Predicting Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in Mexican-Origin Youth: An 8-year Longitudinal Cohort Study

• In Event: Stress and Stress Responses: Social, Cultural, and Biological Links to Adolescent Suicidality

Abstract

In the United States, Latinx adolescents, and especially Latina, have higher rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB) compared to youths of most other ethnic and racial communities (Kann et al., 2018; Villarreal-Otálora, Jennings, & Mowbray, 2019). Understanding the growth and psychosocial predictors of STB in Mexican-origin adolescents is crucial to interrupting the current upward trend in adolescent deaths by suicide. The objective of this study was to measure the emergence of STB in Mexican-Origin youth across the adolescent years and examine salient factors contributing to more versus less risk for STB at different points of adolescent development. This research longitudinally examined 674 Mexican-origin youth (337 female) from predominantly two-parent, lower-income families living in northern California who were drawn at random from school rosters of 5th grade classrooms during the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years. This investigation is based on youth-reported data collected annually in families’ homes from ages 10 (grade 5) to 17 years (grade 12). STB were measured annually from ages 10 to 17 and dichotomized to indicate presence or absence at each year. Four psychosocial predictors of STB (e.g., family conflict, peer conflict, discrimination, and familism) were measured biennially beginning at age 10 (grades 5, 7, 9, 11). Latent growth curve modeling showed that the proportion of youth reporting STB increased annually until age 14 then plateaued, with more female than male youth reporting STB from age 11 onward. By grade 12 (Mage =17.8 years), 27.7% of youth had endorsed STB at one or more grades. Latent growth modeling showed significantly more growth in prevalence of STB for Latina (b = .45, p = .004), compared to Latino youth, and stability of STB such that prior suicidality predicted subsequent suicidality from grades 6 to 12 (βs = .29 - .52, SEs = .10 - .13, all ps < .01). Single-predictor models revealed that each of the 4 psychosocial predictors was associated with STB at multiple years. When all predictors were examined together within a multivariate model, both family and peer conflict contributed to greater STB, familism acted as a promotive factor predicting less STB, and discrimination did not confer additional risk (see Table 1). In particular, youths who endorsed more familism were less likely to report STB concurrently and subsequently across multiple years. In order to inform effective targeted intervention, additional prospective longitudinal research across adolescence evaluating hypothesized key contributing factors to STB is needed (Cha et al., 2018), and particularly within the Latinx population (Ford-Paz, Reinhard, Kuebbeler, Contreras, & Sánchez, 2015; Standley, 2020). This current study highlights the importance of interpersonal relationships and cultural values for understanding STB in Mexican-origin youth, suggesting these may be key levers for efforts to decrease suicidality in this growing community of adolescents.

Authors

• Lauren C. Gonzalves, University of California - Davis
  Presenting Author

• Emilio Ferrer, University of California, Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Richard Whitney Robins, University of California - Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amanda E Guyer, University of California - Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Paul David Hastings, University of California - Davis
  Non-Presenting Author