Impact of Parental Incarceration and Substance Use on Suicidal Planning of African American Youth Living in Urban Public Housing

Background: This study examined the impact of parental incarceration and substance use on suicidal planning of African American youth living in public housing. In addition to increased suicide rates, urban African American youth are also disproportionately impacted by parental incarceration (Johnson, 2009) and parental substance abuse (Repetti et al., 2002; Donenberg et al., 2006). Many youth adapt to the loss of their parents to prison or addiction by engaging in health-risk behaviors while others may contemplate suicide. Given the health-risk behaviors commonly associated with the loss of a parent to incarceration or substance abuse, understanding their impact on suicidal behavior may have important implications for the well-being of African American youth. We hypothesize when youth are unable to cope with or meet the demands placed on them by the loss of their parents (e.g., parental incarceration or substance abuse) they may feel hopeless, which leads to plans to commit suicide.

Methods: Guided by Family Stress Theory to help understand the impact of family stressors (i.e., parental incarceration and parental substance use) on a sample of 190 African American (mean age 19.9) youth living in public housing. This study is cross-sectional and comprises African American adolescents living in public housing located in a large Mid-Atlantic city.  Primary analyses included univariate descriptive statistics, Chi-square comparisons by gender and a Kendall's tau_b Non-parametric Correlation. The primary analytic procedure included a two-step Sequential Logistic Regression analysis.

Results: Significantly more males (19.2%) than females (6.0%) reported they made a plan to commit suicide. Males reported significantly more mothers with drug (39.7%) and alcohol problems (37.0%) compared to females (19.7%) and (12.0%), respectively. Males (38.4%) also reported more fathers with alcohol problems compared to females (21.4%). Males also reported a higher (19.2%) maternal incarceration rates compared to females (1.7%). At the bivariate level having made a plan to commit suicide in the last 12 months was positively related to gender (r=.205) and having a mother currently in prison (r=.377). The overall Logistic Regression model significantly distinguished youth who reported having made a plan to commit suicide in the last 12-months from those who did not devise a plan [-2 Log likelihood = 105.68; χ² (df=6) = 17.05; p<.01].

Conclusions: In this sample of youth, African American males are at increased risk of suicidal planning so there is needs to both critically assess their suicidal thoughts and ideations, especially when their parents have histories of incarceration and substance use. This is critical to developing approaches for treatment and intervention development for youth living in public housing.