China has in recent decades experienced a remarkable economic growth (Nolan, 2007). But, in contrast, the country’s non-material facet of well-being has been somewhat neglected (Mok et al., 2010; Shek, 2010); a fact that comes to light in adolescents’ escalating numbers of suicides (Phillips et al., 2002; Shah, 2007). The prevalence of suicides is 10.72% in Chinese students (Li et al., 2014; Tang and Qin, 2015) and self-harm ideation is a precursor to attempted or completed suicide (Zhang et al., 2012; Burke and Alloy, 2016). While suicidal behavior is frequently related to the presence of psychiatric conditions, particularly mood disorders (Pompili et al., 2009) we studied students in real life conditions with no – to our knowledge – known psychiatric history. Furthermore, coping strategies have been found to predict mental quality of life (Engel-Yeger et al., 2016). Thus, self-harm ideation relative to interparental conflicts and coping tactics are presently in the focus of interest.

This study explored the paths from interparental conflict to suicidal ideation inspired from a distress-to-meaninglessness line of thinking. The conceptual model is based both on the stress and coping idea by Lazarus (1966) as well as on the emotional security theory by Davies and Cummings (1994). This combined conceptual model emphasizes the role of meaningfulness and addresses the process by which an adolescent’s suicidal ideation is shaped. Coping failure with interparental conflict increases psychological distress and a sense of life’s meaninglessness which predicts self-harm ideation (Li et al., 2012; Bergman et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2014). Specifically, interparental conflict is known to increase adolescents’ maladaptive coping behavior (Shelton and Harold, 2007, 2008) or to decrease adolescents’ adaptive coping behavior (Wadsworth and Compas, 2002). Interparental conflict also threatens adolescents’ emotional security (Cummings and Davies, 1996) as opposed to a sense of life’s meaningfulness, which buffers against distress and self-harm (Kiang and Witkow, 2015). The term meaningfulness comprises both presence of and/or search for meaning (Frankl, 1985) which may serve as mediator or moderator, respectively, between distress and self-harm (Marco et al., 2016). As a mediator, decreased presence of meaning explains that despair leads to self-harm; as a moderator, presence of meaning buffers the effect of despair on suicidal ideation (Henry et al., 2014). Presence of meaning occurs independently of search for meaning (Datu and Mateo, 2015); search may diverge from presence of meaning as a mediator or moderator in the relationship between interparental conflict and suicidal ideation. Further, meaningfulness buffers also between coping style and self-harm (Winter et al., 2010). Coping strategy per se predicts mental quality of life (Engel-Yeger et al., 2016). Therefore, the pathways between interparental conflict and suicidal ideation may bridge over in two ways: first, through coping strategies and second, through a sense of meaning in life. Consequently, we scrutinized if interparental conflict relates to adolescents’ suicidal ideation in three ways: does interparental conflict alter youngsters’ coping strategies? Does interparental conflict change adolescents’ sense of presence of or search for meaning in life? Does a joint serial effect of altered coping strategies along with an altered sense of presence of or search for meaning relative to interparental conflict, exist in young people’s life?

We presently revealed that interparental conflict indirectly affects adolescents’ suicidal ideation through three mediators: coping-approach strategies, sense of presence of meaning, and joint serial multiple mediators first by coping-approach strategies and then by sense of presence of meaning. The role of the sense of presence of meaning in a combined distress-to-meaninglessness line of thinking along with the use of coping-approach strategies to depress self-harm ideation was emphasized and thereby expanded Lazarus (1966) stress and coping model. Interparental conflict constitutes one of the major stressful events for adolescents (Cummings et al., 2002; Xing et al., 2010; Lin et al., 2014) while it clashes with youngsters’ need for security and harmony. It thereby contributes to a sense of meaninglessness in life (Winter et al., 2010; Cummings and Schatz, 2012) and bears predictive power for risks of suicidal ideation among young people (You et al., 2014; Datu and Mateo, 2015).

