An examination of suicidality of African American adolescents at a local and national level

Abstract

Suicidality is a serious concern in this country. In the U.S. nearly 40,000 people die by suicide each year. It is the 10th leading cause of death. For those 15–24, it is the 2nd leading cause of death. Using data from the Add Health Longitudinal data set and data gathered from a local organization an examination of suicidality among African American youth was conducted. Given the trauma and low resourced situations many African American adolescents find themselves in, interventions are needed to address these health concerns before other issues such as education and other life options (i.e., careers) are addressed. Questions that participants were asked related to suicidal ideation and suicide attempts; did you ever seriously consider attempting suicide and did you attempt suicide? The results showed that the local sample had higher suicidal ideation than the Add health national sample (20% vs. 13.6%), respectively. The local sample had higher percentages of suicide attempts in the past twelve months compared to the National sample. There was a statistically significant difference between females and males in the sample. Limitations and future research are found in the discussion.

Keywords:

• Adolescent
• African American
• suicidality

Acknowledgements

We want to acknowledge the local school district in which this study was conducted and to thank Lynn and David Gilkey who allowed us to work with their young people to gather this very important data.