Longitudinal associations between violence and suicidality from adolescence into adulthood

Abstract

The link between violence and suicide is well documented. Previous studies, however, largely rely on cross-sectional designs or only consider violence as an antecedent of suicide. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the longitudinal relationship between violence and suicide from adolescence into young adulthood. Data were derived from Wave II (1995-1996), Wave III (2001-2002), and Wave IV (2007-2008) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 8,966). We tested (2011-2013) a series of path analysis models in Mplus to determine the longitudinal associations between violence and suicidality. Results from the path analyses indicated that violence and suicidality mutually affect each other from adolescence into young adulthood. We found some evidence that the association between suicidality and violence was stronger for males compared to females, particularly in early and young adulthood. The current study confirms previous findings by demonstrating that violence is a risk factor for future suicide. We also extended the previous literature by demonstrating that a history of suicidality is associated with future risk for violence. Our findings highlight the importance of further integrating prevention efforts to reduce violence and suicidality during adolescence and early/young adulthood. © 2013 The American Association of Suicidology.