Trajectory of suicidal ideation in relation to perceived overweight from adolescence to young adulthood in a representative United States sample

Abstract

Purpose: To examine the trajectory of suicidal ideation in relation to perceived overweight from adolescence to young adulthood.

Methods: Four waves (1995-2008) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health that prospectively followed up a nationally representative sample of United States middle and high school students (N = 6,504) were analyzed using hierarchical generalized linear models with a logit link function.

Results: Overall, suicidal ideation tended to decrease with age (logit coefficient [coef.] = -.07, p < .001). Participants who perceived themselves as overweight were more likely to think about committing suicide, especially in females, even after controlling for rigorously measured depressive symptoms (coef. = .14, p < .01). Girls were more likely than boys to have suicidal ideation at age 10 (coef. = -.31, p < .001). However, the association between suicidal ideation and perceived overweight became weaker and the prevalence of suicidal ideation became lower as participants grew older. The downward trend in suicidal ideation was steeper in females than in males (coef. = .03, p < .001), with males actually showing a higher prevalence of suicidal ideation than females around 20-30 years of age. Random effects of age, depression, and perceived overweight were insignificant, which indicated that participants did not vary significantly in terms of effects of these variables on suicidal ideation.

Conclusions: The results of this study underline the need for development of family, school, and community interventions to address body weight perception to reduce suicidal ideation and attempts, especially among female teenagers.

Keywords: Adolescent health; Depression; Longitudinal cohort; Perceived overweight; Suicidal ideation.