Socio-cognitive vulnerability model for suicide ideation in Puerto Rican youth

Authors: Yovanska M. Duarté-Vélez, Jeannette Rosselló and Guillermo Bernal

Background:
Suicide is among the leading causes of violent deaths in the 15 to 34 age group in Puerto Rico. Even though research on suicide behavior in mainstream populations in the United States has increased during the last few decades, in Hispanic populations research is scarce. To develop effective preventive interventions and treatments for this population, it is essential to identify factors associated with suicide risk in Latino/a adolescents and elaborate causal models. The main objective of this study was to develop a causal model to explain vulnerability for suicidal ideation.

Methods:
The study was a cross-sectional survey. The sample consisted of 233 Puerto Rican adolescents (12-19 years of age) from three public schools and two private schools in the San Juan Metropolitan Area. Self-report instruments were administered to asses the following explanatory variables of this study: socio-environmental factors (family dysfunction, social support, life events), cognitive factors (self-esteem, hopelessness), and depressive symptoms.

Results:
All explanatory variables, in addition to female gender and greater age, were significantly related to suicide ideation. For females, mediation analysis showed depressive symptoms mediated the relationship between all socio-environmental factors and suicide ideation. For males, both hopelessness and depressive symptoms mediated the relationship between socio-environmental factors (family dysfunction, social support) and suicide ideation. Also, self-concept mediated the impact of socio-environmental factors on depressive symptoms and hopelessness in both genders. The best model to explain suicidal ideation in females was the combination of depressive symptoms and negative life events (R_ = .57), and for males it was depressive symptoms, negative life events and hopelessness (R_ = .46).

Conclusions:
A socio-cognitive vulnerability model to explain suicide ideation in Puerto Rican adolescents was supported and can help inform the development of evidence-based interventions.

Sources of funding: National Institute of Mental Health, National Research Service Award: Grant Number: F31 MH12708 and the University of Puerto Rico.