Search

Because of the unexpected and debilitating effect of the current pandemic, the impact of the pandemic on teachers is detrimental. This paper investigated the public-school teachers' sleep, religious tasks, and suicidal thoughts. The study used a descriptive correlational de-sign with the online survey as the primary data gathering tool. 198 public school teachers from a school's division in Central Luzon, Philippines participated in the online survey. The researchers created the online instrument with validation done by experts. After the data gathering, the study used the following statistical tools to calculate the frequency count, percentage, rank, t-test, and Analysis of Variance with the help of SPSS 22. Results show that teachers go to sleep be-tween 10:00-11:00 PM and wake up between 5:00-6:00 AM. This comprises 7-9 hours of sleep. Teachers also go to church or other religious meetings once a week and also, they pray, meditate, or study the Bible more than once a week. Also, most of the responses of teachers in the suicidal thoughts were either "no" or "never". Furthermore, the study also found significant differences in the teachers' sleep, religious tasks, and suicidal thoughts when grouped according to their profile. The study concluded that teachers have established sleep and religious tasks routines. On the other hand, suicidal thoughts are out of the options for the teachers' business.

In a national sample of current school counselors with membership in the American School Counselor Association (N = 226), we examined the prevalence of suicide training among school counselors as well as differences in suicide assessment self-efficacy and workplace anxiety between school counselors who were exposed to student suicide and those who were not. The results indicate that 38% of school counselors were not prepared for suicide prevention during graduate training. Although school counselors' exposure to suicide was not related to their workplace anxiety, those who were exposed to a student suicide attempt had higher suicide assessment self-efficacy scores than those who were not. This study demonstrates the impact of suicide exposure on school counselors and the need for additional suicide assessment training.

First responders are continually exposed to trauma-related events. Resilience is evidenced as a protective factor for mental health among first responders. However, there is a lack of assessments that measure the construct of resilience from a strength-based perspective. The present study used archival data from a treatment-seeking sample of 238 first responders to validate the 22-item Response to Stressful Experiences Scale (RSES-22) and its abbreviated version, the RSES-4, with two confirmatory factor analyses. Using a subsample of 190 first responders, correlational analyses were conducted of the RSES-22 and RSES-4 with measures of depressive symptoms, post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and suicidality confirming convergent and criterion validity. The two confirmatory analyses revealed a poor model fit for the RSES-22; however, the RSES-4 demonstrated an acceptable model fit. Overall, the RSES-4 may be a reliable and valid measure of resilience for treatment-seeking first responder populations.

This article introduces the development and implementation of the Psychological Maltreatment Inventory (PMI) assessment with child respondents receiving services because of an open child abuse and/or neglect case in the Midwest (N = 166). Sixteen items were selected based on the literature, subject matter expert refinement, and readability assessments. Results indicate the PMI has high reliability ([alpha] = 0.91). There was no evidence the PMI total score was influenced by demographic characteristics. A positive relationship was discovered between PMI scores and general trauma symptom scores on the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children Screening Form (TSCC-SF; r = 0.78, p = 0.01). Evidence from this study demonstrates the need to refine the PMI for continued use with children. Implications for future research include identification of psychological maltreatment in isolation, further testing and refinement of the PMI, and exploring the potential relationship between psychological maltreatment and suicidal ideation.

Students with disabilities are a growing population on college and university campuses across the United States. Despite this, the mental health status and service utilization of students with disabilities remain largely understudied. From a public health perspective, large-scale research is needed to understand the mental and behavioral health needs of these students and inform evidence-based intervention and prevention efforts. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of mental health symptoms and rates of mental health help-seeking in a national sample of college students with disabilities (N=6,382) and to compare these outcomes to a national sample of students without registered disabilities (N=86,966). The large and diverse sample drawn from 60 campuses provides a valuable opportunity to explore mental health variations within the population of students with disabilities. Results demonstrate that students with disabilities have significantly higher prevalence rates of mental health problems and are more likely to utilize mental health services compared to students without disabilities. Overall, students with disabilities report finances and a lack of convenience as the main reasons for accessing fewer counseling sessions. The findings of this population-level analysis can provide insight into the mental and behavioral health needs of students with disabilities. In doing so, this study can inform disability service providers and deans of students on college campuses of the significance of addressing the mental health needs of a highly vulnerable population.

Background: Schools are essential public health partners for safeguarding students' health. Child Death Review (CDR) is one public health activity where collaboration with schools is integral for developing strategies to prevent child death but the degree of collaboration is unknown. This study assessed school participation in CDR and the prevalence of school problems in reviewed child death cases, comparing non-suicide and suicide-related deaths. Methods: Using the National Fatality Review-Case Reporting System, we created a dataset of school-aged children (5 to 20 years) whose death was reviewed from 2005 to 2017 and used frequencies, proportions, and chi-squared statistics on selected measures. Results: Educational representatives infrequently participated in CDRs (24.9%). School records were rarely accessed for reviewed deaths (5.2%). Less than half (41.2%) of reviewed deaths had any school information and of these, 35.5% of children were indicated as having problems in school. Compared with non-suicide deaths, a larger proportion of suicide deaths had school representatives attend CDRs (28.4% vs 24.1%, P < 0.0001), and access to educational records (4.2% vs 9.2%, P < 0.0001). Implications: Efforts are needed to address potential barriers to systems integration, including state policies and federal educational privacy laws. Conclusions: School participation in CDRs is lacking for both suicide and non-suicide deaths.

Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among adolescents, globally. Though post-primary, school-based suicide prevention (PSSP) has the potential to be a key strategy for preventing adolescent suicidal thoughts and behaviours (STBs), there are persisting challenges to translating PSSP research to practice. Intervention and contextual factors relevant to PSSP are likely key to both PSSP effectiveness and implementation. As such, this systematic review aimed to summarise the effectiveness of PSSP for adolescent STBs and highlight important intervention and contextual factors with respect to PSSP. PsycINFO, Medline, Education Source, ERIC, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched to identify randomised and non-randomised studies evaluating the effectiveness of interventions located in post-primary, school-based settings targeting adolescent STBs. PSSP effectiveness and intervention and contextual factors were synthesised narratively. Twenty-eight studies were retained, containing nearly 47,000 participants. Twelve out of twenty-nine trials comparing intervention and independent control comparators reported statistically significant reductions in STBs postintervention, and 5/7 trials comparing preintervention and postintervention scores demonstrated significant reductions in STBs over time. Reporting and analysis of intervention and contextual factors were lacking across studies, but PSSP effectiveness and intervention acceptability varied across type of school. Although school personnel commonly delivered PSSP interventions, their input and perspectives on PSSP interventions were lacking. Notably, adolescents had little involvement in designing, inputting on, delivering and sharing their perspectives on PSSP interventions. Twenty out of twenty-eight studies were rated as moderate/high risk of bias, with non-randomised trials demonstrating greater risks of bias and trial effectiveness, in comparison to cluster randomised trials. Future research should prioritise complete reporting and analysis of intervention and contextual factors with respect to PSSP, involving key stakeholders (including adolescents and school personnel) in PSSP, and investigating key stakeholders' perspectives on PSSP. Given the inverse associations between both study quality and study design with PSSP effectiveness, particular consideration to study quality and design in PSSP research is needed. Future practice should consider PSSP interventions with universal components and PSSP which supports and involves key stakeholders in engaging with PSSP.

Notable increases in youth mental health problems combined with strains on the already stretched mental health workforce raise concerns that there will be an ensuing increase in youth suicide thoughts, behaviors, and even deaths. Schools are recognized as crucial settings for youth mental health support and suicide prevention activities, yet schools also face staff shortages and ever-increasing responsibilities for student well-being. Evidence is emerging that prevention programs originally designed to improve problem-solving skills and social-emotional functioning in youth have demonstrated downstream, "crossover effects," that is, unanticipated benefits, on youth suicidal behavior. Relatively little research on crossover effects has been conducted within school settings, despite the strong potential for commonly administered programs to have an impact on later suicide risk. We review key suicide risk factors and their proposed mechanisms of action; we also discuss factors that may protect against suicide risk. We then identify upstream prevention programs targeting the same factors and mechanisms; these programs may hold promise for downstream, crossover effects on youth suicide risk. This paper is intended to provide a framework to help researchers, practitioners, and policymakers as they consider how to prevent youth suicide using existing school-based resources. Rigorous investigation of upstream prevention programs is urgently needed to determine ideal approaches schools and communities can deploy to prevent youth suicide.

