The Association Between Racial Discrimination and Suicidality among African-American Adolescents and Young Adults

Abstract

This study assessed the association between racial discrimination and suicidality (ideation, plan, or attempt) in African-American adolescents and young adults (n = 806, mean age = 17.9 years). Structured psychiatric phone interviews were conducted in offspring and their mothers in a high-risk alcoholism family study. Logistic regression analyses using offspring’s own racial discrimination as a predictor revealed elevated odds of suicidality, even after adjusting for correlated psychiatric conditions (OR = 1.76) but was reduced to non-significance after adjusting for maternal experiences of racial discrimination (OR = 3.19 in males), depression, and problem drinking. Findings support a link between racial discrimination and suicidality in African-American youth that, for males, is partially explained by maternal racial discrimination.

Keywords:

• adolescents
• African-Americans
• racial discrimination
• suicidality
• young adults

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We would also like to acknowledge that this work was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) grants RO1 AAO12640 and R01 AA023549 and by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) grant T32 DA15035. In addition, this publication was supported by the 2016 Summer Research Program of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis funded by the Global Health Center at the Institute for Public Health, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals Charitable Giving Program and Children’s Discovery Institute of Washington University and St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [Grant Number R01 AA023549, RO1 AAO12640] and National Institute on Drug Abuse [Grant Number T32 DA15035].

Notes on contributors

Suraj Arshanapally

Suraj Arshanapally, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Kimberly B. Werner

Kimberly B. Werner, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Carolyn E. Sartor

Carolyn E. Sartor, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut and Alcoholism Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Kathleen K. Bucholz

Kathleen K. Bucholz, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine and Alcoholism Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.