The role of parental employment status in the relationship between traumatic exposure and suicide-risk among adolescents

Worldwide, the number of adolescents who view suicide as the only solution to escape stressful life events is continuing to rise. It has been shown that parental employment status is a protective factor against suicide risk by providing emotional and physical resources support in such stressful environments. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between parental employment status, traumatic life exposure, and suicide risk in adolescents. A non-experimental, cross-sectional, and correlational design within the framework of quantitative study was employed. A group of 985 Grade 10 learners from 10 schools in the Free State Province were selected as participants by means of the non-probability random sampling method. A self-compiled biographical questionnaire, the Suicide Ideation Questionnaire for Adolescents, and the Stressful Life Events Questionnaire were used to gather information from the participants. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to explore whether parental employment status has a moderating or mediating effect in the relationship between stressful life exposure and suicide risk. Results indicate a greater proportion of participants fall within the medium to high suicide-risk groups. Furthermore, the relationship between stressful life exposure and suicide risk was positive at the 1% level of significance (r = 0.179; p = 0.000), while parental employment status showed no moderating effect in the relationship between stressful life exposure and suicide risk. It is recommended that future studies explore how differences in parental employment may affect the above-mentioned variable, as career choices may create different contexts for support and development of adolescents.