Homelessness and Suicidality: The Role of Bullying and Parental Support

• Published date: 01 October 2021
• Author: Kathleen McCallops,Ann M. Aviles,Valerie A. Earnshaw,Rob Palkovitz
• Date: 01 October 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12437

K MC , A M. A, V A. E,  R P

University of Delaware

Homelessness and Suicidality: The Role of Bullying

and Parental Support

Objective: To examine the relation between

homelessness and suicidality and to test bul-

lying as a mediator and parental support as a

moderator of these relations.

Background: Youth from low-income families

are more likely to be bullied and in turn experi-

ence negative mental health outcomes. Parental

support has been reported to mitigate the effects

of stressful events, such as being bullied. How-

ever, these relations are still undocumented

among youth experiencing homelessness.

Method: This study included a random sam-

ple of 2,049 stably housed and 64 homeless

youth enrolled in the Delaware Public Schools,

grades 9 through 12, who completed the 2015

Delaware Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Hayes’s

PROCESS macro was used to test for a moder-

ated mediation relation between bullying, suici-

dality, and parental support for homeless youth.

Results: Bullying mediated the relation between

homelessness and suicidality, and parental sup-

port moderated the relation between bullying

and suicidality. Youth experiencing homeless-

ness reported more bullying, which was asso-

ciated with more severe suicidality. For youth

experiencing homelessness with low levels of

parental support, bullying was associated with

more severe suicidality. Conversely, for youth

with high levels of parental support, bullying

was not associated with more severe suicidality.

111 Alison Hall West, Universityof Delaware, Newark, DE

19716 (kamcca@udel.edu).

Key Words: bullying, homelessness, parental support, suici-

dality, youth.

Conclusion: This study indicates that bullying

is a mechanism through whichhomelessness and

suicidality are related, while also demonstrating

the importance of parental support.

Implication: The increased risk of suicidality

among youth experiencing homelessness who

are bullied, as well as the effects of parentalsup-

port, warrant attention from school personnel

and youth service providers.

Research consistently reports that youth expe-

riencing homelessness have higher rates of

depression and suicide than their stably housed

peers (Frederick, Kirst, & Erickson, 2012;

Institute for Children, Poverty and Homeless-

ness [ICPH], 2018; Moore, Benbenishti, Astor,

& Rice, 2017). Given the relation that exists

between homelessness and suicidality, it is

critical to understand the mechanisms through

which homelessness is associated with suicidal-

ity (i.e., suicidal thoughts, plans, and behaviors;

Miller et al., 2018) among youth. This study

examined bullying as a mechanism because

youth experiencing homelessness have reported

experiencing bullying, and bullying has been

demonstrated to be a signicant contributor to

suicidality (Holt et al., 2015; ICPH, 2018).

In addition, this study examined parental sup-

port as a moderator of the relation between

homelessness and suicidality and bullying and

suicidality. Research has suggested that parental

support can act as a protective factor, buffer-

ing the negative mental health outcomes expe-

rienced because of bullying and homelessness

(Bao, Whitbeck, & Hoyt, 2000; Stadler, Feifel,

1150 Family Relations 70 (October 2021): 1150–1161

DOI:10.1111/fare.12437