The objective of this study has been to analyze the impact of emotional intelligence (EI), interpersonal difficulties and life satisfaction in the relationship between victimization and suicidal ideation. For this purpose, a total of 898 adolescents responded to the Peer School Victimization Scale, Wong-Law Emotional Intelligence Scale and Suicide Risk Inventory for Adolescents. Results from the mediation analysis revealed how EI, interpersonal difficulties and life satisfaction mediated the relationship between bullying victimization and suicidal ideation. Moreover, the moderation analyses revealed that the association between EI and suicidal ideation was moderated by gender and by age. Finally, from the moderated moderation analyses, it was observed how in cases of relational victimization, EI helped to reduce suicidal ideation to a greater degree in students that had never retaken a course than in students with this feature.

Objective: The current study evaluated the long-term effectiveness of a peer delivered suicide prevention gatekeeper training program for college students. Participants: 1,345 undergraduate students (M[subscript age] = 20.24, SD = 3.27; 89.6% White) received the peer led training during a single class-period. Method: Participants completed pre- post- and 3-month follow-up surveys assessing knowledge, perceived intervention skills, willingness to intervene, and self-efficacy. Engagement in gatekeeper behaviors were assessed at follow-up. Two open-ended questions provided data for qualitative analysis. Results: Both quantitative and qualitative data indicated that participants showed substantial increases in all outcomes from pre- to post-training, and these gains were maintained at follow-up. Participants reported engaging in gatekeeper intervention behaviors at follow-up and qualitative results provide evidence this was due to the training. Conclusion: Peer led suicide prevention gatekeeper training is feasible, appears to be effective, and can enhance campus' capacity to provide sustainable suicide prevention programming on campus.

Objective: College counseling centers (CCCs) have limited capacity to accommodate high-risk students who need more intensive care than traditional outpatient treatment. We describe an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) to meet the specialized needs of suicidal undergraduates. Participants: Suicidal undergraduates aged 18--24. Methods: Fact-gathering meetings with local universities confirmed high need for prompt access to IOP care for students presenting in crisis at CCCs and emergency rooms, and post-inpatient discharge. We thus iteratively designed and implemented the College Option Services for Teens at Risk (COSTAR) IOP. Results: The 6-week program includes initial diagnostic evaluation and risk assessment followed by weekly skills groups, individual therapy, and medication management. Between September 2017 and January 2020, 148 students (M age = 19.7) attended an average of 5.7 COSTAR group sessions (SD = 4.7). Conclusions: A specialty IOP for suicidal college students holds promise in a stepped care approach for at-risk college students.

Objective: To compare academic and mental health outcomes across diverse gender identities in the context of interpersonal violence and campus housing. Participants: 45,549 students from 124 self-selected post-secondary institutions. Methods: Various academic and health measures from the National College Health Assessment Spring 2017 dataset were analyzed for differences across five gender identities (cis women, cis men, transwomen, transmen, and genderqueer students), and two housing categories (university housing and non-university housing). Results: When compared to cisgender peers, gender diverse students reported greater experiences of interpersonal violence and higher levels of negative academic and mental health outcomes. Living in university housing was associated with an increase in these disparities. Conclusions: University housing, which usually reinforces fixed gender binaries, is associated with worse outcomes for gender diverse students. These data can help higher education institutions better understand and address problems that disproportionately impact transgender and gender diverse students, who represent a growing demographic.

Objective: The revised Willingness to Intervene against Suicide questionnaire and the Expanded Revised Facts on Suicide Quiz were employed to examine the relationship between college students' knowledge about suicide and intention to intervene. Participants: College students (n = 515) participated, a majority being women and Caucasian. Methods: Participants completed an online survey. Data were analyzed in SPSS. Results: College students have poor knowledge of suicide facts; however, this low level of accurate knowledge was not associated with intention to intervene with a suicidal person. Attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, sex, and no previous suicide attempt were all significant predictors of intention to intervene. Conclusions: These results challenge the notion that one must be well-informed in order to intend to take action.

