Differential Personality Indicators in the face of suicidal risk in adolescents

Individual differences in response to adversity may differ in relation to the personal resources people have. The purpose of this study was to identify whether there are differences between resilient and non-resilient adolescents at risk of suicide with regard to their personality traits. A sample of 1,084 adolescents of senior-high school was screened; a sub-sample of 106 adolescents who have been exposed to similar levels of stressful life events but showed differences in their adaptation to suicidal risk, were chosen. The sample answered the Life-Events Questionnaire (Lucio& Duran, 2003), the Suicidal Risk Inventory for Adolescents -IRIS (Hernandez & Lucio, 2003), and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory- Adolescent MMPI-A (Lucio, Ampudia & Duran, 2004). Results indicated that non-resilient adolescents reported more physical, depressive and anxiety symptoms than resilient adolescents. Furthermore, significant differences were found between the personality profiles of resilient and non resilient men and women.