problem-Solving and Suicidal Behavior in Adolescent Girls: A Prospective Examination of Proximal and Distal Social Stress-Related Risk Factors,” by Olivia Pollak, MA, and Mitchell J. Prinstein, PhD, The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; Shayna M. Cheek, PhD, Duke University; Karen D. Rudolph, PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Paul D. Hastings, PhD, University of California Davis; and Matthew K. Nock, PhD, Harvard University. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, published online May 25, 2023.
CONTACT: Olivia Pollak can be reached at ohpollak@email.unc.edu.
JOURNAL
Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
Social Problem-Solving and Suicidal Behavior in Adolescent Girls: A Prospective Examination of Proximal and Distal Social Stress-Related Risk Factors
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
25-May-2023
Fewer suicides among boys in regions with more bipolar diagnoses
Bipolar disorder underlies roughly five percent of all suicides among young people. Previous studies also show that there is often a long delay between the onset of bipolarism and its correct diagnosis and treatment. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet now show that fewer boys commit suicide in Swedish regions where bipolar diagnoses are more common. The study, which is published in JAMA Psychiatry, could contribute to more proactive care for reducing the number of suicides.
“Bipolar disorder is often more distressing for people who develop it early in life and is one of the psychiatric disorders most associated with suicide risk,” says the study’s first author Peter Andersson, doctoral student at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet.
The disease usually manifests between the ages of 12 and 25 and is characterised by recurring episodes of mania and depression. Previous studies have shown that it can take up to six years for bipolar disorder to be diagnosed and treated, and comparisons with data from previous large-scale prevalence studies, indicate that under-diagnosis in Sweden is high among individuals aged 15-19.
Large regional differences
Using registry data from all of Sweden's 21 regions between 2008 and 2021, researchers from Karolinska Institutet examined regional differences in the number of people aged 15 to 19 diagnosed with bipolar disorder and the correlation between population size-adjusted diagnoses and confirmed suicides for males and females.
The results, which included 585 confirmed suicides in this age group, showed large regional differences in the percentage of young people diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
The study also found an association between a higher number of population-adjusted bipolar diagnoses and lower suicide rates among boys.
“Our results show that the suicide rate among boys is almost five per cent lower in the regions that make most bipolar diagnoses than in those that make the fewest,” says corresponding author Adrian E. Desai Boström, resident in child and adolescent psychiatry in Stockholm and postdoc researcher at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet. “This suggests that suicide among teenage boys in Sweden could be reduced with improvements to the diagnosis of bipolarism and its treatment.”
Sometimes wrongly diagnosed
The study's complementary analyses showed that the relationship between the number of bipolar diagnoses and lower suicide rates among boys was independent of the number of care episodes and diagnoses of depression or schizophrenia.
Although the number of prescriptions for the mood stabilizer lithium paradoxically decreased when more bipolar diagnoses were established, increases were observed in the number of boys who received lithium at least once. The researchers hypothesised that this could be interpreted as indicating that boys with bipolar disorder often begin lithium therapy but then switch to other mood-stabilising drugs for various reasons.
The researchers also see a possible risk that misguided treatment could lead to a higher suicide rate rather than no treatment at all.
"For example, some young people might be passed on by the psychiatric services to the social services under the provisions of laws relating to the care of the young and people with functional impairments," says Andersson. "We also know that bipolar patients are sometimes wrongly diagnosed with 'normal' depression."
In a recently published study in Nature Communications the researchers found large regional differences in the use of advanced psychiatric treatments in child and adolescent psychiatry in Sweden. They now plan to further investigate the effects of advanced psychiatric treatments on young people with bipolar disorder and other serious psychiatric conditions.
The study was a collaboration among researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Uppsala University, Umeå University, Lund University, Region Halland, and Region Stockholm in Sweden and was financed by the Swedish Research Council. Co-author Jussi Jokinen has been part of an advisory committee for the pharmaceutical company Janssen on the use of esketamine in the treatment of depression. No other conflicts of interest have been reported.
