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A new study suggests that adolescents who experience a high accumulation of life events may be more likely to report suicidal thoughts. Events involving family life appeared particularly relevant, although the findings do not show that ordinary events cause suicidal ideation.
The research, published in Lancet Psychiatry in 2026, used data from the multinational IMAGEN cohort. The cohort recruited young people through schools in Germany, France, Ireland and the UK, with assessments at approximately ages 14, 16, 19 and 23.
What the researchers examined
Participants completed a Life Events Questionnaire covering 39 events experienced during the previous year. Researchers grouped these events into seven areas: family, accidents, distress, autonomy, deviance, sexuality and relocation.
Suicidal ideation was assessed at ages 14, 16 and 19 through a question about thoughts of suicide during the previous 12 months. Responses at age 23 were not included because the wording had changed to thoughts about harming oneself.
The researchers also measured childhood maltreatment separately, including physical and emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and physical and emotional neglect. Their analysis adjusted for sex, parental education, parental ethnicity and childhood maltreatment.
The study began with 2,161 participants, although some were lost to follow-up. Using statistical modelling, the researchers identified four patterns of cumulative life-event exposure: high, mid-high, mid-low and low.
Higher exposure was associated with more reported suicidal ideation
The high-exposure group contained 1,125 participants, or 52.1% of the sample, and had the greatest cumulative exposure across the seven event categories.
This group also had the highest reported rate of suicidal ideation at each measured timepoint. At age 14, suicidal ideation was reported by 11.3% of the high-exposure group, compared with 4.1% of the mid-high group, 6.6% of the mid-low group and 4.5% of the low group.
After adjustment, the predicted probability of suicidal ideation in the high-exposure group was about six percentage points higher than in each of the other groups. The adjusted differences were 6.5 percentage points compared with the mid-high group, 6.1 points compared with the mid-low group and 6.4 points compared with the low group.
The difference between the high-exposure group and the other groups did not change significantly over time. The three lower-exposure groups did not differ significantly from one another.
Why family events stood out
The researchers also compared a model based on family events with a model combining the other six domains. The family-only model explained slightly more variation in suicidal ideation than the combined model for the other domains: a marginal R2 of 0.078 compared with 0.073.
That difference was small and was not formally tested, so the family finding needs to be interpreted cautiously. The study supports looking at patterns of experiences rather than treating one isolated event as a clear explanation for suicidal thoughts.
The association remained after adjustment for childhood maltreatment. The researchers found no significant interaction between life-event trajectories and maltreatment, meaning the reported association did not appear to differ according to whether participants had experienced maltreatment.
Important limits to the findings
This was an observational study. It cannot establish that life events caused suicidal ideation, and it does not mean that every stressful event is a warning sign.
Suicidal ideation was measured with a single questionnaire item rather than a dedicated suicidality scale. The measure therefore could not capture the intensity, frequency or intent behind participants’ thoughts. Using the same instrument to assess life events and suicidal ideation may also have introduced common-method bias.
The analysis did not adjust for psychological factors such as personality, impulsivity or aggressiveness. Participants with severe physical, neurological or mental illnesses were excluded, which may limit how well the findings apply to those groups.
The Life Events Questionnaire was developed in the 1980s and may not reflect newer pressures, including online harassment, cyberbullying or social exclusion. The sample also came from Western European settings, so the findings may not generalise to all adolescents.
What the study adds
The findings suggest that the build-up of experiences may matter more than counting individual events in isolation. The authors proposed that exposure may need to pass a threshold before the likelihood of suicidal ideation rises, rather than each additional event producing a steadily increasing effect.
That idea remains a research finding, not a substitute for a comprehensive assessment of suicide risk. It also does not mean that questions about ordinary life events can replace attention to a young person’s mental health, circumstances and immediate safety.
AI tools were used to assist with the preparation of this article.
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