Perceived needs of parents of adolescents with a history of suicide attempts: a qualitative exploration

Abstract

Background

Suicide is a major public health concern worldwide, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) such as Iran. An adolescent’s suicide attempt can significantly intensify parental psychological distress, thereby heightening their susceptibility to subsequent mental health difficulties. We sought to explore the needs of parents whose adolescents have a history of suicide attempts within the unique cultural context of Iran.

Methods

A descriptive qualitative study was conducted. Our sampling strategy was purposive. Recruited participants were parents of adolescents with a documented history of suicide attempts admitted to psychiatric emergency wards. Conventional content analysis of 24 semi-structured interviews with 15 mothers and 9 fathers of adolescents with experience of suicide attempts was undertaken. Interviews continued until data saturation was achieved.

Results

The first category consisted of three subcategories,1) prevention methods, 2) crisis management, and 3) care strategies for the adolescent surviving a suicide attempt. The second category also included subcategories related to (1) seeking help from mental health professionals and (2) the need for cultural and societal remediation.

Conclusion

The needs of parents of adolescents who have attempted suicide were found to encompass informational, psychological, social, and cultural dimensions. Consequently, the results of this study directly inform key stakeholders, policymakers, healthcare administrators, and professionals within the health system. Specifically, these findings empower psychiatric nurses, psychologists, and psychiatrists to comprehensively address parents’ informational gaps and strategically support their psychological, cultural, and social well-being more comprehensively.

Introduction

Suicide is a major public health concern worldwide, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC’s) such as Iran [1]. Suicide is a global concern for adolescents in particular, as it is among the leading causes of death for those aged between 10 and 19 years old [2, 3]. Risk factors for suicide among adolescents include suicidal ideation, weak social support, and a family history of suicide attempts [4–6]. Evidence demonstrates that adolescents who attempt suicide are frequently burdened by co-occurring anxiety and depression. Indeed, having a history of psychiatric disorders is among the strongest motivators for self-harm in this population, and a prior suicide attempt represents one of the most powerful predictors of suicide mortality [7–11].

The aftermath of a suicide attempt creates a cycle of relational distress, resulting in rejection and diminished parental trust for the adolescent. This also compromises family coping mechanisms, manifesting as reduced parental resilience and chronic disturbances in family functioning [11, 12]. As the individuals closest to the adolescent, parents are the primary bearers of significant distress following a suicide attempt, experiencing shock, confusion, and feelings of inadequacy that can exacerbate pre-existing psychological problems and vulnerability [13–15]. Despite the need for these parents to support their child during their recovery, their own diverse needs have not been sufficiently addressed in either clinical practice or research. The closure of this gap will be particularly important given the central role parents play in suicide prevention [15].

Considering both the identified critical gap in parental support and the absence of qualitative data in this high-risk population, this study sought to explore the needs of parents whose adolescents have a history of suicide attempts within the unique cultural context of Iran. By highlighting cultural factors like family honor, stigma, and healthcare structures, this approach enables us to shed light on the social context affecting parents of adolescents with a history of suicide attempt(s). Our selection of a qualitative approach is also strategic, enabling an in-depth exploration of parents’ perceptions and the intricate factors involved, using their own authentic narratives within a natural, real-life context. Furthermore, given that adolescent suicide attempts in Iran are profoundly shaped by unique cultural, economic, and social determinants [12, 16, 17], a core assumption of this research is that parents’ support needs are inherently context specific. This necessitated a nuanced, exploratory methodological approach to inform culturally tailored and effective preventive interventions.

Methods

Study design

A descriptive qualitative design was adopted to identify the perceived needs of parents of adolescents with a history of suicide attempts. This design, grounded in a naturalistic approach, is used when existing knowledge about a phenomenon is limited and deeper exploration is needed to understand the phenomenon based on participants’ experiences and perceptions [18, 19]. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist was used to guide reporting [20].