Publication: ”Association of Bipolar Disorder Diagnosis With Suicide Mortality Rates in Adolescents in Sweden”. Peter Andersson, Jussi Jokinen, Håkan Jarbin, Johan Lundberg, Adrian E. Desai Boström. JAMA Psychiatry, online 24 May 2023, doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.1390.
JOURNAL
JAMA Psychiatry
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Observational study
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
Association of Bipolar Disorder Diagnosis With Suicide Mortality Rates in Adolescents in Sweden
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
24-May-2023
Young people engaging in anti-social behavior online seek social approval, study finds
Researchers looked at data on more than 350 university students in Canada who completed an online survey about online anti-social behavior
Peer-Reviewed PublicationIMAGE: THE AUTHORS SUGGEST THAT EMPATHY-BUILDING STRATEGIES AND INTERVENTIONS THAT AIM TO MAKE PEOPLE THINK ABOUT THEIR ACTIONS BEFORE POSTING ONLINE COULD HELP MITIGATE CYBER-AGGRESSION. view more
CREDIT: UN-PERFEKT, PIXABAY, CC0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/PUBLICDOMAIN/ZERO/1.0/)
Young adults engage in online anti-social behavior for fun and social approval, and those who perpetrate this behavior tend to have lower cognitive empathy scores than average, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Felipe Bonow Soares of University of the Arts London, UK, and colleagues.
Anti-social behavior on social media, such as harassment and bullying, is on the rise. For victims of cyber-aggression, the behavior can lead to several negative outcomes including mental and emotional stress and reduced online participation that leads to further isolation.
In the new work, the researchers surveyed undergraduate students at Toronto Metropolitan University who signed up for a Student Research Participation Pool. 557 students participated in the survey between March 9 and April 18, 2022, providing information about their involvement in cyber-aggression or cyber-victimization as well as personality traits including their disinhibition, self-esteem, empathy, and possible motivations for cyber-aggression. 359 students were included in the final analysis.
Overall, three factors were associated with the perpetration of online anti-social behavior: recreation, reward and cognitive empathy. Reward and recreation were found to be motives for the behavior, suggesting that young people engage in online anti-social behavior for fun, excitement and social approval. Cognitive empathy was negatively associated with the perpetration of such behavior, suggesting that perpetrators have lower capacity to comprehend the emotions of others, and a lower understanding of how their targets might feel.
The authors conclude that empathy-building strategies and interventions that aim to make people think about their actions before posting online could help mitigate cyber-aggression.
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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0284374
Citation: Soares FB, Gruzd A, Jacobson J, Hodson J (2023) To troll or not to troll: Young adults’ anti-social behaviour on social media. PLoS ONE 18(5): e0284374. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284374
Author Countries: UK, Canada
Funding: This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) <https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/home-accueil-eng.aspx> – Insight grant (PIs: A.G., J.J., J.H.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
JOURNAL
PLoS ONE
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Survey
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
Not applicable
ARTICLE TITLE
To troll or not to troll: Young adults’ anti-social behaviour on social media
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
24-May-2023
U.S. teens who are food insecure are more likely to engage in emotional eating and consume sugar-sweetened beverages and junk foods
IMAGE: FOUR TEENS STANDING TOGETHER DURING SUNSET. view more
CREDIT: ERNEST BRILLO, UNSPLASH, CC0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/PUBLICDOMAIN/ZERO/1.0/)
Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0285446
Article Title: Psychosocial correlates in patterns of adolescent emotional eating and dietary consumption
Author Countries: USA
Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.
JOURNAL
PLoS ONE
ARTICLE TITLE
Psychosocial correlates in patterns of adolescent emotional eating and dietary consumption
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
24-May-2023
COI STATEMENT
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
How can universities better understand students’ experiences of violence and victimisation?
Pilot study led by City, University of London develops a survey that can be used to understand students’ experiences of violence while studying at university.
