Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Suicidal Ideation in Emerging Adults: The Role of Traumatic Stress and Depressive Symptoms Varies by Gender not Race/Ethnicity

Abstract

Drawing from Race-Based Traumatic Stress theory, the present study examined whether traumatic stress and depressive symptoms differentially help explain the relation between racial/ethnic discrimination and suicidal ideation across gender and racial/ethnic groups. A racially/ethnically diverse group of emerging adults (N = 1344; M age = 19.88, SD = 2.25; 72% female; 46% Hispanic) completed a battery of self-report measures. A cross-sectional design was employed with a series of hierarchical linear regression models and bootstrapping procedures to examine the direct and indirect relation between racial/ethnic discrimination and suicidal ideation through traumatic stress and depressive symptoms across gender and race/ethnicity. The findings suggest an indirect relation through depressive symptoms, but not traumatic stress, and a serial indirect relation through traumatic stress to depressive symptoms in young women and young men, the latter of which was stronger in young women. The indirect relations did not vary by racial/ethnic group. Cumulative experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination may impact suicide-related risk via increases in psychiatric symptomology (i.e., traumatic stress and depressive symptoms), particularly in young women. Racial/ethnic discrimination experiences should be accounted for as a potential source of psychological distress in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of suicidal thoughts and behavior, especially among young women endorsing traumatic stress and depressive

Cross-sectional survey of depressive symptoms and suicide-related ideation at a Japanese national university during the COVID-19 stay-home order

“…A meta-analysis of studies based on nationally representative samples in the USA suggested that generally, females have a high risk of depression; however, the higher depression prevalence in females than in males was observed only in early adolescence and gradually disappeared in adulthood [ 21 ]. A US study [ 22 ] on 1344 college students aged 18–29 years (12% Asian) identified women are more likely to develop depressive symptoms (OR 1.99, 95%CI, 1.07–2.90). However, this difference between genders disappeared with suicidal ideation which was consistent with our results.…”

Dimensions of Masculine Norms, Depression, and Mental Health Service Utilization: Results From a Prospective Cohort Study Among Emerging Adult Men in the United States

“…Emerging adulthood is often characterized by elevated stress culminating in a heightened vulnerability to mental health concerns (Adkins et al, 2009;Ghobadzadeh et al, 2019;Lee & Dik, 2017). This vulnerability is compounded for racial minorities and those from low-income communities, given unique stressors (Diggs & Neppl, 2018;Polanco-Roman et al, 2019;Polanco-Roman & Miranda, 2013), who may be less likely to engage in mental health treatment seeking (Blumberg et al, 2015;Chandra et al, 2009;Cummings, 2014;National Institute of Mental Health, 2019;Parent et al, 2018). In the present sample, masculine status was associated with less depressive symptomology and more treatment seeking, especially for emerging adult men who were not depressed.…”

Suicide among Black Children: An Integrated Model of the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide and Intersectionality Theory for Researchers and Clinicians

“…Even more alarming are the effects of racial discrimination on the arousal system which can negatively impact stress regulation systems (Berger & Sarnyai, 2015). This finding reveals that traumatic stress through racial discrimination may be a pathway for increased risk for psychopathology, including suicidal behavior (Polanco-Roman et al, 2019). Race-related trauma stress has been conceptualized in the literature to be one of the leading causes for mental health symptoms among Black youth (Henderson et al, 2019).…”