Adverse social relationships in childhood: Are there links with depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and suicidality in adulthood?

Ioannis Angelakis, Patricia Gooding

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    Abstract

    This study aimed to i) explore the association between perceptions of negative social relationships in childhood with significant others, including peers, guardians and teachers, symptoms of depression and OCD, and suicide behaviors, and ii) examine whether depression and OCD severity meditated the association between these perceptions and suicide experiences. In total, 783 individuals from the community were invited to complete self-report measures. There were strong associations between perceptions of adverse social relationships in childhood, severity of depression and OCD, and suicide behaviors. Furthermore, depression and OCD partially mediated the association between perceptions of adverse social relationships, especially with peers, and suicide behaviors. These results provide strong evidence for the importance of developing clinical interventions that directly target negative experiences of social relationships in childhood, and for raising public and scientific awareness that everyday adverse social interactions with significant others can impact negatively on mental health including suicide behaviors.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number00
    Pages (from-to)945-956
    Number of pages12
    JournalChild Psychiatry and Human Development
    Volume52
    Issue number5
    Early online date10 Oct 2020
    DOIs
    Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 10 Oct 2020

    Keywords

    • perceptions of adverse social relationships
    • mental health conditions
    • suicide thoughts and behaviors

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