Examining Discrepant Reports of Adolescents' Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors: A Focus on Racial and Ethnic Minority Families

Expenditure patterns among low-income families in China: Contributing factors to child development and risks of suicidal ideation

Low-income families in urbsan China have been benefited from the Minimum Living Standard Guarantee Assistance (dibao) policy since 1999. However, little is known about how child-specific family expenditure patterns impact child outcomes. Based on 2531 children aged 8-16 years from the National Survey of Social Policy Support System for Low-Income Families in Urban and Rural China, this is the first study of its kind to (1) identify family expenditure patterns (food, apparel, housing, transportation, pocket money, after-school education, and other educational resources) among low-income families and (2) examine their relationship with child suicide risks and developmental outcomes (academic performance, mental health, and physical health) by sex and across the dibao and marginalized families (i.e., without dibao). Latent profile analysis identified two patterns. Profile 1 (97.59%) showed low expenditure on children. Profile 2 (2.41%) prioritized expenditure in after-school programs. Mixed-effects logistic regression showed male children from marginalized families in Profile 1 are 11 times (95% confidence interval 1.10-109.52) more likely to think about suicide than female children from dibao families in Profile 2. Social policies and interventions promoting educational expenditure support and addressing the social determinants of health have the potential to reduce child suicide and improve child developmental outcomes among the urban poor.

Future Directions in Suicide and Self-Injury Revisited: Integrating a Developmental Psychopathology Perspective

The recent rise in suicide rates among children and adolescents has made suicide prevention in youth a major focus of government agencies and mental health organizations. In 2012, Nock presented future directions in the study of self-injurious thoughts and behavior (SITBs), highlighting the need to better examine which risk factors are associated with "each part of the pathway" to suicidal and non-suicidal self-injury in order to inform prevention and intervention efforts. Over the past decade, we have made important advances in understanding the development of SITBs and effective interventions. However, there are still major gaps of knowledge in our understanding of how to prevent suicide. Researchers have recently called for more studies focusing particularly on the pathway from suicidal ideation to suicidal behavior. However, we caution against prioritizing only a part of the suicide risk continuum (e.g., the transition from suicidal ideation to suicidal behavior) while minimizing research focusing on earlier developmental points of the pathway to suicide (e.g., the first development of suicidal ideation). We emphasize that childhood and adolescence represent a critical opportunity to intervene and prevent SITBs by altering developmental trajectories toward persistent and escalating SITBs over time. We advocate for integrating a developmental psychopathology perspective into future youth suicide research that focuses on how and when risk for SITBs first emerges and develops across childhood into emerging adulthood. This research is critical for informing interventions aimed at bending developmental pathways away from all SITBs. Here, we describe the need for future research that integrates key developmental psychopathology principles on 1) the identification of the continuum from developmentally typical to atypical as SITBs first emerge and develop, particularly among young children in early to middle childhood, 2) the way in which expressions of and risk for SITBs change across development, 3) how SITBs dynamically move along a continuum from typical to atypical over time, and 4) suicide prevention efforts. We also offer recommendations for future directions that focus on identifying disparities in SITBs occurring among minoritized youth within a developmental psychopathology perspective.

The impact of COVID-19 on U.S. adolescents: loss of basic needs and engagement in health risk behaviors

Across the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic created myriad challenges for youth and families, including losses of basic needs which may be associated with increased use of maladaptive coping behaviors. In a sample of 2491 U.S. youth (ages 13-16), demographic differences in loss of basic needs and maladaptive coping were assessed using regression models. More than 21% of adolescents endorsed losing one or more basic needs (e.g., loss of access to food or shelter) and 83% endorsed use of maladaptive coping strategies (e.g., using drugs or alcohol; self-harming behaviors) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although adolescents with both majority and minority identities reported losing basic needs and engaging in maladaptive coping behaviors, minoritized youth reported more basic needs losses (ps < 0.05) and greater reliance on maladaptive coping strategies (ps < .05) than their non-minoritized peers. Furthermore, adolescents who endorsed losing basic needs were more likely to also endorse engaging in maladaptive coping behaviors (p < .05). Healthcare providers and teachers must consider basic need losses while structuring emotional and behavioral supports for youth during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.