Victimization and suicidality among adolescents in child and youth-serving systems in Spain

Abstract

This study assessed the relationship between poly-victimization and suicidality in 227 adolescents involved in child and youth-serving systems (i.e., child welfare and juvenile justice systems) in Spain. The mean age of participants was 15.24 years (SD = 1.56 (range 12 to 17). The Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (which includes conventional crime, caregiver victimization, victimization by peers and siblings, sexual victimization, witnessing and indirect victimization, and electronic victimization), and two items from the Youth Self-Report were used to assess victimization and suicidality respectively. Lifetime poly-victimization was reported by 61.7% of the overall sample, and suicidality by 39.6%. The logistic regression analysis indicated that the odds of presenting suicidality were twice as high in the poly-victims (OR = 2.13). Sexual victimization was a statistically significant predictor and was associated with the occurrence of suicidality (OR = 2.67). In view of the high prevalence of victimization and its association with suicidality in this sample, we propose that the assessment of victimization should be included in the design of policies for suicide prevention and intervention.