Racial/ethnic and gender differences in the antecedents of youth suicide.

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined racial/ethnic and gender differences in the antecedents of adolescent suicide deaths in the United States. Method: Using postmortem data (N = 3,996, mean age = 16.01, 77% male) from the National Violent Death Reporting System, the authors investigated whether White, Black, Native American, Asian Pacific Islander American, and Latinx youths aged 10 to 18 varied in their rates of circumstances that either preceded or appear to have contributed to their suicides. Gender differences and gender by race/ethnicity moderation effects were examined in addition to racial/ethnic differences. These antecedents included, but were not limited to, mental health problems and treatment, history of suicide attempt and suicidal ideation, presence of a suicide note, interpersonal problems, substance abuse problems, school problems, and exposure to the death or suicide of a loved one. Results: Logistic regression analyses revealed racial/ethnic and gender differences in the prevalence of several antecedents of youth suicide. One race/ethnicity by gender moderation effect related to suicide notes was identified. Conclusions: The findings suggest considerable gender and racial/ethnic heterogeneity in suicide risk factors and highlight the need for more research on suicidal behavior in minority youths, as well as culturally tailored prevention efforts.

Trends in Adolescent Online and Offline Victimization and Suicide Risk Factors

“…For instance, adolescents of color can face uniquely harmful effects of biasbased peer victimization, or disproportionate levels of contextual-level risk factors linked to peer victimization (eg, adverse school environments). 15 For suicidal outcomes, not only do the factors contributing to suicidal behavior vary across racial and ethnic categories, 16 but the prevalence of these outcomes varied across racial and ethnic groups in YRBS data. 17 These prevalence disparities also occurred by sex, with girls having higher levels of both suicidal outcomes and peer victimization.…”

The Impact of a Universal Mental Health Intervention on Youth with Elevated Negative Affectivity: Building Resilience for Healthy Kids

“…Goal Theory helped to inform how coaches worked with students to set weekly and overall goals. The application of Goal Theory was intended to optimize youth's potential for reaching their goal by guiding them to identify and select their own unique goal that is relevant, important, and feasible to attain, while also incorporating a feedback mechanism (i.e., check-ins and discussions between youth and health coaches) (Latham & Locke, 1991). In addition, discussions and goal-setting activities were framed within the social-ecological model, which theorizes that behaviors are inherently influenced by and across multiple levels of one's social environment (i.e., intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy) (Stokols, 1996).…”

“…Rates of death by suicide among youth aged 10–24 years increased by 56% from 2007 to 2017 (Curtin, 2020 ; Curtin & Hedegaard, 2019 ; Lee & Wong, 2020 ; Oh et al, 2019 ). In parallel to the increasing prevalence of youth suicide, there has been a rapid increase in youth diagnosed with depression (Zhang et al, 2019 ).…”

Psychological and neurobiological aspects of suicide in adolescents: Current outlooks

“…Cultural considerations are warranted in the design of preventative interventions. Research has found substantial gender and racial/ethnic differences in suicide risk factors among youth underscoring the need for this ( Lee and Wong, 2020 ). Recommendations for interventions tailored to the black community include efforts to increase access to mental health care by reducing stigma and increasing help-seeking behavior ( Lindsey et al., 2019 ).…”