Reports and ProceedingsResearchers from City, University of London, in collaboration with the University of Surrey, De Montfort University, Universities UK (UUK) and the National Centre (NatCen) for Social Research have conducted the first pilot study into students’ experiences of all forms of violence and victimisation at UK universities.
The Violence at University project, led by Dr Carrie-Anne Myers, Reader in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at City, aimed to investigate whether an effective tool could be developed for tracking when, where and how incidents take place.
Tackling violence and harassment has been high on universities’ agenda for several years. Hate crime has a considerable impact on young people in particular, with potential long-lasting damage to self-esteem and emotional health as well as a fall in student attainment. In 2016, UUK launched a strategic framework titled ‘Changing the Culture’ to support universities in responding to and preventing violence and crime affecting university students.
The pilot project worked with university students to create a questionnaire that could measure the incidence of violence in all forms on university campuses and beyond. A resulting survey explored demographics of respondents, as well as their experiences of sexual, identity-based, and broader forms of violence, and both the reporting and barriers to reporting it.
Key findings from the initial survey included:
- The survey attracted 263 responses which detailed encounters of sexual, identity-based and broader incidents of violence that had either happened, were happening or repeatedly took place, either on campus or elsewhere.
- The survey uncovered a mix of responses to whether or not these incidents had been reported, with 47 per cent saying they had and 46 per cent saying they had not.
- Respondents named a range of support mechanisms they had sought, including friends and fellow students, student representatives, professional and/or teaching staff and tutors.
- When asked about barriers to reporting violence, students cited emotional factors (feeling embarrassed or ashamed, or traumatised), practical reasons (not knowing who to talk to, not wanting the hassle), social reasons (fear of being treated differently by peers), trust, and fear of perpetrators finding out.
The project ran from November 2020 to December 2021, with the survey live for students from across the research universities and beyond between February and September 2021. The survey contained 35 questions that allowed respondents to answer anonymously with a combination of quantitative and qualitative responses.
Dr Myers said the results of the pilot questionnaire show the usefulness of using survey data to tackle violence at university and make students aware of the support available to them.
“A key gap in our understanding of violence in universities relates to the collection of data,” she said.
“Most data collected on crime only incorporates household responses which generally excludes the student population that might live in halls of residence. There is not a lot of information about how students are affected by violence.
“By working alongside students to produce a pilot survey, we show that violence is measurable within a university context.”
Although demonstrating clear feasibility, the Violence at University project report makes the following recommendations to improve future iterations of the survey:
- Using a more targeted sample rather than a self-selected one to include voices that were absent from the pilot approach – including males – to remove selection bias.
- A need to focus on wellbeing to trigger discussions on the experience of violence, with a reordering of questions to ease participants into these discussions rather than potentially off-putting phrases early on.
- Closer investigation of online vs offline incidents.
- Experiences of violence and wellbeing needs of students prior to attending university.
- Greater consideration of classism and the feeling of discrimination from students based on their backgrounds, especially in light of many universities’ widening participation agendas.
Dr Myers added that with small changes to the initial survey design, universities could use it as a practical tool to prevent incidents and protect students.
“Our initial results show that many are reluctant to report violence and harassment, whether through fear of doing so or not being aware of appropriate channels.
“However, this was only intended as a feasibility study. A larger-scale prevalence survey could benchmark and monitor ongoing experiences of violence and the consequences it has on wellbeing and attainment.
“It would also help their institutions identify issues, target deterrents and provide relevant and adequate support streams.”
‘Violence at University Pilot Project: Student experiences of violence, harassment and discrimination’ by Dr Carrie-Anne Myers; Dr Holly Powell Jones, City, University of London; Professor Helen Cowie, University of Surrey; Dr Emma Short, De Montfort University; Fiona Waye, UUK; and Nathan Hudson, NatCen is available to download.
Download the Violence at University pilot survey from the UUK website.
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