Research on planning, method choice, and method substitution in adolescents' suicide attempts is limited. We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 adolescents following their suicide attempt to learn the extent to which the attempt was planned, why they used the method they did, and whether they would have substituted another method if the one they used had been unavailable. Applied Thematic Analysis was used to identify codes and develop themes. Attempts were largely unplanned, and planned attempts were often haphazard, as urgency to escape immediate pain was a main impetus for the attempt. Method choice was driven by easy access. Half of participants said they would not have attempted suicide if the method they used were inaccessible, but 7 of 20 said they would have, and 3 were unsure. Not all suicide attempts would be prevented by blocking access to methods that adolescent attempters would otherwise use. To understand whether restricting access to low-lethality methods could harm some attempters, future research should examine in-the-moment method substitution.

Objective: Most college students have experienced an adverse event in their lifetime, yet help-seeking rates remain low. This study seeks to understand psychological factors that might contribute to delays in treatment initiation among trauma-affected students. Participants: Our sample consisted of 531 undergraduate students of which 27% scored above the clinical cutoff for PTSD using the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). Methods: This cross-sectional study explored relationships among help-seeking attitudes, emotion dysregulation, and PTSD symptoms using structural equation modeling. Results: Findings demonstrated that individuals with more severe emotion dysregulation had more severe PTSD symptoms and held more negative attitudes toward seeking help. Conclusions: Individuals who are the most in need of treatment hold attitudes that may impede help-seeking. We discuss clinical implications and ways college counseling centers can maximize outreach and programming efforts to increase treatment initiation and engagement.

Objective: College students who receive an acute care visit (ACV) from an emergency or inpatient unit require mental health follow-up (MHF) to improve long-term outcomes. This study describes tracking ACVs and MHF, while identifying characteristics of multiple vs. single ACVs. Participants: 191 students who received an ACV (N = 231) at one public university -- enrollment approximately 39,000. Methods: For two academic years (AYs), students were tracked and offered timely MHF. Demographics, clinical information, utilization patterns, and rates of MHF were analyzed. Results: Primary reasons for an ACV were suicidal thinking (60.6%) and psychosis (13.9%). MHF improved between AYs (65.8% to 93.3%, X[superscript 2] = 27.48, p < 0.01). Multiple vs. single visits were more likely to present with self-injurious behavior and psychosis and received more intensive follow-up yet, had similar rates of MHF. Conclusions: The primary reasons for an ACV -- suicidal thinking and psychosis -- underscore the importance of campus suicide prevention and psychosis-specific services.

Objective: Increased demands during the transition into college can negatively impact students' physical and mental wellness, and increase risk of suicide. A supportive campus culture that promotes social connectedness and meaningful engagement may amplify wellness and prevent suicide. This study explored whether involvement in extracurricular activities was associated with wellness and suicide ideation and non-fatal suicidal behavior through perceived social support and meaningfulness. Method: Undergraduate students (N = 583) recruited from a southeastern university completed a survey of self-report measures. Two parallel mediation models were tested utilizing Hayes PROCESS macro for SPSS. Results: Perceived social support fully mediated the relationship between extracurricular activity involvement and wellness, [beta] = 0.06, 95%CI [0.03, 0.10], but not suicide ideation and non-fatal suicidal behavior. Meaningfulness was not associated with wellness or suicide ideation and non-fatal suicidal behavior. Conclusion: Increased stress is a natural and expected component of university life. ECA involvement may impact college wellness by promoting social support.

Objective: The aim was to determine the unique predictors of suicide risk in first-year college students. Participants: First-year students (N = 665) at a Midwestern university participated. Methods: An online survey assessed Joiner's interpersonal factors (i.e., thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and acquired capability) as well as intrapersonal factors (i.e., perfectionism, self-compassion, emotional intelligence/reactivity, and growth mindset) often associated with suicidal thoughts and actions. Results: Linear regression indicated that the factor set significantly predicted thoughts, F (12, 632) = 114.90, p < 0.000, R[superscript 2] = 0.680, and actions, F (12, 632) = 58.42, p < 0.000, R[superscript 2] = 0.526. Perceived burdensomeness, acquired capability, and underrepresented sexual orientation were positive predictors of both thoughts and actions, whereas growth mindset was a negative predictor of thoughts and stressful life events was a positive predictor of actions. Conclusion: The results offer direction for evidence-informed interventions aimed at reducing suicide risk in first-year college students.

