Personal and family correlates of suicidal ideation in Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong /cLai, Yuk Ching. ; CUHK electronic theses & dissertations collection

Analyses showed that adolescents who were older, had non-intact families, had fathers who were homemakers, had parents of a lower educational level, or had economically disadvantaged families, had a significantly higher level of suicidal ideation. Pearson correlation analyses showed that emotional competence, social problem solving, father-adolescent communication, mother-adolescent communication and family functioning were negatively related to adolescent suicidal ideation, while hopelessness was positively related to it. Regression analyses also showed that the above factors were significant predictors of adolescent suicidal ideation. ; Based on a family ecological model, this study investigated personal factors (hopelessness, social problem solving, emotional competence) and family factors (parent-adolescent communication, family functioning) related to suicidal ideation among secondary school students in Hong Kong utilizing a cross-sectional survey design. A total of 5,928 self-administered questionnaires based on convenience sampling (male = 53.1%, female = 46.9%) were collected from 42 secondary schools on Hong Kong Island, in Kowloon and the New Territories. The participants were Form 1 to Form 4 students, with a mean age of 13.87. ; The theoretical implications of the findings are that emotional competence, social problem solving, hopelessness, parent-adolescent communication and family functioning can be considered as key building blocks in the models of adolescent suicidal ideation. Practically speaking, enhancing emotional competence, social problem solving skills, sense of hope, quality of parent-adolescent communication and healthy family functioning with reference to the family ecological framework is important for preventing and treating adolescent suicidal ideation. Implications for policy development and social service delivery are further elaborated. In addition, limitations of the study are discussed and recommendations for further study are made. ; Three types of causal models were tested in ...