Prevalence of suicidal behavior among youth and young adults across sociocultural contexts

The objectives of this paper are to determine the prevalence, demographic characteristics and patterns of suicidal behaviors among youth and young adults across sociocultural contexts using data from participants across 4 longitudinal studies and inform targeted suicide prevention and intervention efforts. Analyses are based on data from four ongoing prospective longitudinal studies of risk and adaptation; The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth) (N=20,745), the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (N=1,009), the National Study of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (N=6,231), and the Behavioral Health/Juvenile Justice Project (BHJJ) (N=455). These four studies capture samples of normative adolescents/young adults as well as a sample of high-risk youth as defined as youth who have been processed through the Child Welfare System and a sample of youth who have been adjudicated. Our findings show that the prevalence of suicide attempts varied across study populations. For example, in the BHJJ a sample of adjudicated youth, at the time of intake 44% of participants had talked about committing suicide and 17% had previously attempted suicide. In comparison, in the nationally representative Add Health, by Wave 2 (students in grades 8-12), 3.6% of participants had attempted suicide. Additional prevalence estimates and demographic characteristics of suicidal ideation and attempt will be presented. Prevalence of suicidal behaviors as well as the characteristics of those most vulnerable to suicidal behaviors varies across sociocultural contexts. These variations need to be considered in future research and in the design and implementation of prevention and intervention efforts.