Objectives: Mental health first aid (MHFA) may have beneficial effects on the public's knowledge, attitude, and behavior; however, its effectiveness in increasing mental health literacy on college students remains unknown. Methods: We systematically searched the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases from inception to January 2020. We included trials that compared the effect between the MHFA program group and control group on the knowledge, stigmatizing attitudes, confidence, and intention of college students. A random-effects model was used. Results: We analyzed five trials involving 1134 participants and found that the MHFA program could significantly increase the student's knowledge (SMD: 0.49, 95% CI: [0.28-0.70]) and confidence (SMD: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.24-1.19). Conclusions: Overall, the MHFA program could increase college students' knowledge regarding mental health and confidence to support people with mental health problems. However, well-designed control trials are required to investigate the program's effect on mental health literacy in college students.

Objective: The study aimed to assess the prevalence of depression and its associated factors among university students in Bangladesh. Participants: A total of 403 undergraduate students from Patuakhali Science and Technology University, and Barisal University participated in the study. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted using Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI). Result: The prevalence of depression (BDI = 14) was 47.14%. Depression was 3.4 times (95% CI: 1.6-7.1), 3.8 times (95% CI: 1.7-8.6), and 3.9 times (95% CI: 1.5-8.9) higher among 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-year students, respectively than 1st-year students. Students with a history of stressful life events (aOR = 2.7, 95% CI: 1.7-4.4), suicidal attempts (aOR = 3.0, 95% CI: 1.2-7.9), and who received inadequate monthly allowance from their family (aOR = 0.53 95% CI: 0.3-0.9) were more likely to develop depressive symptoms. Conclusion: This study reports a high level of depression among university students which needs further discussion, exploration, and calls for designing appropriate interventions.

Objective: Interoceptive deficits have been linked to suicidality and eating disorders. The relationship between disordered eating symptoms and suicidality may depend on the level of interoceptive deficits. It was expected that interoceptive deficits would moderate the relationship between disordered eating symptoms (oral control, dieting, and bulimia) and suicidality (suicide attempts, ideation, and communication) when interoceptive deficits were high. Methods: University students (N = 417, Mage = 19.75, 78.2% white, 72.4% female) completed self-report measures that assessed disordered eating, interoceptive deficits, and suicide history. Results: Interoceptive deficits emerged as a significant moderator only in the association between bulimia symptoms and suicidality, when interoceptive deficits were high. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that bulimia symptoms may have a unique interaction with interoceptive deficits and suicidality. Future research should focus on targeting interoceptive deficits in treatment to help reduce disordered eating symptoms and suicide risk, particularly for students with bulimia symptoms.

Background: People with learning disabilities are over-represented amongst Sexual Assault Referral Centre service users. This work aims to explore the similarities and differences between service users with and without learning disabilities. Method: Medical notes of 52 service users likely to have a learning disability were compared with 52 service users not likely to have a learning disability (according to the Learning Disability Screening Questionnaire); all of whom attended Saint Marys SARC for a forensic medical examination during a 12-month period. Results: Significant associations were found between the likelihood of learning disability and relationship to perpetrator; location of assault; alcohol use; time taken to present to SARC; domestic violence; self-harm; suicide attempts and mental health service involvement. Conclusions: People with learning disabilities in the sexually assaulted population are more likely to present with intersecting vulnerabilities emphasising the need for timely, accessible and appropriate patient-centred care for this group.

