Risk of suicidal behavior in children and adolescents exposed to maltreatment: the mediating role of borderline personality traits and recent stressful life events

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Issue date
2021-11-14Author
Marques Feixa, Laia
Romero, Soledad
Pilar Santamarina-Pérez
Rapado Castro, Marta
Zorrilla, Iñaki
Martín, María
Anglada, Eulalia
Lobato, María José
Ramírez, Maite
Moreno, Nerea
Mayoral, María
Marín Vila, María
Arias, Bárbara
Fañanás Saura, Lourdes
EPI-Young Stress GROUP
Suggested citation
Marques Feixa, Laia;
Moya Higueras, Jorge;
Romero, Soledad;
Pilar Santamarina-Pérez;
Rapado Castro, Marta;
Zorrilla, Iñaki;
...
EPI-Young Stress GROUP.
(2021)
.
Risk of suicidal behavior in children and adolescents exposed to maltreatment: the mediating role of borderline personality traits and recent stressful life events.
Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2021, vol. 10, núm. 22, 5293.
https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10225293.
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Show full item recordAbstract
Childhood maltreatment (CM) is associated with increased non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidal behavior (SB), independently of demographic and mental health conditions. Self-Trauma Theory and Linehan's Biopsychosocial Model might explain the emergence of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) symptoms as mediators of the association between CM and the risk of SB. However, little is known regarding such relationships when the exposure is recent for young persons. Here, we study 187 youths aged 7-17, with or without mental disorders. We explore CM experiences (considering the severity and frequency of different forms of neglect and abuse), recent stressful life events (SLEs), some BPD traits (emotion dysregulation, intense anger and impulsivity), and the risk of SB (including NSSI, suicide threat, suicide ideation, suicide plan and suicide attempt). We study the direct and mediating relationships between these variables via a structural equation analysis using the statistical software package EQS. Our findings suggest that youths exposed to more severe/frequent CM have more prominent BPD traits, and are more likely to have experienced recent SLEs. In turn, BPD traits increase the risk of SLEs. However, only emotion dysregulation and recent SLEs were found to be correlated with SB. Therefore, targeted interventions on emotion dysregulation are necessary to prevent NSSI or SB in children and adolescents exposed to CM, as is the minimization of further SLEs.