OBJECTIVE: Estimate the degree of association between physical, verbal and sexual domestic violence with suicide behaviour in university teenagers. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Case study and peer checks at Colima university students. The cases were 235 adolescents who presented both suicide ideation and suicide attempt; the checks were 470 individuals of the same age and sex. RESULTS: Sexual abuse showed the highest degree of association with suicide behaviour (RM = 27.4), followed by verbal violence (RM = 9.28), drug use (RM = 8.6), physical violence (RM = 5.5) and smoking (RM = 3.6). Multivariate logistic regression showed that verbal violence was associated with suicide behaviour in an independent manner, while physical violence, sexual abuse, smoking and drug use appear to depend on it. CONCLUSIONS: Intrafamiliar violence, particularly verbal violence, is strongly associated with suicide behaviour in adolescents and should be considered as part of preventive suicide programmes.