Thesis
Exploring suicidality in African American adolescents: The role of alcohol and racism
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
Spring 2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004106
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/124775
Abstract
Suicide among youth is a public health crisis. Although suicide rates are a leading cause of death in youth, recent literature has not determined specific risk factors for African American youth, an underserved and understudied population. The current study used the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS) data to examine moderating effects of the role of alcohol use and racial discrimination on suicidal and death ideation among African American adolescents. Tension reduction and alcohol myopia theories were used to guide and combine alcohol use and racial discrimination as risk factors to suicidal ideation. The analysis consisted of seven models that used binary logistic regression to examine main and interaction effects of alcohol use and racial discrimination as indicators of suicidal ideation. Although the main hypotheses that adolescents who report higher levels of racial discrimination or alcohol use would report higher levels of suicidal ideation were not supported, a significant three-way interaction was found between sex, racial discrimination, and alcohol use. Separate analyses indicated that there were sex differences in suicide risk for adolescents who reported both alcohol use and racial discrimination. Future prevention efforts should focus on racial discrimination as a risk factor to suicide and coping strategies among African American youth.
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Details
- Title
- Exploring suicidality in African American adolescents
- Creators
- Brianna Gloria Hernandez
- Contributors
- Michael Cleveland (Chair) - Washington State University, Department of Human DevelopmentElizabeth Soliday (Committee Member)Laura Griner Hill (Committee Member) - Washington State University, Office of the ProvostShenghai Dai (Committee Member) - Washington State University, Department of Kinesiology and Educational Psychology
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Human Development
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Identifiers
- 99900890786001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis