Correlates of Suicidal Behaviors Among Asian Americans

Abstract

This study examines the correlates of suicidal ideation, suicide plan and suicide attempt among Asian Americans focusing on nativity and gender. Analyses are performed on data from the National Latino and Asian American Study (N = 2095), the first ever study conducted on the mental health of a national sample of Asian Americans. The sample is comprised of adults with 998 men (47%) and 1,097 (53%) women. Analysis of weighted lifetime prevalence of suicidal behaviors revealed that U.S.-born Asian American women had higher prevelance of suicidal ideation and suicide plan than U.S.-born Asian American men and immigrant Asian American men and women. In multivariate analyses controlling for socio-demographic differences such as ethnicity, marital status and income, differences in suicidal behaviors are found only between U.S.-born women and U.S.-born men. The findings demonstrate the need to disaggregate data by immigrant status as well as socio-demographic correlates.

Keywords:

• Asian Americans
• Asians
• immigrants
• suicide

This study was funded in part by NIMH Grant T32MH20010. The NLAAS was supported by NIH Research Grant # U01 MH62209, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health as well as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Center for Mental Health Services (SAMHSA/CMHS) and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR).