Relationship between suicide behaviors and internalizing symptoms in children and adolescents

Suicide in children and adolescents is a serious health problem. The presence of internalizing symptomatology is associated with suicidal ideation and behavior. Our aim was to investigate this association. A total of 1499 participants completed an online questionnaire. Regression analysis was used to investigate the association between internalizing symptomatology and suicidal behavior and conditional process analysis (model 4). The prevalence of suicidal behavior in Spanish children and adolescents was 11.9% and 21.3%, respectively. In multivariate analysis, the highest odd ratio values were found for major depression (MD) (OR= 3.56, 95% CI= 2.53-4.10) and panic disorder/Agoraphobia (PDA) (OR= 3.09, 95% CI= 2.05-4.66). The regression model with DM showed that PDA symptoms had a significant indirect effect, through depression symptoms, on suicide behaviors, accounting for 17% of the total variance explained in adolescents. Therefore, it is necessary to implement early identification and intervention programs to address anxious and depressive symptomatology and prevent suicide in adolescents.