Given that death by suicide continues to rank among the top three causes of death during adolescence, new psychological models may contribute critical insight towards understanding the complex interactions between risk and protective factors in suicidal behaviour. The main objective of this study was to analyse the psychological network structure of suicidal behaviour and putative risk and protective factors in school-aged adolescents. Methods: Stratified random cluster sampling was performed. The final sample comprised 1790 students (53.7% female, M = 15.7 years, SD = 1.26). Instruments were administered to assess suicidal behaviour, emotional and behavioural difficulties, prosocial behaviour, subjective well-being, self-esteem, depressive symptomatology, academic performance, socio-economic status, school engagement, bullying, and cyberbullying. Results: In the estimated psychological network, the node with the highest strength was depressive symptomatology, and that with the highest expected influence value was bullying. Suicidal behaviour was positively connected to symptoms of depression and behavioural problems. In addition, suicidal behaviour was negatively connected to self-esteem and personal well-being. The results of the stability analysis indicated that the network was accurately estimated. Conclusions: Suicidal behaviour can be conceptualised as a dynamic, complex system of cognitive, emotional, and affective characteristics. New psychological models allow us to analyse and understand human behaviour from a new perspective, suggesting new forms of conceptualisation, evaluation, intervention, and prevention.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the dimensional structure of the Spanish version of the PANAS, using a large sample of adolescents and young adults (N = 1103, age range 14 to 23). Furthermore, measurement invariance across gender and educational level was tested. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a bifactor model and a 3-factor model Positive Affect (PA), Negative Affect (NA) Upset, and NA Afraid (PA and NA uncorrelated) provided the best fit to the data. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses showed that the 3-factor model of the PANAS had strong measurement invariance across gender and educational level. Results showed statistically significant differences in the latent mean scores. University students scored higher than adolescents in PA, NA Upset, and NA Afraid. Men scored higher than women in PA. The PANAS scores also showed acceptable internal consistency scores (range from .80 to .86). The results found support for the PANAS as a brief and useful tool for the screening PA and NA in adolescents and young adult's populations. These findings hold implications for the study and use of the PANAS in nonclinical populations. Future studies should test measurement invariance of the PANAS scores across cultures. (PsycINFO Database Record