Risk and Protective Factors for Suicidal Ideation, Plans, and Attempts among Black Youth

• In Event: Using Developmental Science to Identify Mechanisms and Reduce Adolescent Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors

Abstract

The rate of suicidal behaviors among Black youth in the United States is increasing (Lindsey et al., 2019). Accordingly, a recent task force by the Congressional Black Caucus called for research to identify risk and protective factors for suicidal behaviors among Black youth (Emergency Taskforce on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health, 2019).
Investigations of developmentally salient risk and protective factors will be critical to informing targeted suicide prevention strategies. Consequently, we applied a developmental psychopathology lens to investigate both individual and contextual (i.e., family, peer, or school-related) risk and protective factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) among Black youth in different stages of adolescence. We examined the roles of individual risk factors including sex, socioeconomic status, depression and substance misuse, and protective factors at the individual level (i.e., religiosity), family-level (i.e., positive parenting), school-level (i.e., school engagement), and community-level (i.e., youth involvement in activities).

Methods
Sample: The sample consisted of Black youth aged 12-17 (n = 1,798) who participated in the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018).
Measures: Questions on depression and STBs were adapted from the National Comorbidity Survey-Adolescent (NCS-A; Harvard School of Medicine, 2005). Youth were asked three questions about the most recent time when their problems were the worst, and whether they thought about, planned for, or attempted suicide. All outcomes were dichotomous. Depression severity was measured as the maximum level of interference that depression caused in school, work, family relationships, chores, and social life, ranging from 1 (none) to 5 (very severe). Past year substance misuse was measured with an index of alcohol use, marijuana use, and cigarette use.
Youth religiosity was measured with a mean score of three items about religious participation and beliefs ( = .77). Positive parenting was measured with a mean score of two items about parents’ supportive verbal behaviors ( = .85). At the school and community level, we assessed school engagement using a mean score on four items ( = .78). An index of extracurricular activities was created that summed participation in school-based, community-based, faith-based, and other activities.
Analysis: Logistic regression models were tested separately for youth 12-14 and 15-17 to assess developmentally salient risk and protective factors for STBs. Interaction terms were added to the model to assess whether protective factors would buffer the association between depression severity and STBs. Finally, a three-way interaction tested whether protective factors varied by participants’ developmental stage.

Results
See Tables 1 and 2 for results with youth in early and late adolescence, respectively. Different risk and protective factors emerged between these two developmental periods. Religiosity buffered the association between depression severity and suicidal plans and attempts for youth aged 12-14 but not for youth aged 15-17. Results from the three-way interaction were significant, indicating that religiosity functioned differently as a protective factor for youth of different ages, B= -.13, p < .05. Thus, suicide prevention efforts for Black adolescents should take into account developmentally salient risk and protective factors.

Authors

• Erinn B Duprey, University of Rochester
  Presenting Author

• Camille Quinn, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Andrew Ross, University of Rochester
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elizabeth D. Handley, University of Rochester
  Non-Presenting Author

• Catherine Cerulli, University of Rochester
  Non-Presenting Author