The More the Better? Parental Overprotection and Youth Suicide Behavior in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

• In Event: 3581 - Section on Sociology of Children and Youth Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Children, Youth, and Mental Health

Abstract

Quality or degree of parent-child relations has frequently been cited as a critical factor in shielding youth from suicide behavior. In fact, a substantial literature suggests that greater parental supervision and monitoring of children are associated with lower odds of thinking about and planning for inflicting lethal self-harm. Much of the evidence, however, comes from single case studies in the context of developed, i.e., western, countries. The thrust of the argument also assumes a linear (monotonic) relationship between parental protection and children’s mental wellbeing. This study contributes to the extant scholarship by investigating whether “too much” regulation of children may actually increase their likelihoods of suicide intent and plan. By analyzing a large cross-national dataset consisting of over 140,000 school-based children in 48 low- and middle-income countries, the current research sheds new light on this important, yet underexplored, topic. Two-level hierarchical linear models are estimated to examine the potential curvilinear association between parental regulation and adolescent suicide behavior. While adjusting for a host of (individual- and country-level) background variables, statistical results provide significant support for non-monotonicity: greater parental involvement in children’s lives lowers both suicide thought and plan to some extent but, after some threshold, increases the odds of both outcomes. Implications of these findings have general implications throughout less developed societies, marked by some of the highest teenage suicide rates in the world.

Author

• Harris Hyun-soo Kim, Ewha Womans University