Preliminary Reporting Patterns of Suicide Ideation and Attempt Among Native American Adolescents in Two Samples

ObjectiveNative American adolescents are disproportionately burdened by suicidality. Here, we examine patterns of reporting of suicide ideation and suicide attempt among Native American youth compared to those from other ethnoracial backgrounds, as this data is important for grounding commonly subscribed to frameworks of suicide risk (e.g., ideation-to-action).MethodData are from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (N = 54,243; grades 9-12; 51.0% female) and Minnesota Student Survey (N = 335,151; grades 8, 9, 11; 50.7% female). Comparing Native American youth to peers from other ethnoracial backgrounds, we examined two suicide reporting patterns: 1) odds of reporting suicide attempt among those who reported ideation and 2) odds of reporting suicide ideation among those who reported an attempt.ResultsAcross both samples, when reporting suicide ideation, youth from other ethnoracial backgrounds were 20-55% less likely than Native American youth to also report attempt. While few consistent differences were observed between Native American youth and those from other racial minority backgrounds in patterns of co-reporting suicide ideation and attempt across samples, White youth were between 37% and 63% less likely than Native American youth to report a suicide attempt without also reporting ideation.ConclusionsThe increased odds of engaging in a suicide attempt with or without reporting ideation question the generalizability of widely held frameworks of suicide risk to Native American youth and have important implications for suicide risk monitoring. Future research is needed to illuminate how these behaviors unfold over time and the potential mechanisms of risk for engaging in suicide attempts in this disproportionately burdened group.

Automated summary

This study examines the reporting patterns of suicide ideation and attempts among Native American adolescents compared to other ethnoracial backgrounds. The findings show that Native American youth are more likely to report suicide attempts after reporting ideation, while White youth are less likely to report ideation without attempts.