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Suicide is the second leading cause of death among Asian American youth. Few studies have examined the risk and protective factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB) for Asian American middle school students. This study used data from the Georgia Student Health Survey 2.0 to examine the relationship between individual (gender, grade level, substance use, mental health difficulties, face-to-face victimization, and cyber victimization), school (school climate, racial diversity at school, school size, student-teacher ratio, and socioeconomic status), and familial (parental involvement) predictors of STB among 12,511 Asian American middle school students from 510 schools (50.1% girls). Results showed that both face-to-face and cyber victimization predicted higher levels of STB. Positive school climate at the individual level buffered the relationship between face-to-face victimization and STB, whereas positive school climate at the school level buffered the relationship between cyber victimization and STB. Gender was also a significant moderator of these relationships. Specifically, both types of peer victimization predicted more STB for girls than for boys. Parental involvement mitigated the relationship between face-to-face victimization and STB for girls. Positive school climate at the individual level buffered the relationship between cyber victimization and STB for boys. Findings highlight the importance of school climate, parental involvement, and gender differences in STB among Asian American students. What is the public significance of this article?This study suggests that peer victimization (both face-to-face and cyber), negative school climate, and lack of parental involvement predicted more suicidal thoughts and behaviors among Asian American middle school students. Positive school climate may buffer the negative impact of victimization on suicide. Parental involvement may buffer the impact of face-to-face victimization on suicide for girls. It is important to promote positive school climate and parental involvement, reduce bullying, and consider gender differences to reduce suicide.

Middle school is a risky period, marked by increased peer victimization, and the onset of several mental disorders, including suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs). Parental involvement is critical to students’ well-being; however, few studies have examined the role of parental involvement among middle school students or its effect on their mental health. This study examined the effects of perceived parental involvement and victimization on adolescents’ mental health difficulties (MHDs) and STBs. We also investigated whether these effects varied across demographic groups, and whether perceived parental involvement buffers the relationship between victimization and students’ mental health outcomes. The sample consisted of 301,628 students (50.7% female) from 615 middle schools (Grades 6 to 8) in Georgia (United States). Hierarchical linear modeling showed that higher student-level perceived parental involvement was related to fewer MHDs (b = −0.20) and STBs (b = −0.10), and higher school-level perceived parental involvement was related to fewer STBs (b = −0.11). However, higher student-level (b = 0.25, 0.08) and school-level (b = 0.37, 0.10) traditional victimization were associated with more MHDs and STBs. Student-level perceived parental involvement was also more positively related to MHDs and STBs for 6th (b = 0.06, 0.04) and 7th graders (b = 0.03, 0.02) than for 8th graders, and it was more negatively related to MHDs (b = −0.24) and STBs (b = −0.13) for girls than for boys. Perceived parental involvement also moderated the relationships among traditional victimization, cyber victimization MHDs, and STBs. Implications are discussed relating to how schools can promote parental involvement and student mental health.

Although school climate has been identified as a protective factor for youth development in the United States, few longitudinal studies have examined the relationship between school climate and student outcomes in China. This study explored the relationship between school climate, victimization, covitality, internalizing symptoms, and academic achievement, and whether school climate moderated the relationship between victimization and mental health outcomes using longitudinal data. Survey data were collected from 1150 Chinese 3rd to 6th grade students (M age ¼ 10.27 years, SD ¼ 1.03 years, 55% boys) from five elementary schools at two time points. Regression results showed that school climate factors, including student-teacher