Latino and Latina Adolescents' Help‐seeking Behaviors and Attitudes Regarding Suicide Compared to Peers with Recent Suicidal Ideation

Abstract

Although Latinas have consistently reported higher rates of suicidal behavior for the past 20 years (CDC, 1996), there is a dearth of information regarding their help-seeking attitudes and behaviors when dealing with distress and suicide. Associations between adolescents' ideation and help-seeking from adults were different for non-Hispanic Whites and Latinos from 14 high schools (N = 4,983). Among females, ideators and Latinas reported lower levels of help-seeking attitudes than nonideators and non-Hispanic Whites. Males showed interaction effects of ideation by race/ethnicity on help-seeking. Within sex by race/ethnicity, differences showed that while non-Hispanic White students reported consistent differences between suicidal ideation and no reported suicidal ideation, Latinos were more similar between these groups, particularly with having support from friends and family to seek help from adults. Research should clarify how culture contributes to decreased help-seeking norms among those with suicidal ideation.

Latina Adolescents Health Risk Behaviors and Suicidal Ideation and Suicide Attempts: Results from the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2001–2013

“…Research indicates that Latino teens who experience physical or sexual violence most commonly seek help from their friends, but their second most often source of help they seek is from school personnel [18,33]. The vast majority of research on interventions to help reduce adolescent suicide is with adolescents in general, not specifically Hispanic adolescents.…”

“…To date all reported research studies on risk factors associated with Latina adolescent suicide ideation and attempted suicides have been at a particular point in time [17][18][19][20][21]. None of the existing research has examined how health risk factors for Latina adolescent suicide ideation and suicide attempts have changed over time.…”

Evaluating factors and interventions that influence help-seeking and mental health service utilization among suicidal individuals: A review of the literature

“…The review also suggests that limited familiarity with mental health care professionals or concerns that providers may not be culturally competent also serve as barriers to care (Goldston et al, 2008). For instance, Latino adolescents may feel less comfortable reaching out to school mental health services than their non-Hispanic White peers and may especially benefit from family and friend encouragement to seek care (De Luca, SchmeelkCone, & Wyman, 2015).…”

Interpersonal suicide risk for Latino/a Americans: Investigating thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and cultural factors of relevance

“…In fact, college-aged Latinas were twice as likely as their non-Latina peers to have engaged in suicidal ideation (Tortolero & Roberts, 2001). To add concern, replicated findings indicate that young adult Latino/as also report lower rates of help-seeking than their European American peers (De Luca, Schmeelk-Cone, & Wyman, 2015;Brownson et al, 2014). Clearly, further theory-driven examination into the suicidal behavior of Latino/a college students is needed to provide insight into both general and culture-based risk factors surrounding their suicidal behavior.…”

“…There is clear evidence that various racial groups in the US complete suicide at different rates and likely conceptualize their suicidal behavior differently (AAS, 2016;Brownson et al, 2014). Evidence also exists that key culture-based variables such as acculturation, enculturation, and acculturative stress are important variables to explore in research using Latino/a samples (Del Pilar, 2009;García & Zea, 1997;Rogler et al, 1991;Saldana, 1994), and may be related to the suicidal behavior of Latino/as, especially Latino/a college students (Brownson et al, 2014;De Luca et al, 2015;CDC, 2014;Locke & Newcomb, 2005;Tortolero & Roberts, 2001;Zayas et al, 2005). Finally, scrutiny of empirical findings concerning the IPTS suggest clearly that key culture-based variables that may affect the suicidal behavior of racially diverse groups are not present in the IPTS and the theory may not apply well to racially diverse people (Davidson et al, 2010;O'Keefe et al, 2014;Wong et al, 2011), particularly Latino/as (Garza & Pettit, 2010).…”