Black Adolescents’ Racial Discrimination and Suicide Behaviors: School Safety and Extracurricular Activities as Moderators

• In Event: Confronting the Tasks of Development in Challenging Circumstances

Abstract

Suicide is a public health concern for adolescents in the U.S., and Black adolescents in particular are at increased risk. Between 1991 and 2017, the number of suicide attempts increased 73% among Black teens, while suicide attempts among white teens decreased (Lindsey et al., 2019). Given these disparities and urgency for addressing this risk during adolescence, it is imperative to focus on risk factors that inform suicide behaviors for Black youth (e.g., racial discrimination). Studies consistently link racial discrimination to suicidal ideation, however, only one study has investigated if gender influences this relation, and no research has examined the link between discrimination and having a suicide plan or suicide attempts among Black adolescents. Further, limited research has tested protective factors that may alleviate the impact of racial discrimination on suicide risk. Guided by the elaborated model of suicide risk for African American youth (Robinson et al., 2021), the current study tested whether racial discrimination informed Black adolescents’ suicide behaviors (i.e., suicide ideation, suicide plan, and suicide attempts) and whether school safety and involvement in extracurricular activities moderated relations. We also tested for gender differences.

Participants included 744 (Mean age = 15.55, SD = 1.23) students who completed a youth risk behavior survey and self-identified as African American or Black. There was approximately an even distribution of males and females (i.e. 49.7% of youth identified as females and 50.3% identified as males). The majority of youth were in 9th or 10th grade (58%).

We tested hypotheses with multiple group path analyses in Mplus (Muthén & Muthén, 2019), with adolescents’ gender as the grouping variable. Results indicated that among males and females, school safety informed less suicide behaviors. Racial discrimination informed greater suicide behaviors for males and females, however, school safety was a moderator. Two moderation effects emerged. First, school safety moderated the relation between racial discrimination and suicide plan for males (Figure 1). At low levels of school safety, racial discrimination predicted having a suicide plan but this relation was not significant at high levels of school safety. Second, school safety moderated the relation between racial discrimination and suicide attempts for males and females (Figure 2). At low levels of school safety, racial discrimination predicted more suicide attempts, but this relation was not significant at high levels of school safety. Involvement in extracurricular activities was not associated with any suicide behaviors.

Our study addresses important gaps in the literature examining the link between racial discrimination and suicide among Black youth by expanding to investigate additional suicide outcomes (making a suicide plan and self-reported suicide attempts), examining the protective role of school-level factors, and investigating gender differences. Results underscored important gender differences in rates of suicide behavior and the influence of school-based protective factors. Overall, these findings support the need for programs that mitigate the influence of racial discrimination on Black adolescent suicide behaviors, and highlights the value of bolstering school safety as a promising prevention strategy.

Authors

• Chelsea Williams, Virginia Commonwealth University
  Presenting Author

• Jelaina Shipman, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Shu-Fang Shih

• Alexandra Wynn

• Maria J. Cisneros-Elias

• Cecelia R. Valrie