Sample and sampling

The study sites comprised two public, government-funded teaching psychiatric hospitals affiliated with Zahedan University of Medical Sciences in Iran, which serve as the clinical centers for acute adolescent hospitalization and primary medical record-keeping related to suicide attempts. Adhering to ethical protocols, the corresponding author secured access to the study field by visiting the medical records departments, where study objectives and data confidentiality measures were presented to department managers. This preliminary step authorized the retrieval of documented parental contact information from the adolescents’ files, which was subsequently used to initiate the parental invitation secure informed consent. Parents were contacted via telephone. Eligibility criteria required participants to be parents whose adolescent child(ren) were aged between 10 and 18 years old and had a documented history of at least one suicide attempt. A total of 24 participants (15 mothers and 9 fathers) were subsequently selected using purposive sampling with maximum variation. This technique was specifically employed to ensure a comprehensive range of perspectives across key demographic variables, including parent age, education level, number of children, child’s gender and age, and the number of suicide attempts (Table 1).

Table 1.

Parent and adolescent characteristics

No.	Age (year)	Parent	Parents’ educational level	Number of children	Adolescents’ age	Adolescents’ gender
1	38	Mother	Bachelor’s degree	2	15	Girl
2	42	Mother	High school diploma	1	16	Girl
3	50	Mother	Bachelor’s degree	2	12	Boy
4	43	Father	Master’s degree	2	14	Girl
5	33	Father	High school diploma	1	14	Boy
6	44	Mother	High school diploma	2	12	Girl
7	52	Father	Bachelor’s degree	2	14	Boy
8	44	Mother	Bachelor’s degree	1	12	Girl
9	40	Mother	High school diploma	1	13	Boy
10	38	Father	Less than high school diploma	2	15	Girl
11	48	Mother	High school diploma	2	16	Girl
12	36	Father	Master’s degree	2	12	Boy
13	39	Father	High school diploma	1	14	Girl
14	32	Mother	Bachelor’s degree	1	12	Girl
15	48	Father	High school diploma	2	16	Boy
16	36	Mother	High school diploma	1	15	Girl
17	39	Father	Bachelor’s degree	2	14	Boy
18	32	Mother	High school diploma	1	12	Girl
19	42	Mother	Bachelor’s degree	1	14	Girl
20	48	Mother	Master’s degree	1	12	Girl
21	43	Father	Bachelor’s degree	2	11	Girl
22	33	Mother	Less than high school diploma	1	14	Boy
23	44	Mother	High school diploma	2	15	Girl
24	52	Mother	High school diploma	1	12	Boy

Data collection

The data in this study were collected using individual, semi-structured interviews during the first three months of 2025. Formal written informed consent was secured from all participants following a detailed explanation of the study objectives, procedures, and their right to withdraw at any point, without giving reason. Subsequently, permission for audio-recording was also obtained, and participants were explicitly assured that their data would be anonymized and kept strictly confidential among the research team. Each participant was interviewed once, resulting in a total of 24 interviews. Prior to each interview, the researcher and the participant agreed on the interview’s time and location. The interviews were conducted based on the participants’ preferences, either within their homes or nearby parks. The majority of the interviews were done within participants’ homes (n = 21). Parents were also informed of the robust measures taken to ensure data protection including the complete anonymization of interview transcripts and the removal of all identifying information from audio recordings to preserve participant confidentiality. All interviews were conducted by the primary author, a registered nurse with a doctoral degree and specialized training in qualitative research. Interviews lasted between 35 and 60 min and continued until meaning saturation was reached—that is, when no new codes were developed and the data were adequately rich to address the study aim [21]. They were conducted and analyzed in Persian. Sections pertinent to the present study were translated into English by a bilingual translator unaffiliated with the research team, and the accuracy of the translation was subsequently verified by other bilingual members of the research team.

Recognizing the parents as a vulnerable group and anticipating that the study topic might evoke painful or distressing memories, the interviewer, a qualified psychiatric nurse, was strategically tasked with utilizing therapeutic communication techniques, such as empathy and validation. This crucial measure was employed to proactively support and stabilize all participants throughout the data collection process. Interview questions were developed based on the study’s aim and the researchers’ clinical experience of the phenomenon under investigation. They included: “As the parent of an adolescent who has attempted suicide, how would you describe living with your child?”, “What are your most important needs as the parent of an adolescent who has attempted suicide?”, “What factors lead you to seek help (or not) after your child’s suicide attempt?”, and “What forms of support do you think would have been helpful for you after your child’s suicide attempt?” To obtain in-depth information and further explore emerging categories, probing questions were used, such as “Could you elaborate further on that?”, “What do you mean by that?”, “Can you provide an example?”, and “Can you share an experience regarding this issue?”

Data analysis

Data collection and analysis were conducted concurrently. Conventional content analysis was used for data analysis [22]. Content analysis is a systematic, objective, and research method used to analyze textual and/or visual data to identify patterns, themes, and meaning, ultimately classifying and summarizing the main manifest or latent content into categories of meaning. First, each interview was audio-recorded, transcribed word by word, and converted into a unified text. After multiple careful reviews of the interview transcripts, meaning units were extracted. These meaning units were subsequently converted into codes, which were organized into subcategories according to their similarities and differences. The main categories were then derived by integrating these subcategories [22]. In this study, data analysis was performed manually.

Rigor

To ensure rigor, the criteria of credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability were applied [23]. To establish credibility, continuous engagement with the subject and the data was maintained. The clinical experiences of three authors in the team (NR, NM, and MMH), who possess extensive background caring for adolescents have a history of suicide attempts within the Iranian cultural context, informed both the data collection and analysis processes. However, prior to the commencement of the study, the parents had not previously met the interviewer. The inclusion of a fourth author, SP, an academic midwife with extensive qualitative research expertise but an outsider to the specific clinical and cultural context, provided methodological rigor and critical reflexivity to challenge potential insider bias during data analysis and interpretation. Also, the findings were shared with five of the participants for validation. To enhance dependability, an external auditor with expertise in both the subject matter and qualitative research methodologies, yet independent from the research team was engaged to review the findings, resulting in consensus regarding the results presented here. For confirmability, all research activities were documented, and a detailed account of the research process was prepared. To enhance transferability, the interviews were conducted with a range of parents, ensuring diversity in demographic characteristics and avoiding the limitation of interviewing only one group (e.g., only fathers).

Results

The needs of parents of adolescents who had attempted suicide were identified via two overarching categories: A) the need to bridge informational gaps and B) the need to heal psychological and social distress. Participants expressed significant informational deficits regarding suicide-attempt prevention, crisis management, and appropriate care strategies for adolescents who survived a suicide attempt. In addition, they expressed a desire for psychological and social healing, which they pursued by consulting mental health professionals. They also called for wider cultural improvements in society.

The need to bridge informational gaps

Parents described living under a shadow of inadequate knowledge concerning suicide-prevention strategies, crisis-management approaches, and post-attempt care for their adolescents. They emphasized the need to enhance their understanding in these areas. Specifically, the participants reported informational deficits across three temporal phases: prior to, during, and in the aftermath of the adolescent’s suicide attempt.

Prevention methods

Participant narratives consistently identified a critical deficit in knowledge regarding actionable suicide-prevention strategies intended to avert future attempts by the adolescent. They expressed a need to be referred to relevant centers or organizations that could educate families in this regard.

“The more we know about ways to prevent suicide, the better. It helps us stop a suicide attempt before it happens. I think there must be associations or centers that provide training for families to prevent adolescent suicide attempts, places that could increase our knowledge and address our needs. But such centers were never introduced to us” (Participant 2, Mother).

The necessity of educating parents about suicide-prevention was also emphasized. Participants highlighted how such parental awareness could function both as a primary preventive measure, reducing the likelihood of an initial attempt, and as a secondary preventive mechanism for preventing recurrence.

