Suicide: Peer Gatekeeper Training, Suicide Prevention

LoMurray, Mark

doi:10.1037/e357352004-001

Cited by 12 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…One program, Sources of Strength (SoS; LoMurry 2005), aims to increase youth–adult connectedness by engaging diverse adolescent peer leaders to help change student norms regarding the acceptability of suicide, help-seeking, and youth–adult communication. A recent study of SoS found a positive impact of the program on school-wide norms about help-seeking and suicidal behavior, with the largest, most positive changes occurring among suicidal youth (Wyman et al 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Practice Make Perfect? A Randomized Control Trial of Behavioral Rehearsal on Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Skills

et al. 2011

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Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 10–24-year-olds and the target of school-based prevention efforts. Gatekeeper training, a broadly disseminated prevention strategy, has been found to enhance participant knowledge and attitudes about intervening with distressed youth. Although the goal of training is the development of gatekeeper skills to intervene with at-risk youth, the impact on skills and use of training is less known. Brief gatekeeper training programs are largely educational and do not employ active learning strategies such as behavioral rehearsal through role play practice to assist skill development. In this study, we compare gatekeeper training as usual with training plus brief behavioral rehearsal (i.e., role play practice) on a variety of learning outcomes after training and at follow-up for 91 school staff and 56 parents in a school community. We found few differences between school staff and parent participants. Both training conditions resulted in enhanced knowledge and attitudes, and almost all participants spread gatekeeper training information to others in their network. Rigorous standardized patient and observational methods showed behavioral rehearsal with role play practice resulted in higher total gatekeeper skill scores immediately after training and at follow-up. Both conditions, however, showed decrements at follow-up. Strategies to strengthen and maintain gatekeeper skills over time are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Practice Make Perfect? A Randomized Control Trial of Behavioral Rehearsal on Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Skills

et al. 2011

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“…Participants were 7,978 students from thirty high schools (21 in upstate New York and 9 in North Dakota) participating in a randomized trial to evaluate Sources of Strength, a universal school-based suicide-prevention program that was evaluated in a previous randomized trial (LoMurray, 2005; Wyman et al, 2010). The surveys collected for the present study were conducted at baseline only, before any school began suicide-prevention training.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotion Regulation Difficulties, Youth–Adult Relationships, and Suicide Attempts Among High School Students in Underserved Communities

Pisani

Wyman

Petrova

et al. 2012

J Youth Adolescence

161

100

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To develop and refine interventions to prevent youth suicide, knowledge is needed about specific processes that reduce risk at a population level. Using a cross-sectional design, the present study tested hypotheses regarding associations between self-reported suicide attempts, emotion regulation difficulties, and positive youth-adult relationships among 7,978 high-school students (48.6% male, 49.9% female) in 30 high schools from predominantly rural, low-income communities. 683 students (8.6%) reported a past-year suicide attempt. Emotion regulation difficulties and a lack of trusted adults at home and school were associated with increased risk for making a past-year suicide attempt, above and beyond the effects of depressive symptoms and demographic factors. The association between emotion regulation difficulties and suicide attempts was modestly lower among students who perceived themselves as having higher levels of trusted adults in the family, consistent with a protective effect. Having a trusted adult in the community (outside of school and family) was associated with fewer suicide attempts in models that controlled only for demographic covariates, but not when taking symptoms of depression into account. These findings point to adolescent emotion regulation and relationships with trusted adults as complementary targets for suicide prevention that merit further intervention studies. Reaching these targets in a broad population of adolescents will require new delivery systems and “option rich” intervention designs.

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“…The Coping Resources scale (Wyman et al 2010) was developed to evaluate Sources of Strength, which trains peer opinion-leaders to encourage other students to build formal and informal resources to support coping (Wyman et al 2010; LoMurray 2005). On this nine-item scale (Chronbach’s α = 0.90), students evaluated the extent to which nine types of informal (e.g., family, positive friends) and formal (access to mental health and medical services) resources would help them to “get through a tough time.” Students rated each area on the same Likert scale described above.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations Between Suicidal High School Students’ Help-Seeking and Their Attitudes and Perceptions of Social Environment

Pisani

Schmeelk-Cone

Gunzler

et al. 2012

J Youth Adolescence

113

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Suicide is a leading cause of death among adolescents, many of whom fail to disclose suicide concerns to adults who might help. This study examined patterns and predictors of help-seeking behavior among adolescents who seriously considered suicide in the past year. 2,737 students (50.9 % female, 46.9 % male; racial distribution 79.5 % Caucasian, 11.9 % Hispanic/Latino, and 3.6 % Black/African-American) from 12 high schools in rural/underserviced communities were surveyed to assess serious suicide ideation (SI) in the past year, disclosure of SI to adults and peers, attempts to get help, attitudes about help-seeking, perceptions of school engagement, and coping support. Help-seeking was defined as both disclosing SI to an adult and perceiving oneself as seeking help. The relationship between adolescents’ help-seeking disclosure and (1) help-seeking attitudes and (2) perceptions of social resources was examined among suicidal help-seeking youth, suicidal non-help-seeking youth, and non-suicidal youth. Of the 381 (14 %) students reporting SI, only 23 % told an adult, 29 % sought adult help, and 15 % did both. Suicidal help-seekers were similar to non-suicidal peers on all measures of help-seeking attitudes and social environment perceptions. Positive attitudes about help-seeking from adults at school, perceptions that adults would respond to suicide concerns, willingness to overcome peer secrecy requests, and greater coping support and engagement with the school were associated with students’ increased disclosure of SI and help-seeking. This study supports prevention strategies that change student norms, attitudes and social environments to promote help-seeking among adolescents with SI. Promising intervention targets include increasing students’ perceptions of the availability and capability of adults to help them, and strengthening students’ understanding of how existing resources can help them cope.

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Suicide: Peer Gatekeeper Training, Suicide Prevention

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

Does Practice Make Perfect? A Randomized Control Trial of Behavioral Rehearsal on Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Skills

Does Practice Make Perfect? A Randomized Control Trial of Behavioral Rehearsal on Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Skills

Emotion Regulation Difficulties, Youth–Adult Relationships, and Suicide Attempts Among High School Students in Underserved Communities

Associations Between Suicidal High School Students’ Help-Seeking and Their Attitudes and Perceptions of Social Environment

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