Considerable research suggests that suicide involves effects of genes, the environment, and their interaction. Analysis of three independent data sets of post-mortem brains revealed signs of increased methylation in one particular gene, SKA2, a finding that was extended to peripheral blood samples from other cohorts of prospectively followed individuals.
The trajectory of suicidal ideation across early adolescence may inform the timing of suicide prevention program implementation. This study aimed to identify developmental trajectories of suicidal ideation among an urban cohort of community-residing African Americans (AA) longitudinally followed from middle school through early adulthood (ages 11-19 years). Subtypes based on the developmental course of suicidal ideation from late childhood through mid-adolescence were identified using longitudinal latent class analysis (LLCA) with 581 AA adolescents (52.7% male; 71.1% free or reduced school meals). The developmental trajectories of suicidal ideation were then used to predict suicide attempts in young adulthood. Our LLCA indicated two subtypes (i.e., ideators and nonideators), with 8% of the sample in the ideator class. This trajectory class shows a peak of suicidal ideation in seventh grade and a steady decline in ideation in subsequent grades. Additionally, suicidal ideation trajectories significantly predicted suicide attempt. Results of these analyses suggest the need for suicide prevention approaches prior to high school for AA youth.
The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a universal classroom-based preventive intervention directed at reducing early aggressive, disruptive behavior and improving children's social adaptation into the classroom. GBG is one of the few universal preventive interventions delivered in early elementary school that has been shown to reduce the risk for future suicide attempts. This paper addresses one potential mechanism by which the GBG lowers the risk of later suicide attempt. In this study we tested whether the GBG, by facilitating social adaptation into the classroom early on, including the level of social preference by classmates, thereby lowers future risk of suicide attempts. The measure of social adaptation is based on first and second grade peer reports of social preference (“which children do you like best?”; “which children don't you like?”). As part of the hypothesized meditational model, we examined the longitudinal association between childhood peer social preference and the risk of future suicide attempt, which has not previously been examined. Data were from an epidemiologically-based randomized prevention trial, which tested the GBG among two consecutive cohorts of first grade children in 19 public schools and 41 classrooms. Results indicated that peer social preference partially mediated the relationship between the GBG and the associated reduction of risk for later suicide attempts by adulthood, specifically among children characterized by their first grade teacher as highly aggressive, disruptive. These results suggest that positive childhood peer relations may partially explain the GBG-associated reduction of risk for suicide attempts and may be an important and malleable protective factor for future suicide attempt.
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