“In my view, there is an urgent need to educate us parents about suicide attempts and the methods that can prevent them. This awareness can serve as a primary prevention measure, meaning that informed parents pay more attention to their adolescent so that a suicide attempt does not occur at all. It also provides us with deeper knowledge so that if the adolescent has previously attempted suicide, we can prevent future attempts” (Participant 5, Father).

Crisis management

Participants reported an inability to manage the crises associated with their adolescent’s suicide attempt and indicated that they had received no training regarding the nature of such crises or their management. They described encountering significant cognitive and emotional challenges during these critical moments, which stemmed from a lack of essential information. Parents emphasized that they needed such knowledge to be prepared should a future suicide attempt occur.

“When my son wrapped a rope around his neck to kill himself, I felt as though I had lost control of my life. It was as if the world had collapsed on me, and a wave of helplessness in confronting this critical situation washed over me. I needed to escape from this crisis, but I did not know how. If my son does this again, how am I supposed to handle such a crisis?” (Participant 9, Mother).

The parents sought an immediate solution for managing the crisis of their child’s suicide attempt, yet they had not received any training in this regard. They expressed a strong need to escape the instability and insecurity that accompanied the crisis of a repeated suicide attempt and to manage it appropriately.

“When I realized my daughter had swallowed all the pills in the refrigerator at once, I felt like an overinflated balloon ready to burst. I didn’t know what to do. I needed an immediate solution to get out of that crisis and escape from the instability and insecurity of the moment, but I had never been trained for this. Instead, in that difficult situation, my mind filled with dark thoughts that I couldn’t control, which prevented me from finding an effective solution. I want to learn how to manage the situation properly if this ever happens again” (Participant 14, Mother).

Care strategies for the adolescent surviving a suicide attempt

Parents reported frequently encountering challenging behavioral changes in their adolescent children during the post-attempt recovery period, leaving them feeling distressed and uncertain due to a complete absence of tailored guidance on how to manage these situations. Consequently, participants strongly advocated for training, specifically requesting the integration of compassion-based caregiving approaches to support their children.

“After the suicide attempt, my child sometimes shows abnormal behaviors that I don’t know how to manage, for example, locking themselves in a room or refusing to bathe unless I force them. I am left not knowing what to do; no one has ever taught me how to handle these behaviors” (Participant 18, Mother).

“I don’t want my child to think that a wall has been built between us because of the suicide attempt, as if we can no longer reach them. I feel that understanding the adolescent’s circumstances and empathizing with them plays an important role in providing humanized care. We need to know about compassion in caring for adolescents, so that if any wall is forming between us and them, this type of care can break it down” (Participant 8, Mother).

Parents also identified a need for training in managing multiple roles while caring for the adolescent. Indeed, many were simultaneously fulfilling other roles (e.g., spouse, mother, father, and/or provider), and the intensive caregiving demands required for the adolescent in question often prevented them from fulfilling these additional responsibilities. An urgent need for guidance on how to balance these roles effectively was evident among several participant narratives.

“My husband constantly blames me for not giving him and our life any attention. I don’t know how to manage things so that I can take care of my child, to prevent another suicide attempt, while also attending to my husband and the household tasks. After all, I am the homemaker, and certain expectations are placed on me” (Participant 20, Mother).

“As the father and breadwinner of the family, I must go to work. There is no way I can stay home, with inflation and these unbearable prices, I have to work two jobs just to cover our living expenses. I can no longer contribute to my child’s care. I really want to play a role, but I don’t know how I can support my wife in providing this care” (Participant 12, Father).

The need to heal psychological and social wounds

The narratives revealed that parents required integrated psychological and social support. This included seeking professional mental health assistance and advocating for cultural remediation at a societal level. This duality was essential not merely for coping with the immediate psychological and social burden of the event, but fundamentally for repairing the profound psychological and social wounds that emerged as a direct consequence of their adolescent’s suicide attempt.

