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Culture Identity, Africultural Coping Strategies, and Depression as Predictors of Suicidal Ideations and Attempts Among African American Female College Students

Faculty #77
Discipline: Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
Subcategory: STEM Research
- Virginia State University
Co-Author(s): Reginald Hopkins



Suicide prevention is now a major health concern in America for many minority groups in the United States. Although African American women have one of the lowest suicide rates in the country, there is limited research exploring the underlying causes of this phenomenon. There is growing consensus that the cultural practices and beliefs of African American women may influence their low rates of suicide. This study explores role of cultural identity, Africultural coping strategies, and depression as predictors of suicidal ideations and attempts among African American female college students. It was hypothesized that suicidal ideations and attempts are negatively related to cultural identity and Africultural coping styles, but positively related to depression. One hundred and thirty-seven African American students were administered a battery of measures assessing cultural identity, coping strategies, suicidal ideations and attempts. Pearson correlations and binary logistic regressions were used to evaluate the data and test the major hypothesis. Results revealed that Africultural coping strategies and depression emerged as significant predictors of suicidal ideation and attempts. Spiritual-centered coping was the strongest predictor of past year and lifetime suicidal ideations, as well as lifetime suicidal attempts amongst cultural identity, cognitive emotional coping and depression. Future research should investigate risk and resiliency of African Americans and the effectiveness of culturally tailored interventions focused on spiritual and collective centered coping in reducing suicidal ideations and attempts. A greater understanding of cognitive-emotional coping is needed as it may be impacted by acculturative stress and increased negative behavioral outcomes in African Americans, particularly if they are depressed.

References: Kaslow, N., Thompson, M., Meadows, L., Chance, S., Puett, R., Hollins, L., Jessee, S., Kellerman, A. (2000). Risk factor for suicide attempts among African American women. Depression and Anxiety. (12), 12-20.

Spates, K. (2011). Africa American women and suicide: a review ad critique of the literature. Sociology Compass 5/5, 336-350

Stack, S. (1998). The relationship between culture and suicide: An analysis of African Americans. Transcultural Psychiatry, 35(2), 253-269.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): Virginia State University

Faculty Advisor: None Listed,

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. DUE-1930047. Any opinions, findings, interpretations, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of its authors and do not represent the views of the AAAS Board of Directors, the Council of AAAS, AAAS’ membership or the National Science Foundation.

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