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Background and Purpose: Latina adolescents are at a greater risk of suicidal behavior than other racial and ethnic groups. Amongst these young females, mother-daughter relationships have low communication and emotional attunement, common triggers for suicide attempts. These relational conflicts are impacted by a parent’s psychosocial functioning which, in turn, is itself influenced by a parent’s experience of hardship. Through this process, children absorb their parents’ experiences of hardship and how their parents cope and overcome these experiences. This phenomenon is known as the intergenerational transmission of trauma and resilience and has serious implications for youth mental health. Importantly, the literature is scarce as it relates to understanding the process of this phenomenon with populations at risk of suicide. We address this gap by investigating the process of intergenerational transmission of vulnerabilities and strengths among Latinx adolescent females who recently attempted suicide.
Methods: We present data from a cross-sectional qualitative study that explored differences in familial, interpersonal and contextual factors related to suicidal risk across a purposive sample of racial and ethnic minority adolescent females. We analyzed a subsample of 28 interviews with mothers and their Latinx adolescent daughters (14 adolescents; 14 mothers). Using a grounded theory approach, we explored the process of how parents’ psychosocial vulnerabilities and strengths are transmitted to their Latinx adolescent daughters who have attempted suicide.
Results: Our study indicates that parents experienced past hardship that led to feelings of isolation, helplessness, and guilt. Despite these feelings, parents persevered and held on to hope as they navigated parenting. Parents attempted to overcome their challenges by “protecting” their adolescent from experiencing similar hardship (e.g., from feeling pain, from having a child at a young age). Parents applied various parenting strategies to their adolescents, including: (1) advocating for them; (2) keeping them from witnessing or feeling pain; and (3) providing uplifting advice. Despite parents’ intentions to protect, the parent and the adolescent often “missed each other” in communication. While the adolescents knew that their mothers meant well, they did not perceive their strategies as helpful. Instead, adolescents felt “misunderstood” and sought what their parents did not teach them: to feel pain. As one adolescent said, “I didn’t know how but I wanted to release my pain. So I started cutting.” At the same time, adolescents embraced the strengths modeled by their parents, including: (1) advocating for themselves; (2) persevering despite feeling misunderstood; and (3) holding on to hope while navigating challenges.
Conclusions and Implications: Through a focus on underlying parenting behaviors and communication styles and adolescent perceptions of these parenting strategies, the present study illuminates a salient process of intergenerational transmission of trauma and resilience that is often left out of research on Latinx adolescent females at risk for suicidal behavior. Understanding the process of intergenerational transmission of trauma and resilience is important for the prevention of suicidal behaviors with this population. In light of these findings, we conclude our presentation with a discussion on implications for future social work practice and education on suicide prevention with Latina adolescents.