Seeking help from mental health professionals

Meeting the caregiving needs of their adolescents required substantial energy from the parents, leaving them with little time for rest or for engaging in activities related to their own psychological self-care. All parents prioritised their adolescent’s well-being, often overlooking their own mental health in the process. Ultimately, parents’ constant preoccupation with the adolescent’s condition and the burdens of caregiving led them to experience psychological distress, irritability, poor concentration, and depression. Parents felt guilt and remorse when they perceived themselves as ineffective in alleviating their adolescents’ pain and suffering. Furthermore, their inability to resolve life problems resulted in profound feelings of inefficacy and helplessness. The adolescent’s suicide attempt also destabilized marital relationships. Consequently, many parents emphasized the necessity of receiving regular professional counseling to preserve and improve their own mental health as well as that of their adolescents and their family as a whole.

“My mental health has deteriorated; I have severe headaches, irritability, poor concentration, and depression. I know I need counseling. I devote all my time to my child and neglect myself and my mental health… Since we are drowning in our children’s circumstances, why should we allow ourselves to reach this point? We need to receive regular psychological counseling.” (Participant 22, Mother).

“When I can’t alleviate my child’s pain and suffering, I feel guilty and ashamed, as though I have failed to be a good father because I couldn’t solve our life problems. Many times, this sense of inefficacy and helplessness has overwhelmed me, and such experiences have negatively affected my relationship with my child and with my wife. I haven’t been able to communicate effectively with them. So we need counseling to learn how to take care of ourselves psychologically so that we don’t become harmed, that our family functioning remains stable, and that we can better care for our child” (Participant 7, Father).

The need for cultural and societal remediation

The parents stated that their adolescent’s suicide attempt was profoundly painful and unbearable, and that they needed support from friends, relatives, and society at large. They emphasized how parents should not be abandoned or socially excluded by their social networks in this context. Although they required emotional support and validation, the social stigma and cultural taboo linked to suicide kept them from receiving the help they needed. Participants feared public misjudgment and were hurt by cultural stigma. This led to calls for cultural change.

“In this painful and unbearable situation, what I expect from friends, relatives, and society is that they listen to me and give me emotional strength. This is a major need for me and for others like me. I feel discouraged and worthless when friends and relatives ignore us. I have called them many times, asking why they abandoned us, but from their responses, I realized that my child’s suicide attempt caused our family to become stigmatized, and they distanced themselves because of it. I wish these stigmas and cultural wounds would be removed from our society” (Participant 16, Mother).

“In our society, suicide-related stigma is widespread, and this negative cultural view causes families of adolescents who attempt suicide to be rejected by friends and relatives. I hope that the culture surrounding discussions of suicide in our society improves, and that this cultural wound—the suicide taboo—breaks, so that we can express our feelings to friends and relatives without fear or judgment, and so that we can be acknowledged and supported rather than deeply wounded by cultural stigma and harmed by the society’s wrongful judgments” (Participant 24, Mother).

Discussion

This study enabled us to explore the needs of parents of adolescents who had attempted suicide in the cultural context of Iran. Our participants expressed a need to fill substantial informational gaps related to suicide-prevention strategies, crisis management, and approaches to caring for an adolescent survivor of suicide attempts. The parents further required enhanced awareness of preventive strategies to avoid future attempts and sought referral to relevant services. However, they reported not having received any form of training in this regard. International evidence consistently reinforces this finding. Research from China reported that family caregivers of suicidal adolescents had significant informational needs, particularly regarding coping with negative emotions, challenges, and accessing supportive resources [15]. Similarly, studies in Australia and France further documented that parents actively require specific information to both assist their children and prevent the recurrence of future suicide attempts [24, 25]. Significantly, fulfilling individuals’ informational needs in this way can contribute to improved quality of life and enhanced coping with difficulties and crisis situations [26, 27]. Thus, addressing the informational needs of parents of adolescents who attempt suicide is of considerable importance. Indeed, increasing families’ awareness is essential for preventing suicide among adolescents [28]. Nevertheless, LMIC’s remain poor in terms of suicide-literacy and require substantial improvement in their knowledge of suicide-prevention strategies [29]. Therefore, bridging the severe deficit in suicide-literacy and providing culturally relevant information within LMICs is not merely an academic concern but a critical public health imperative necessary to bolster family resilience and ensure effective, future-oriented suicide prevention.

