Child maltreatment, recent stressful life events, and suicide ideation: A test of the stress sensitivity hypothesis.

Abstract Background Exposure to child maltreatment is a well-known risk factor for suicide ideation among adolescents. Recent stressful life events may also contribute to this risk. However, the association between these risk factors is unclear in the etiology of suicide ideation for adolescents from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Objective The present study tested the stress generation and stress sensitivity hypotheses in relation to child maltreatment, recent stressful life events (in the past year), and suicide ideation (in the past two weeks). Participants and Setting We utilized a sample of diverse, socioeconomically disadvantaged, depressed adolescent girls (N = 175) who were part of a depression treatment intervention. Results Child maltreatment was significantly associated with adolescent suicide ideation, β = .40, p Conclusions These findings have several implications for clinical practice and suicide prevention with adolescent girls, and contribute to the extant literature on the role of chronic and acute stress in the etiology of adolescent suicide ideation.