Attitudes Towards Youth and Adult Suicide, Results from a Community Survey in Harris County

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic suicide deaths increased among Latinx and African American youth. These groups have historically experienced lower rates of suicide as well as faced barriers to accessing mental health care. Limited research exists examining attitudes towards suicide and suicide prevention in under-resourced communities and whether attitudes towards youth and adult suicide differs. The current study investigates attitudes towards youth and adult suicide and its prevention in Harris County, Texas. Additionally, the study investigates whether race and ethnicity predict familiarity with suicide and whether this familiarity has any relationship to knowledge of the local crisis line.

Methods: The study’s data is from a recent survey in Harris County, Texas. The survey targeted 10 zip codes that had been disproportionally impacted by COVID, suicide deaths, and low mental health service utilization. Surveys were administered at community events using iPads or participants’ cell phones. Items measuring attitude towards suicide and suicide prevention were taken from Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training Program QPR Knowledge Quiz measure (Tompkins et al., 2009). The authors adapted this measure so that general attitudes could be assessed as well as attitudes by age cohort (adult versus youth suicides). An additional two items were added asking about exposures to suicide in the neighborhood and awareness of the local suicide prevention hotline. Multiple linear and logistic regression analyses were conducted as well as Chi-Square tests with IBM SPSS (version 29).

Results: Survey respondents (n=285) were predominately individuals who identified as female (82%). Latinx were over half of the sample (53%) followed by African Americans (28%) Asians/Others (11%) and Caucasians (7%). Results of the multiple regression analyses found gender to be the only significant predictor across the three models. Males were found to have a more positive attitude towards suicide and prevention than women for youth suicide (F = 2.29, p = .01, β =1.28, p =.01), adult suicide (F = 2.19, p = .01, β =1.29, p =.01), and all-ages suicide (F=2.18, p = .01, β =1.32, p =.01). For familiarity of suicide, 72% of respondents reported no awareness and 28% indicated they had heard of at least a single occurrence. Results of the logistical regression found no impact of demographic factors on familiarity to suicide. Sixty percent of respondents knew of the local crisis line Results of the Chi-squared test examining the association between familiarity to suicides and awareness of the suicide crisis line found no statistical association.

Implications: This study’s primary results indicate the importance of gender in attitudes towards suicide and its treatment across age groups. The result was not what was hypothesized as traditionally men are less engaged in formal mental health care. Given that this sample is largely drawn from Latinx respondents it will be important that further research looks into possible understandings of this finding. This study’s findings also suggest that suicide prevention efforts could be aimed at all ages, as there appeared to be no differences in attitudes towards youth and adult suicide.