@article{ref1,
title="Prospective relations between life stress, emotional clarity, and suicidal ideation in an adolescent clinical sample",
journal="Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology",
year="2024",
author="López, Roberto Jr and Turnamian, Margarid R. and Liu, Richard T.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: Although life stress has been linked to adolescent suicidal ideation, most past research has been cross-sectional, and potential processes characterizing this relation remain unclear. One possibility may be a lack of emotional clarity. Informed by stress generation, the current study examined prospective relations between episodic life stress, lack of emotional clarity, and suicidal ideation in an adolescent clinical sample. <br><br>METHODS: The sample consisted of 180 youths (M(age) = 14.89; SD = 1.35; 71.7% female; 78.9% White; 43.0% sexual minority) recruited from a psychiatric inpatient facility. Suicidal ideation severity was assessed at baseline and 18-month follow-up. Lack of emotional clarity and life stress were assessed at baseline, as well as 6-, and 12-month follow-ups. Two random-intercepts cross-lagged panel models were created to estimate within-person relations for variables of interest. <br><br>RESULTS: At the within-person level, lack of emotional clarity at baseline predicted greater 6-month impact of interpersonal dependent stressors (b = 0.29, p = .012, 95% CI [0.07, 0.52]), which subsequently predicted a greater 12-month lack of emotional clarity (b = 0.41, p = .005, 95% CI [0.12, 0.70]). Next, a 12-month lack of emotional clarity but not interpersonal dependent stress, predicted greater 18-month suicidal ideation (b = 0.81, p = .006, 95% CI [0.23, 1.30]; R(2) = .24, p < .001). No significant relations were found for the lack of emotional clarity and independent stress. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Results support the stress generation hypothesis and suggest that future research should be conducted evaluating whether bolstering youth's understanding of their emotional experiences may reduce subsequent suicidal ideation.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1537-4416",
doi="10.1080/15374416.2024.2344735",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2024.2344735"
}