(PS9-D81) Lean on Me: Protective Factors Associated with Suicide Attempt History Within the Black Community

The rate of suicide has increased by 30% among Black individuals in the US between 2014 to 2019. Much of the work examining suicide in the Black community has examined risk factors, and thus lack an understanding of protective factors that may be helpful in preventing suicide. This study examined protective factors associated with suicide attempt (SA) history among Black adults in a large nationally representative sample.

Participants were 7,766 Black adults (59.4% female). Two self-reported dichotomous variables (yes/no) assessed SA history: ever attempted suicide and recent SA (within the past 5 years or past year). Hypothesized protective factors were marital status, education, employment, religious affiliation, presence of community (region, urbanicity, connectedness with racial/ethnic identity), and support. We used chi-square and analysis of variance to examine relationships between protective factors, ever had a suicide attempt, and recency of SA in Black individuals.

Black adults who were married/cohabitating were less likely to report history of SA both historically and in the past 5 years relative to other marital status categories (ever: χ²(2, N=7,726)=7.4, p=.025; recent: χ²(2, N=327)=12.2, p=.002). Black adults reporting full-time employment, retirement, or engagement in school were less likely to ever attempt suicide relative to other employment categories (χ²(8, N=7,726)=62.4, p< .001). Black adults endorsing a religious affiliation were less likely to ever attempt suicide relative to those without a religious affiliation (χ²(1, N=7,621)=4.9, p=.027). Regarding region, Black adults who lived in the South, as well as the Northeast, were less likely to report ever attempting suicide relative to those living in other regions (χ²(3, N=7,726)=8.4, p=.038). Recency of SA did not differ as a function of employment, religious affiliation, and region. Black adults who never attempted suicide had a higher mean of connectedness with their racial/ethnic identity (F(1, 7,716)=70.5, p< .001) and of familial support prior to 18 years old (F(1, 7,718)=70.9, p< .001) than those who attempted suicide. Recency of SA did not differ between high vs low scorers in either case. Further, Black adults with current familial social support were less likely to ever attempt suicide relative to those without familial support (χ²(1, N=7,694)=21.1, p< .001), whereas recency of SA did not differ in familial support. SA history did not differ as a function of education, urbanicity, or support provided by a Church community.

These results provide hope that suicide factors could be better understood to decrease the rate of suicide in the Black community, despite the potential limitation of not considering systemic issues that may affect protective factors when conducting analyses. Given increasing suicide rates among people in the Black community, promoting protective factors, particularly those related to SA history, would be important to and helpful in decreasing suicide.