Protective factors of suicidal behaviors in children and adolescents/young adults: A literature review

Suicidal behaviors present a public health challenge in children and adolescents. Although the risk factors have long been well documented, protective factors have only been documented for a few years, and there has not been a literature review concerning the suicidal behaviors of children and adole...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archives de pédiatrie : organe officiel de la Société française de pédiatrie 2023-11, Vol.30 (8), p.607-616
Main Authors: Nielassoff, Emilie, Le Floch, Marine, Avril, Clémence, Gohier, Bénédicte, Duverger, Philippe, Riquin, Elise
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Attempted suicide
Protective factor
Resilience factor
Suicidal behavior
Suicide
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Suicidal behaviors present a public health challenge in children and adolescents. Although the risk factors have long been well documented, protective factors have only been documented for a few years, and there has not been a literature review concerning the suicidal behaviors of children and adolescents since 2006. Relevant articles were collected using the Medline/PubMed, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect databases. Studies meeting the following inclusion criteria were included: age of participants from 6 to 19 years, qualitative and quantitative cohort or case–control studies, multivariate analysis studies, and studies with significant results for at least one protective factor. The methodology used in this review is based on the PRISMA criteria. A total of 26 studies were included in this review, which highlights various individual and environmental protective factors. The results were too heterogeneous to perform a meta-analysis, and therefore the discussion is in the form of a narrative summary. High-quality relationships with family and in the school environment were the most frequently found protective factors. The presence of positive links with peers, with other adults, and with the culture of origin was also noted. On an individual level, self-esteem, emotional intelligence, and particular coping abilities were found to be the most important protective factors. There are numerous important protective factors for suicidal behaviors in children and adolescents and also for adapting care to their needs. A future challenge will be to determine the best protective factors to be consolidated or strengthened using self-assessment tools that are already in use or being developed.
ISSN:0929-693X
1769-664X
DOI:10.1016/j.arcped.2023.07.006