Parents frequently used the potent metaphor of a “high-pressure balloon on the verge of bursting” to describe their emotional state, vividly reflecting the urgent need for greater knowledge and practical strategies in managing the critical and volatile conditions following their child’s suicide attempt. Parents of adolescents with a history of self-harm in Ireland likewise reported needing information related to communication, future treatment options, psychoeducation, and management of emotional responses [30]. Our participants also noted the need for information on compassion-based care for adolescent survivors of suicide attempts. Indeed, compassion helps us understand how we influence our world and how we might reconstruct it for the better. When care is based on compassion, it reflects a humanistic perspective [31–33]. This may explain why parents asked for training on how to show compassion-based caregiving to their adolescents in order to rebuild trust. Parents believed this approach could proactively prevent or dismantle any potential emotional barrier formed between themselves and their adolescent as a result of the suicide attempt.

Given that parents often refer adolescents who have attempted suicide to hospital emergency departments, it is essential that the psychological care team, comprising psychiatric nurses, psychologists, and psychiatrists, provides ongoing support and education to parents throughout. Such education should focus on enhancing parental knowledge regarding suicide-prevention strategies, crisis management in the event of future attempts, and techniques for caring for adolescents who survive a suicide attempt. Moreover, hospital administrators could usefully develop educational toolkits (e.g., booklets) for parents, incorporating the informational needs identified in this study. Such information should provided to parents at the time of the adolescent’s discharge to bridge these critical informational gaps and strengthen the continuity of care.

Our participants expressed a need for psychological and social support from relevant professionals to alleviate their emotional distress. Many parents required enhancement of their own mental health, while simultaneously seeking psychological support to maintain family relationships, including spousal and parent-child relationships. Similarly, studies conducted in France and Australia also reported that parents of adolescents who had attempted suicide experienced challenges both in their relationships with each other and with their child, and that their mental health was also adversely affected. These parents required psychological support and interventions aimed at reconstructing parent-adolescent relationships [13, 25]. Another study in Australia identified that parents of adolescents with a history of self-harm needed support to address parent-child relational problems, prioritize self-care, and manage their own emotional responses effectively [34]. It is therefore imperative to prioritize and maintain the mental health of this vulnerable group of parents, as this is crucial for preserving family relationship stability and preventing further relational disruption. This focus is substantiated by international evidence, such as a study from Turkey, which specifically reported that family conflicts and communication problems function as established risk factors for suicide attempts among adolescents [28]. It is critical to investigate the familial risk factors associated with adolescent suicide attempts because the relationship between these variables is fundamentally bidirectional. While specific family structures may predispose adolescents to suicidal behavior, the profound trauma of an attempt can simultaneously destabilize the family unit and lead to further structural deterioration [35]. Consequently, effective suicide prevention and post-intervention strategies must shift focus from solely treating the adolescent to proactively implementing relational and psychological interventions that bolster the overall health and stability of the parental and family system.

