Gender and Family Disparities in Suicide Attempt and Role of Socioeconomic, School, and Health-Related Difficulties in Early Adolescence

Table 2

Characteristics of male and female adolescents in various family structures: % or mean (SD).

	Boys				Girls
	Intact families	Parents divorced/separated and reconstructed family	Single parent and other situations	Pearson’s chi^2 or Fisher’s test; (𝑃 value)	Intact families	Parents divorced/separated and reconstructed family	Single parent and other situations	Pearson’s chi^2 or Fisher’s test; (𝑃 value)
Number of subjects	489	199	90		493	192	96
Number of person-years	4,576	1,836	829		4,629	1,764	896
Lifetime suicide attempt(s)
At least one	6.1	9.6	7.8	0.284	7.3	21.4	21.9	<0.001
Crude rate  per 1,000  person-years	6.6	10.3	8.4		7.8	23.2	23.4
Two or more	2.0	3.0	4.4	0.376	2.4	10.4	10.4	<0.001
Socioeconomic factors
Age (year)
Mean (SD)	13.45 (1.27)	13.40 (1.23)	13.39 (1.23)	0.856	13.44 (1.26)	13.60 (1.27)	13.74 (1.33)	0.0634
Range	10.4–16.9	10.5–16.4	10.8–16.3		9.9–16.9	11.2–16.2	10.9–18.7
Low parents’ education	44.6	55.3	63.3	<0.001	41.4	54.7	67.7	<0.001
Nationality				0.021				0.050
French	94.5	92.5	88.9		94.1	90.6	90.6
European immigrants	2.5	5.0	2.2		3.8	4.7	2.1
Non-European immigrants	3.1	2.5	8.9		2.0	4.7	7.3
Father’s occupation				<0.001				<0.001
Managers, professionals, and intermediate professionals	43.6	32.7	27.8		44.4	27.1	21.9
Craftsmen, tradesmen, and firm heads	19.4	20.1	20.0		22.1	20.3	13.5
Service workers and clerks	11.4	11.1	6.7		7.7	9.4	4.2
Manual workers and other occupations	22.1	30.1	17.8		23.3	31.2	31.2
Not working	3.5	6.0	27.8		2.4	12.0	29.2
Insufficient family income	13.3	22.6	21.1	0.006	13.4	25.5	33.3	<0.001
Poor social support				<0.001				<0.001
Score
0	56.0	37.2	45.6		50.3	25.5	35.4
1-2	31.1	45.2	40.0		35.9	52.6	47.9
≥3	12.8	17.6	14.4		13.8	21.9	16.7
School and mental difficulties and sustained violence
Grade repetition	12.1	19.6	21.1	0.010	9.3	21.9	26.0	<0.001
Depressive symptoms	5.9	12.6	5.6	0.009	15.8	28.6	16.7	<0.001
Having sustained violence	12.1	15.6	14.4	0.439	4.7	7.3	6.2	0.377
Being victim of sexual abuse	2.4	2.5	5.6	0.252	2.6	6.2	10.4	<0.001
Unhealthy behaviors
Alcohol use	62.2	67.8	66.7	0.323	53.7	72.4	66.7	<0.001
Tobacco use	23.3	39.7	42.2	<0.001	19.3	41.2	45.8	<0.001
Cannabis use	7.8	16.1	14.4	0.003	3.8	7.3	14.6	<0.001
Hard drug use	4.9	8.0	8.9	0.157	1.6	6.8	10.4	<0.001