The Impact of Previous Suicide Ideations, Traumatic Stress, and Gender on Future Suicide Ideation Trajectories Among Black American Adolescents: A Longitudinal Investigation

Abstract

It has long been asserted that previous suicide behaviors (gestures and attempts) are a significant predictor of future suicide behaviors. Less is known about the extent to which this axiom applies to suicide ideations. The current investigation explored suicide ideations in a longitudinal sample of Black American adolescents (N = 977) aged 11 to 18. Logistic growth models were conducted with future suicide ideations as the dependent variable and the number of previous suicide ideations, traumatic stress, and gender as independent variables. Results show, first, that previous suicide ideations and traumatic stress are potent predictors of future suicide ideations. Second, the probability of future suicide ideations is higher when both the number of previous suicide ideations and traumatic stress levels increase, and this probability remains higher as the adolescent ages. These results demonstrate that the long-held proposition that previous suicide behaviors are predictive of future suicide behavior trajectories can be applied as well to suicide ideations.

KEYWORDS:

• Black American youth
• gender
• logistic growth models
• longitudinal trajectories
• suicide ideations
• traumatic stress

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lisa M. Hooper

Lisa M. Hooper is a professor in the department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, Counseling, and College Student Personnel at The University of Louisville. She is a mental health and family therapist and researcher who has both clinical and research experience with underrepresented and underserved racially and ethnically diverse populations. She has studied the implications of patient and provider factors on guideline-concordant depression and trauma care in a range of populations.

Sara Tomek

Sara Tomek is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling at the University of Alabama. She is a statistical methodologist working within psychology and education, and she is currently working on numerous longitudinal studies using the Mobile Youth Survey project data.

Kathleen A. Bolland

Kathleen A. Bolland is an assistant professor and assistant dean in the School of Social Work at the University of Alabama. Her areas of research interest include adolescents at risk, program evaluation, and assessment of student learning outcomes.

Wesley T. Church

Wesley T. Church II is the director and J. Franklin Bayhi Endowed Professor of Social Work in the College of Human Sciences and Education at Louisiana State University. His areas of research are juvenile justice and delinquency as well as mental health delivery to incarcerated adolescents.

Katie Wilcox

Katie Wilcox is a research assistant in the Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling at the University of Alabama. She currently works on several projects focused on mental health and well-being in racially and ethnically diverse populations in the Hooper Research Lab.

John M. Bolland

John M. Bolland is a professor emeritus. Before his retirement, he was a research chairholder in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Alabama.