Our results confirm that parents of adolescents with a history of suicide attempts, regardless their gender, experience psychological, social, and cultural problems. Our findings further indicate that parents of adolescents who have attempted suicide require support to heal their social as well as their psychological wounds, with a pressing need for cultural remediation within society. Our participants expressed a need to be acknowledged and seen by the community. Yet the stigma associated with suicide constituted a major barrier to this recognition. Stigma refers to social processes in which individuals are labelled and stereotyped based on perceived differences within a cultural context [36]. The parents used metaphors such as being “targeted by society’s misjudgments” and bearing “deep cultural wounds,” further highlighting the urgent need for societal cultural remediation. Beyond stigma, the cultural taboo surrounding suicide further compounded parents’ need for societal cultural remediation. Cultural taboos function as powerful mechanisms of social concealment that compel individuals to suppress significant issues due to the profound difficulty of public disclosure [37]. Within this framework, cultural remediation emerges as a vital process for achieving substantive systemic change. This is based on the understanding that both stigma and taboo are dynamic sociocultural phenomena with the inherent capacity for reconstruction and evolution [36]. Reducing suicide-related stigma is vital, as such discrimination raises the risk of future suicide attempts. In LMICs in particular, decreasing stigma and increasing public awareness are key to effective suicide prevention [29, 38, 39]. Studies conducted in Turkey and Vietnam have similarly shown that higher suicide literacy and lower stigma are associated with increased help-seeking behaviors [40, 41]. The experience of these profound cultural challenges are similarly found among parents of children with physical or psychological disabilities within the Iranian context [42–44]. Accordingly, cultural and social support for parents of adolescents with a history of suicide attempts, and the alleviation of their associated suffering, is essential. Given that adolescent suicide attempts often sever family social ties and expose parents to the distressing impact of cultural taboos, effective societal cultural remediation, achieved through awareness-raising and enhanced collaboration between health systems and social organizations, such as NGOs, will be essential for promoting the cultural and social well-being of these parents.

This qualitative needs assessment serves as a critical preliminary step toward subsequent mixed-methods research. Specifically, future work should proceed with quasi-experimental studies to test interventions, such as educational and psychological programs, designed to address the needs identified. Moreover, given this study revealed that adolescent suicide attempts profoundly threaten both parent-child and interparental relational dynamics, future research must evaluate parental understanding of these complex relational factors.

Limitations

This study acknowledges the inherent limitations of qualitative research. For example, our findings are context-dependent and heavily influenced by the specific cultural and situational setting of the study, thus precluding broad generalization. Furthermore, the study sample was recruited exclusively from a single municipality within one province which may limit the generalizability of the findings to the broader Iranian population. This geographical localization means the results may not fully capture the diverse cultural nuances and healthcare needs prevalent in other regions of the country. Accordingly, to ensure a more comprehensive exploration of the needs of parents of adolescents who have attempted suicide, similar studies are required across diverse cultural and geographic contexts. The participant profile was characterized by a significant gender imbalance as the sample was comprised predominantly of mothers. Consequently, the findings may not fully encapsulate the unique perspectives or paternal experiences regarding the phenomenon under study. Future research should prioritize the recruitment of more gender-diverse cohorts, to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the family unit. Furthermore, because the data collection relied on retrospective interviews, the participants’ accounts of their immediate needs during the crisis may be subject to recall bias. This suggests that their current emotional state or subsequent experiences could have influenced the perception of past events. Finally, the selection of participants exclusively from public teaching hospitals constrains the external validity of the study. This limitation underscores the need for broader investigations that encompass families from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds or those navigating more acute clinical circumstances to ensure a more robust generalization of the results.

Conclusion

The comprehensive needs assessment revealed that Iranian parents require multifaceted support encompassing informational, psychological, social, and cultural dimensions. Furthermore, our findings directly inform policymakers, healthcare administrators, and professionals, including psychiatric nurses, psychologists, and psychiatrists on how to effectively address parents’ informational deficits and strategically promote their comprehensive well-being.

Authors' contributions

Study design: NR, MMH. Data collection: NR, NM, MMH. Data analysis: NR, NM, MMH. Study supervision: SP, MMH. Manuscript writing: NR, MMH, SP. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This study received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Data availability

The data underlying this article cannot be shared publicly because they contain information that could compromise participants’ privacy and consent. The data will be shared on reasonable request with the corresponding author.

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

To comply with ethical considerations, research permission was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (IR.ZAUMS.REC.1404.189). In this study, only parents were interviewed. Prior to data collection, written informed consent was obtained from all parents. All procedures were carried out in compliance with the ethical rules and regulations of the Helsinki Declaration.

Consent for publication

Informed consent for publication, including the use of direct quotations without revealing participant identities, was obtained from all participants.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.