title: Effort-reward Imbalance at Work, Parental Support, and Suicidal Ideation in Adolescents: A Cross-sectional Study from Chinese Dual-earner Families.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In contemporary China, most parents are dual-earner couples and there is only one child in the family. We aimed to examine the associations of parents' work stress with suicidal ideation among the corresponding adolescent. We further hypothesized that low parental support experienced by adolescents may mediate the associations.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional data from school students and their working parents were used, with 907 families from Kunming City, China. Stress at work was measured by the effort-reward imbalance questionnaire. Perceived parental support was assessed by an item on parental empathy and their willingness to communicate with the adolescent. Suicidal ideation was considered positive if students reported thoughts about suicide every month or more frequently during the previous 6 months. Logistic regression was used to examine the associations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We observed that parents' work stress was positively associated with low parental support, which was in turn associated with adolescent suicidal ideation. The odds ratio for parents' work stress and adolescent suicidal ideation was 2.91 (95% confidence interval: 1.53-5.53), and this association was markedly attenuated to 2.24 (95% confidence interval: 1.15-4.36) after additional adjustment for parental support. Notably, mothers' work stress levels exerted stronger effects on children's suicidal ideation than those of fathers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Parents' work stress (particularly mother's work stress) was strongly associated with adolescent's suicidal ideation, and the association was partially mediated by low parental support. These results need to be replicated and extended in prospective investigations within and beyond China, in order to explore potential causal pathways as a basis of preventive action.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Center for Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; School of Public Health, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Center for Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Loerbroks
authors.affiliation: Life-Science Center, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Siegrist
keywords: China; adolescent; effort–reward imbalance; parents; suicidal ideation