Association between recurrent dreams, disturbing dreams and suicidal ideation in adolescents
Article [Accepted Manuscript]
Is part of
DreamingPublisher(s)
American Psychological AssociationAuthor(s)
Affiliation
- Université de Montréal. Faculté des arts et des sciences. Département de psychologie
- Université de Montréal. Faculté des arts et des sciences. École de psychoéducation
- Université de Montréal. Faculté de médecine. Département de pédiatrie
- Université de Montréal. Faculté de médecine. Département de psychiatrie et d'addictologie
Abstract(s)
Disturbing dreams and recurrent dreams have both been linked to a wide range of
psychological difficulties in children. There is growing evidence that the experience of
frequent disturbing dreams is associated with suicidal ideation in adults but studies in
young adolescents have been limited and the results inconsistent. In addition, the possible
relationship between suicidal ideation and recurrent dreams has yet to be studied. We
thus investigated the relation between disturbing dreams, recurrent dreams and suicidal
ideation in a sample of young adolescents. Self-report measures of disturbing dream
frequency, recurrent dream frequency, and suicidal ideation were collected at age 12
years and again at age 13 years from 170 children from a prospective population-based
birth cohort. While the rate of disturbing dreams and recurrent dreams dropped between
ages 12 and 13, the rate of self-reported suicidal ideation increased between the ages of
12 and 13 years. Analyses taking sex and age into account revealed that young
adolescents who reported having had suicidal thoughts over the past year had
significantly greater frequencies of disturbing dreams and of recurrent dreams than
adolescents who had not thought about suicide. These findings highlight the potential
clinical value of assessing disturbing and recurrent dreams as part of the screening
process for suicidal ideation in young adolescents.
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