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. 2024 Nov;65(11):1453-1465.
doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13999. Epub 2024 Apr 24.

Longitudinal trajectories of suicidal ideation among child welfare-involved 7- to 12-year-old children

Lynsay Ayer  1 , Gabriel Hassler  2 , Elie Ohana  1 , Arielle H Sheftall  3 , Nathaniel W Anderson  4 , Beth Ann Griffin  1
Affiliations

Longitudinal trajectories of suicidal ideation among child welfare-involved 7- to 12-year-old children

Lynsay Ayer et al. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2024 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Young children involved in the child welfare system (CWS) are at high risk for suicidal ideation (SI) at a time when overall rates of suicide death in this age group are rising. Yet risk factors for and changes in SI over time are poorly understood in this population.

Method: We combined data from two large representative longitudinal studies of children involved in the United States CWS. We examined patterns of SI among children who were between ages 7 and 12 years at the initial survey wave (N = 2,186), assessed at three waves using a measure of SI in the past 2 weeks. We conducted a multinomial regression to understand the baseline demographic, child maltreatment, and mental health characteristics that distinguish the trajectories.

Results: There were eight different subgroups (Non-Ideators, Late Ideators, Boomerang Ideators, Delayed Ideators, Desisters, Boomerang Non-Ideators, Late Desisters, and Persisters). Differences in race, type of maltreatment, sex, and mental health symptoms were identified when comparing Persisters (SI at all three waves) to other groups.

Conclusions: These findings can help researchers and practitioners to develop strategies for better identifying CWS-involved children who are in greatest need of suicide risk monitoring and intervention.

Keywords: Suicidal ideation; child welfare; maltreatment; preteens.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement: No conflicts declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Eight trajectories of child self-reported suicidal ideation. Counts are presented as N = mean (minimum, maximum) over 100 imputations
Figure 2
Figure 2
Wave 1 predictors of suicidal ideation trajectories with 95% confidence intervals
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparison of interactions between CBCL internalizing and externalizing raw scores between Persisters and all other trajectories. Quantiles account for survey weights
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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