Social Communication, Connectedness, and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in Adolescent Girls

Related Work

James, K., Kaurin, A., Lint, A., Wert, S., McKone, K. M., Hutchinson, E. A., … Silk, J. S. (accepted). Girls with Suicidal Ideation Experienced Less Parental Reciprocity of Eye-Contact and Positive Facial Affect during Conflictual Interactions: A Pilot Study. Development and Psychppathology. osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/9w3kd

Kaurin, A., S. L. Sequeira, S., Ladouceur, C.D., McKone, K.M.P., Rosen, D., Jones, N., Wright, A.G.C., & Jennifer S. Silk. (in press). Modeling Sensitivity to Social Threat in Adolescent Girls: A Psychoneurometric Approach. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, 131(6), 641–652. Preprint: https://psyarxiv.com/489k3/

Krakau, L., Silk, J. S., Do, Q., James, K., Wright, A. G., Ladouceur, C. D., & Kaurin, A. (accepted). Prospective Effects of Caregiver-Child Interaction on Changes in Developmental Personality Pathology During Adolescence. Development & Psychopathology.
Preprint: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/cbvwp

 

In the United States, alarming increases in rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) over the last two decades, particularly among adolescent girls, highlight the vital need to identify early factors that amplify or quell risk (CDC, 2024). In 2023, 27% of high school aged girls in the United States seriously considered suicide and 13% attempted suicide (compared to 14% and 6% of boys, respectively; CDC, 2024). Yet, despite extensive effort within the field, accurate prediction (Franklin et al., 2017) and effective prevention (Zalsman et al., 2016) of suicidal behaviors remain a challenge.

Both theory and empirical research suggest that social factors and processes play a putative role in risk for suicide among youth (Campos et al., 2013; Giletta et al., 2015; Liu & Miller, 2014; Mitchell et al., 2018; Oppenheimer et al., 2018; Van Orden et al., 2010). Moreover, prior research implicates social communication – facial and non-facial cues exchanged during social interaction – in these social factors related to STB (e.g., connectedness). Yet, research examining fine-grained neurobehavioral processes involved in social communication during social interaction is extremely limited. This line of inquiry may be particularly important during the transition from childhood to adolescence as peer relationships take on more central roles (Steinberg & Morris, 2001), and incidence of, and reactivity to, interpersonal stress increases, especially among girls (Ge et al., 1994; Rose & Rudolph, 2006; Rudolph, 2014; Rudolph & Hammen, 1999).

The goal of this project is to take a multiple-units-of-analysis approach to examine patterns of social communication (i.e., eye-gaze and facial affect) during parent-adolescent interactions, and determine the extent to which alterations in these neurobehavioral processes contribute to girls’ subsequent (i) day-to-day social connectedness and (ii) STBs. Participants are youth assigned female at birth (aged 12-17) and their parents drawn from a longitudinal R01 grant, involving a baseline diagnostic interview, ecological momentary assessment of day-to-day social connectedness, and longitudinal STB assessments. Participants also complete a laboratory-based parent-adolescent interaction task at baseline involving multimodal assessment (i.e., eye-gaze and facial affect). The final sample size will comprise 177 dyads and 75% of the sample will be at high-risk for suicide based past-year self-injurious thoughts and behaviors. This type of nuanced, integrative research is essential to the identification of mechanisms of risk (e.g., barriers to social connectedness) that can be therapeutically targeted in prevention and intervention efforts to reduce STBs during key windows of risk. This research is also crucial to determine how to improve and sustain beneficial social connection processes to reduce STBs during adolescence and into adulthood.