Family Functioning and Suicidality in Peruvian Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem and School Victimization

Background: The increase in suicidality among adolescents has generated concern, highlighting the need to explore factors such as family functioning, self-esteem, and victimization, and their influence on this phenomenon. The aim of this research was to evaluate the mediating role of self-esteem and victimization in the relationship between family functioning and suicidality in a sample of Peruvian adolescents. Methods: An explanatory design study was carried out, evaluating 758 high school students from public institutions in Metropolitan Lima whose age ranged from 13 to 19 (mean age = 15.64, SD age = 0.774). Results: The results corroborate that self-esteem and victimization partially fulfill the mediating function. Furthermore, the relationship between self-esteem and suicidality is found to be more negative in females (Δβ = −.212, p = .033), suggesting that lower self-esteem is more associated with the propensity for suicidality in females compared to males. On the other hand, it is observed that the relationship between victimization and suicidality is stronger in men (Δβ = −.222, p = 0.094), indicating that victimization is more related to suicidality propensity in men. Conclusion: In conclusion, suicidality in adolescents is a multicausal phenomenon, in which different individual and social factors are involved.