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Associations Between Relational Aggression, Depression, and Suicidal Ideation in a Child Psychiatric Inpatient Sample

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Abstract

The current study examined relations between relational aggression, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation in a child clinical population. Participants included 276 children (M age = 9.55 years; 69% Male) who were admitted to a child psychiatric inpatient facility. Findings suggested that relational aggression was associated with depressive symptoms, which in turn was associated with suicidal ideation. The test of indirect effects suggested that depressive symptoms fully accounted for the link between relational aggression and suicidal ideation. Moreover, these relations were found when also controlling for the variance associated with overt aggression, history of abuse, and social problems. Current findings appear to suggest that relational aggression is linked to depressive symptoms, which is linked to suicidal ideation within a clinical population, and as such there may be clinical utility in assessing relational aggression.

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Notes

  1. In order to evaluate the overall model fit, a path model that excluded the path from social problems to depressive symptoms was estimated, which provided 1 degree of freedom and allowed for model fit statistics to be evaluated. A CFI > .95, RMSEA < .06, and SRMR < .08 indicates a good fit to the data [54–56]. This modified model provided a good fit to the data, χ2(1) = 1.29, CFI = .99, RMSEA = .04, SRMR = .01. Thus, the fully saturated model appears to adequately capture the nature of the data.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Psychology and Applied Behavioral Sciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

    Paula J. Fite

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA

    Laura Stoppelbein & Leilani Greening

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Teresa M. Preddy

Authors
  1. Paula J. Fite
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  2. Laura Stoppelbein
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  3. Leilani Greening
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  4. Teresa M. Preddy
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Correspondence to Paula J. Fite.

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Fite, P.J., Stoppelbein, L., Greening, L. et al. Associations Between Relational Aggression, Depression, and Suicidal Ideation in a Child Psychiatric Inpatient Sample. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 42, 666–678 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-011-0243-4

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