Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among Chinese Adolescents in Relation to Negative Life Events, Internet Addiction, and Sexual Abuse: Cross-Sectional Study - PubMed
3 hours ago
- #sexual-abuse
- #adolescent-suicide
- #internet-addiction
- This cross-sectional study of 10,664 Chinese adolescents (aged 16-17.9, 54.63% female) explores the link between sexual abuse (SA) and suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB), examining negative life events (NLE) and internet addiction (IA) as chain mediators.
- Statistical analysis reveals SA is significantly associated with higher levels of NLE, IA, and STB, with a direct effect of SA on STB accounting for 74.81% of the total association.
- Indirect effects through NLE and IA explain 25.19% of the association: 11.85% via NLE alone, 10.37% via IA alone, and 2.96% via the sequential pathway from SA to NLE to IA to STB.
- The findings highlight a chain mediation mechanism, suggesting that SA can lead to STB both directly and through increased NLE and IA, offering a new perspective on how early adversity evolves into extreme outcomes.
- Implications for suicide prevention include focusing on SA prevention, trauma intervention, enhancing adolescents' cognitive reappraisal of negative events, and guiding healthy online behavior.