Negative Parenting Attitudes and Adolescent Suicidal Ideation: The Moderated Mediating Role of Academic Helplessness and Organized Youth Activity Participation.

This study examined the conditional indirect association between negative parenting attitudes and suicidal ideation via the mediation of academic helplessness, and investigated whether organized youth activity participation moderated this indirect association. Data were drawn from Wave 6 (2023) of the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS 2018), with a final sample of 2224 adolescents aged 17-18 years. Gender and subjective health perception were included as control variables. PROCESS Macro Models 4 and 7 were applied to test the indirect effect and analyze the moderated mediation effect, respectively. Negative parenting attitudes were significantly associated with suicidal ideation, and the partial mediating role of academic helplessness was also significant. Organized youth activity participation significantly moderated the association between negative parenting attitudes and academic helplessness, and the indirect effect of negative parenting attitudes on suicidal ideation via academic helplessness varied significantly as a function of the level of organized youth activity participation. These findings suggest that organized youth activities may function as a possible effect modifier, consistent with the principles of behavioral activation theory, attenuating the indirect association from negative parenting attitudes to suicidal ideation via academic helplessness. Practical implications of these findings for research and practice concerning adolescent suicidal ideation are discussed.