Interparental conflict predicted also suicidal ideation through the joint serial multiple mediators of coping-approach strategies along with presence of meaning in agreement with findings by Wadsworth and Compas (2002) who indicated that more stressed adolescents used potentially less helpful coping strategies. Yet, they were also more likely to feel less meaning in life and more inclined for suicidal ideation or self-harming behavior (Li and Zhang, 2012). Currently, no relationship between interparental conflict and coping-avoidant strategies was revealed. In other words, adolescents did not use potentially damaging coping strategies when faced with interparental conflict, in disagreement with findings by Wadsworth and Compas (2002). Furthermore, search for meaning was now unrelated to interparental conflict although a sense of presence of meaning in life linked to the negative event. However, it is known that the two meaning components can be inversely related (Steger et al., 2008). Furthermore, Baumeister et al. (2013) made known that unhappy people can live meaningful lives and happy people can live meaningless lives (cf. Ewalds-Kvist and Lützén, 2015). The former spends more time thinking about the past, present and future, as opposed to latter people who is more present oriented and living in the now.

About gender differences, compared with boys, girls scored lower on suicidal ideation, and higher on coping-approach strategies. This disagrees with findings that females who use passive coping strategies were more likely to report suicidal ideation than males (Yao et al., 2014). In China, in big cities, girls accomplish better than boys in academics as well as show more adaptive behaviors and social competence in elementary and middle school (Chen and French, 2008). As a general rule, girls cope better, suffer less from psychological distress and suicidal ideation (Chen et al., 2000; Zhang et al., 2011) in agreement with our present findings. In addition, students in grade 11, compared to those in grade 10, scored higher on interparental conflict but lower on suicidal ideation in agreement with results by Lee and Chan (1993).

Our results indicated that parents’ destructive conflicts harm adolescents’ coping-approach strategies and sense of meaningfulness. Family stress or instability are risk factors in mentally vulnerable individuals who commit suicide (cf. Pompili et al., 2007). The negative effects of interparental conflicts may be further strengthened in the presence of childhood abuse / maltreatment experiences (Pompili et al., 2011). Therefore, family therapy is recommended to reduce interparental conflicts but then again adolescents must also be taught how to handle their own inevitable so called normal conflicts in life (Montemayor, 1983). Yet, the use of coping-approach strategies (Zhang et al., 2014) and meaning making (Park and Folkman, 1997) are effective ways to cope with unexpected stressors; and a coping strategy per se may predict mental quality of life (Engel-Yeger et al., 2016). Therefore, by arranging special mental coping training sessions along with support groups for adolescents, feelings of meaninglessness can be prevented. Noteworthily, seeking help is useful in some but not in all situations (Zhang et al., 2014) and coping-avoidant skills (e.g., distancing, fantasizing) are not at all times a dysfunctional way to cope with stressors (Zhang et al., 2012). In sum, adolescents’ learning of adaptive coping skills lessens distress, and maintains a sense of meaningfulness in life.

This study provided new insights into the paths between interparental conflict and adolescents’ suicidal ideation. Interparental conflict did not activate suicidal ideation through calling into action coping-avoidant strategies along with presence or search for meaning, however, it did so by calling upon coping-approach strategies along with a sense of meaningfulness in life in the current serial multiple mediation analysis. Gender and grade differences in suicidal ideation were found. Boys were more likely to be at risk for suicidal ideation than girls, and so were students in 10th grade compared to those in the 11th grade. Generally, interparental conflict produces severe stress in adolescents and should be kept out of youngsters’ immediate vicinity.

RZ wrote the first draft of the manuscript and assisted in study design, data collection, and data analyses. DL was the principal investigator of the study and led the study. FC revised the manuscript. BE-K wrote part of the first draft of the manuscript, revised and polished it. SL assisted in data collection. All of the authors participated in the final approval of the version to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.