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Abstract
In this article, we test the utility of Agnew's general strain theory to explain suicidal behaviors among American Indian youth. Data from 721 American Indian adolescents from the Midwest and Canada were collected in partnership with participating reservations/reserves and a research team. We investigate the effects of strains/stressors on suicide, including tests of mediating effects of negative emotions on relationships between stressors and suicidality. We found that several strains/stressors were related to suicidality, including coercive parenting, caretaker rejection, negative school attitudes, and perceived discrimination. We also found that depressive symptoms and anger mediated the effects of several key predictors of suicidality. We discuss the theoretical and policy implications of our work for the general strain theory and for American Indian suicide in general.
This study was funded by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA13580) and the National Institute of Mental Health (MH67281), Les B. Whitbeck, Principal Investigator. The authors gratefully acknowledge reviews and comments received from community advisory board members for this manuscript.
Notes
1The 10–12 age range was selected for this first wave of data collection as part of the study's longitudinal goals of examining trajectories and correlates of mental illness and resilience among American Indian youth as they enter and age throughout the formative adolescent years.
2The Tri-Ethnic Anxiety Scale was included in earlier versions of this article, but is excluded here due to issues surrounding colinearity with the remaining measures of emotion.
∗p < .05; ∗∗p < .01.
∗∗∗p < .001; ∗p < .05; two-tailed tests.
∗∗∗p < .001; ∗∗p < .01; ∗p < .05; 2-tailed tests.
3Due to data limitations, we included caretaker yelling as a form of coercive parenting in this study. It is possible that “yelling” represents a very weak form of coercion; however, this limitation is tempered in light of our findings in terms of the statistically significant effects of yelling (a source of strain) on negative emotions and suicidality. More severe measures of coercive parenting, if available, could yield even stronger significant effects.
4Suicide prevention programming plans and funding applications are currently underway within the partnership of many of the tribes included in this study and researchers at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln.