Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Vol. 29, No. 4, 2001, pp. 281–291 Low Self-Esteem and Hopelessness in Childhood and Suicidal Ideation in Early Adulthood Rob McGee, 1,2 Sheila Williams, 1 and Shyamala Nada-Raja 1 Received June 21, 2000; revision received December 21, 2000; accepted January 5, 2001 This study examined the longitudinal relationship between family characteristics in early childhood, self-esteem, hopelessness and thoughts of self-harm in the midchildhood years, and suicidal ideation at ages 18 and 21. Path analysis was used to establish separate models for boys and girls. The results suggested different pathways to later suicidal ideation for boys and girls. For boys, suicidal ideation seemed to have stronger roots in childhood, with significant paths from low self-esteem and hopelessness to early thoughts of self-harm and thence to later ideation. For girls, self-esteem had a small but significant direct effect on later suicidal ideation. The findings provide support for the idea that individual characteristics such as feelings of hopelessness and low self-esteem act as “generative mechanisms,” linking early childhood family characteristics to suicidal ideation in early adulthood. KEY WORDS: self-esteem; hopelessness; suicidal ideation. Risk factors for suicidal behaviors among young peo- ple may be separated into those that are proximal and those that are distal (Moscicki, 1995). Proximal factors are those most closely associated temporally with the behav- ior, with perhaps the strongest of these being depression (Garrison, Addy, Jackson, McKeown, & Waller, 1991; Juon & Ensminger, 1997; Roberts, Roberts, & Chen, 1998). Distal risk factors, on the other hand, may be seen as the foundations upon which later suicidal behaviors and the events surrounding those behaviors are built. These distal factors might include childhood characteristics and family processes that lead to later vulnerability in adolescence. In this paper we examine how both individual and family characteristics in the childhood years may lead to later suicidal ideation in early adulthood. In particular, we focus upon self-esteem and hopelessness as two child- hood characteristics that may lead to later vulnerability to thoughts of self-harm. These two variables were cho- sen because previous research has highlighted their possi- 1 Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago Medical School, Dunedin, New Zealand. 2 Address all correspondence to Rob McGee, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago Medical School, Box 913, Dunedin, New Zealand; e-mail: rob.mcgee@stonebow.otago.ac.nz. ble significance. Young people thinking about or attempt- ing suicide have low levels of self-esteem or feelings of low self-worth (Fergusson & Lynskey, 1995; Lewinsohn, Rohde, & Seeley, 1994; Overholser, Adams, Lehnert, & Brinkman, 1995; Roberts et al., 1998) as well as feel- ings of hopelessness or negative expectations about the future (Hewitt, Newton, Flett, & Callander, 1997; Levy, Jurkovic, & Spirito, 1995; Roberts et al., 1998). Apart from these individual characteristics, family characteris- tics may also place the child at later risk of self-harming thoughts and behaviors. Much of the research on this topic has focussed upon family functioning as a predictor of sui- cidal behavior, and longitudinal studies suggest that family cohesion and adaptability play a protective role (Garber, Little, Hilsman, & Weaver, 1998; Garrison et al., 1991). This may be particularly so for boys (Juon & Ensminger, 1997). Although more recently, maternal depression has been implicated in the prediction of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (Klimes-Dougan, et al., 1999), it may be that this effect is mediated by the impact of maternal depres- sion on family functioning (Garber et al., 1998). The mechanism through which family variables may be related to suicidal behaviors remains unclear, but a link between family and individual characteristics seems a rea- sonable supposition. Levy et al. (1995), for example, have proposed that hopelessness is a “generative mechanism” 281 0091-0627/01/0800-0281$19.50/0 C  2001 Plenum Publishing Corporation