Prevalence rate of perceived gender discrimination and its associations with suicide behaviors in Chinese adolescents: the mediating roles of depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms

This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the prevalence rate of perceived gender discrimination and its associations with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, as well as the mediating roles of depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms in Chinese adolescents. From October 2021 to March 2022, we adopted a multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method to recruit students from grades 7–12 in China. A total of 79,211 adolescents aged 10–19 years from eight provinces completed the survey with valid data for the current study. Data were weighted to adjust for unequal probabilities of selection and differential response as well as to post-stratify the sample to match the population distribution. The weighted prevalence rate of perceived gender discrimination was 3.5% in Chinese adolescents, with girls having a higher prevalence rate than boys (5.5% vs.1.7%; P-value < 0.001). In the full-adjusted model, perceived gender discrimination was associated with a higher likelihood of suicidal ideation (OR, 2.16; 95% CI, 1.93–2.42) and suicide attempts (OR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.39–1.88). Mediation analyses showed that depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms significantly mediated 39.5% and 5.7% of the association between perceived gender discrimination and suicidal ideation, respectively, and depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms significantly mediated 54.3% and 7.0% of the association between perceived gender discrimination and suicide attempts, respectively. These findings suggest the need for targeted interventions to reduce gender discrimination against adolescents, especially girls, which might help prevent their suicidal behaviors and mental health problems.