Who Ya Gonna Call: Differences in Help-Seeking Behaviors Among Hope Squad Schools and Non-Hope Squad Schools

Background and Purpose: Suicide is one the leading causes of death for youth in the United States. Many families and communities are affected by youth suicides, as suicide rates are increasing. Hope Squads are peer-support teams consisting of students who provide outreach on suicide prevention and referrals for students at risk of suicide. One intention of Hope Squads is to increase help-seeking behavior. Our research question was whether there are differences in the proportions of students who seek help at schools where there is a Hope Squad as compared to help-seeking among students whose schools do not have a Hope Squad. Methods: We examined student surveys from the 2017 Utah SHARP Survey (N=34,182) that was coded to reflect whether students attended a school with a Hope Squad. Sixty-six percent of students surveyed attended a school with a Hope Squad. Nonparametric, crosstab analyses were used to assess whether proportions of help seeking were higher for students attending a school with a Hope Squad. Results: Overall, help-seeking was low. Differences were noted, however, within the whole sample of students who attended Hope Squad schools. These students were significantly more likely to report feeling very sad, hopeless or suicidal to a parent (p=.008). The overall effect of attending a Hope Squad school on help-seeking for the general student population was small (.04). Students who endorsed risk for suicide reported significantly higher rates of help seeking in Hope Squad schools, overall. This was true for students with suicidal ideation (parent, p=.009; doctor, p=.016); suicide plan (doctor, p=.030), single suicide attempt (parent, p=.006; teacher, p=.0001); two or three suicide attempts (doctor, p=.030). In contrast, students who endorsed six or more suicide attempts were more likely to speak with a teacher if they attended a school without a Hope Squad. The cumulative effect size of attending a school with a Hope Squad on help-seeking was 0.24, which indicates that the differences in help-seeking represent a small effect. Students in both groups showed no significant differences in help-seeking on most variables. Conclusions and Implications: While these results do not show cause and effect, the small effect size and increased rate of help-seeking suggests the possibility of different cultures related help-seeking in schools where there is a Hope Squad. These results warrant additional research on the effect of Hope Squads on help-seeking behavior and suicide intervention. Youth suicide contributes to community violence and efforts need to be made to prevent it in our communities.