Abstract
Against the background of increasing rates of suicide among Black youth, researchers have identified the relation Black youth have to their identity as an important factor that may provide insight into the risk of suicide in this population. Preliminary work suggests that racial identity might serve as protective factor for psychological distress, though the literature is somewhat mixed, especially when suicidality is an outcome. Moreover, this research has predominantly concentrated on adults and/or community samples of youth. As yet, the extent to which Black youth’s attitudes and beliefs regarding their Black identity associate with current or past suicide ideation (SI) or behavior is under-investigated. The current study uses the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity-Teen (MIBI-t) to assess the relationship between aspects of Black identity with depression and suicide ideation. Data was collected from a sample of 90 Black youth between the ages of 11-17 with a current or history of suicidal behaviors and/or moderate levels of depression. Results indicate that youth with greater centrality (i.e., the centrality of race to one’s overall self-concept) were more likely to endorse greater symptoms of depression and SI. However, the association between centrality and SI was moderated by perceived racism as a risk factor for suicide, such that this link was only significant at moderate and high levels of endorsement of racism as a risk factor. Overall, findings suggest that racial centrality and racism together play a role in SI among Black youth, and future work is needed to further explore these associations.
Key Take Away Points
- Racism impacts the associations between the centrality of one's race to their overall self-concept and increased suicidal ideation in Black youth
- Greater access to mental health services for Black youth is needed to address suicide risk
- Culturally-informed methods of suicide prevention is critical
Author Biography
Dr. Ryan Hill is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Louisiana State University. Dr. Hill’s research is focused on the prevention of suicide-related thoughts and behaviors among child, adolescent, and emerging adult populations. Dr. Danielle Busby is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). In this role, she primarily serves youth and families experiencing a range of mental health concerns through the Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT) program. Clinically, Dr. Busby’s expertise is in trauma-informed assessment and intervention, grief, depression, and suicide risk assessment and intervention. She is passionate about decreasing barriers to mental health service use for underserved patient populations and is committed to continuously bridging the gap between research and clinical practice. Dr. Busby’s research is centered on examining barriers to mental health service use, specifically among Black youth who are at an elevated risk for suicide. Additionally, she has led and contributed to scholarly articles and research presentations on child trauma, youth suicide prevention, depression, racial discrimination among Black youth, and the psychological effects of neighborhood stressors; such as, community violence exposure among African American adolescents. Dr. Jennifer Brown is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University. Her research addresses health disparities domestically and globally in the following domains: 1.) Development and evaluation of culturally-tailored interventions to prevent HIV/AIDS; improve reproductive health and substance use outcomes; and address the intersection between substance use and infectious diseases. 2.) Implementation science approaches to improve HIV, reproductive health, and substance use outcomes. 3.) Employ Cultural Consensus Modeling (CCM) to understand cultural facets of mental health, substance use, reproductive health, and infectious disease disparities. Her research has been supported by federal funding from NIH (NIAAA, NIDA, NIMH), CDC, and SAMHSA and other funders including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Brown is a Licensed Psychologist with expertise in the delivery of behavioral medicine interventions and empirically-supported treatments for individuals with substance use disorders and/or infectious diseases. Kennedy Balzen is a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Program at the University of Houston, working under Dr. Sharp’s mentorship. Her research focuses primarily on the development, assessment, and conceptualization of personality disorder. She is also interested in the causes and correlates of suicidality among high-risk youth. Aashna is the Lab Manager for the Developmental Psychopathology Lab at the University of Houston. She is currently a junior working towards her B.S. in Psychology. She is interested in cultural factors that contribute to suicidal ideation in minority youth, and how psychopathology influences caregiving abilities in South Asians. Estefania Fernandez is the Lab Manager of Dr. Sharp’s Developmental Psychopathology Lab at the University of Houston. Her research interests include parent-child relationships, attachment, trauma, and resilience in children and adolescents. Dr. Ntsoaki Florence Tadi is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of The Free State. Her research examines risk and protective factors influencing well-being among children. Specifically, her work is focused on the application of the Biopsychosocial Model to identify various factors that influence South African children's well-being. Additionally, her work explores and identifies health risk factors to promote healthy behavior among youth. Dr. Carla Sharp is a John and Rebecca Moores Professor and associate dean for faculty and research in CLASS at the University of Houston (UH). She is also director of the Adolescent Diagnosis Assessment Prevention and Treatment Center and the Developmental Psychopathology Lab at UH. She holds adjunct positions at The University of Texas, Baylor College of Medicine, University College London and the University of the Free State in South Africa. She has a longstanding interest in social cognition (mentalizing) as a cause and correlate of psychiatric disorder across the lifespan with a special focus on youth. A large proportion of her research examines the development and conceptualization of personality pathology, a disorder in which social cognition particularly goes awry. Dr. Sharp’s work also examines correlates and related risk factors of personality disorder and severe psychopathology in youth, such as self-harm and suicidality.
Acknowledgements
Funding: This study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (Award Number: 5R21MH128570-02).
Recommended Citation
A Shah, K Balzen, RM Hill, et al. (2025) "Examining the Associations Between Racial Identity and Suicidal Ideation Among Black Youth," Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk: Vol. 14: Iss. 1, Article 7.DOI: https://doi.org/10.58464/2155-5834.1546
Available at: https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/childrenatrisk/vol14/iss1/7
