ArticlePloS one2022
In-school adolescents' loneliness, social support, and suicidal ideation in sub-Saharan Africa: Leveraging Global School Health data to advance mental health focus in the region.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Loneliness as an Interface Between Alzheimer's Disease and Suicidal Behaviour: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis and Meta-Analytic Factor Analysis.Psychogeriatrics : the official journal of the Japanese Psychogeriatric Society · 2026Pooled it
- Social support as leverage? A quantitative study of social support as a mediator of the relationship between disability/activity limitations and psychological distress among young adults in Ghana.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Barriers and facilitators of mental health help-seeking behaviours among school-going adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa: A qualitative evidence synthesis.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Review
- Patterns of loneliness among high school students: A sociodemographic analysis in Kenya.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Understanding the contextual determinants, barriers and facilitators of mental health for adolescent girls and young women in Burundi: Insights from lived experiences.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Gender, Living Conditions, and Family Support Associated with Depression Status among Adolescents in Semarang, Indonesia.Clinical practice and epidemiology in mental health : CP & EMH · 2026Article
- Examining suicidality and associated risk factors among refugee children and adolescents in Uganda.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Adult Friendship and Suicidality: A Scoping Review.Journal of social and personal relationships · 2025Article
- Social support and mental health among adolescents in Kenya, Indonesia, and Vietnam: A latent class analysis using the National Adolescent Mental Health Surveys.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- Understanding the Relationship Between Loneliness and Sleep, and Their Influence on Mental Health of a High-Adversity-Exposed School Sample of Kenyan Adolescents.Annals of global health · 2025Article
- Loneliness in South African youth and its association with HIV infection, substance use and mental health.International journal of adolescence and youth · 2025Article
- Developing a suicide risk prediction model for hospitalized adolescents with depression in China.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Mapping the psychosocial network of Kenyan adolescents: the pivotal role of loneliness and gender-specific pathways.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Excessive internet use as a risk factor for suicide ideation among university students in Malawi: A cross-sectional study.Health science reports · 2024Article
- Suicidal ideation in Chinese adolescents: prevalence, risk factors, and partial mediation by family support, a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Suicidal Attempts among Secondary School-Going Adolescents in Kilimanjaro Region, Northern Tanzania.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAdolescent and youth mental health problems are increasingly becoming an area of concern in global health. Young people in sub-Saharan Africa experience significant adversities and systemic challenges despite technological advancements and demographic transition that the region is experiencing. We examined the nexus between experiences of loneliness, low social support, and presence of suicidal ideation among in-school adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa.
methodA total of 19,119 in-school adolescents from eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa were included in this study. Suicidal ideation was the main outcome variable and loneliness, and social support were the explanatory variables. Percentages were used to summarise the prevalence of suicidal ideation, loneliness, and social support among the in-school adolescents. A multivariable binary logistic regression analysis was later used to determine the association between suicidal ideation and the explanatory variables and covariates using Stata v16. Four models were tested using the regression analysis. We presented the regression results using adjusted odds ratios (aOR), with their respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
resultsOverall, the past year prevalence of loneliness, peer support, one or more close friends, and suicidal ideation were 10%, 33.4%, 90.1%, and 14.5%, respectively. In-school adolescents who felt lonely (aOR = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.69, 2.09) were more likely to experience suicidal ideation. However, those who received peer support (aOR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.82, 0.97) and had one or more close friends (aOR = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.68, 0.86) were less likely to experience suicidal ideation.
conclusionThese results point to the significant roles of loneliness, and lack of social support, in understanding suicidal ideations. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa need to improve child and adolescent mental health policies and programmes to respond to these risk factors and mental health challenges. Programmes with a differential focus on the needs of males and females, younger and older adolescents will be important in the future.
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