Residence hall directors function as first responders during times of on-campus residential crisis and also train resident assistants on crisis procedures. These directors are often relied upon to serve as intermediaries for residential students when they are impeded by long wait times to see someone in campus counseling services. In addition, they work directly with resident assistants, some of whom experience suicidal ideation and need immediate support. This qualitative study explored how supervising suicidal resident assistants shaped the career planning and attrition of residence hall directors. A basic qualitative research design was used to better understand how residence hall directors made sense of their experience. This study captured the unique experiences of six current and four former directors in one higher education institution in the United States, some of whom confirmed their career path and some of whom changed direction following the experience. Implications for practice include having a supportive and competent supervisor, offering counseling sessions for these directors, and helping them create appropriate boundaries between their personal and professional lives. [The discussion questions at the close of this article were developed by Stacey Garrett.]

Background: In clinical settings, there is significant need for brief, easily-administered assessment tools for adolescent depression that can be used by mental health clinicians from a variety of training backgrounds. Existing depression screening tools do not assess for duration and consistency of symptoms, two key indicators of pathological depression. Objective: The Brief Adolescent Depression Screen (BADS) was developed to screen for major and persistent depressive disorders in adolescents in order to meet the assessment needs in an inpatient setting, and the validity of this tool was tested. Method: The current study used a sample of 396 inpatient adolescents to assess the screening utility of the BADS for detecting whether the adolescent meets criteria for a depressive diagnosis according to a well-validated semi-structured interview, as well as detecting a positive history of suicidal behavior. Further, the screening utility of this measure was compared to the utility of an established depression rating scale. Results: Analyses first determined the duration of depressive symptoms on the BADS that optimally screened for the presence of Major Depressive Disorder and Persistent Depressive Disorder. Findings indicated that, using these optimal screening cut-offs, the BADS showed a strong screening utility, resulting in a sensitivity and specificity for identifying full depressive diagnoses and a positive history of suicidal behavior with similar or greater accuracy than an established rating scale. Conclusions: These findings provide initial evidence to suggest that the BADS may be a helpful screening tool for adolescent depressive disorders in inpatient settings.

This article examines the emotional work that young adult care leavers perform during their transition to adulthood. It is based on 30 biographical interviews with young adults (formerly) placed in care. Among researchers, social workers and policy makers, there is a need to understand what young people do about their feelings when they have been exposed to bereavement, abuse, neglect and conflict. Furthermore, it is important to understand how feelings associated with growing up with hard times impact young adults' everyday lives. To understand what young adults who have been placed in care "think" and "do" about their feelings in relation to their birth parents, I draw on Hochschild's model of "deep acting" and "surface acting" [Hochschild, A. R. (1979). Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure. American Journal of Sociology, 85(3), 551-575. https://doi.org/10.1086/227049; Hochschild, A. R. (1983). "The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling." University of Chicago Press]. The study reveals that these young adults constantly engage in emotion work to manage feelings towards their birth parents that do not fit within social guidelines for how to feel about one's parents. These "misfitting" feelings include hate, anger, disgust and distrust but also love and admiration towards the birth parents who neglected and abused them. Managing these feelings leaves the young adults in moments of "pinch or discrepancy" that they must act on to successfully transition to adulthood.

Despite advances in suicide risk assessment and intervention, evidence-based suicide prevention training for university health service providers is still lacking. This study evaluated the core competency model of suicide prevention training for an interdisciplinary sample of university counseling and student health providers (N = 21). Training was delivered in a half-day workshop format. Participants completed a pre-post training assessment survey. Student health provider risk screening practices were also assessed in the time-period preceding and following training implementation. Consistent with expectations, training yielded significant and robust improvements in providers' perceived suicide prevention skills and suicide prevention knowledge. However, suicide prevention attitudes and clinical response recognition did not reliably improve. Training was also associated with a greater frequency of student health service providers' mental health screening administration. The core competency model demonstrates promise as an evidence-informed training program for university counseling center and student health providers.

Education has wide-ranging benefits to both the individual and wider society. This article investigates the consequences of terrorist incidents on whether households can further their children's schooling. Using both the Global Terrorism Database and Pakistan's Social and Living Standards Measurement, we find that persistent exposure to terrorism significantly reduces the likelihood that parents will continue their children's education. The result suggests, that for every million people, an increase in terrorist incidents causes 26,501 fewer children to continue their education at the primary school education level. We also examine the results by various demographic segments and types of terrorism attacks.

Suicide continues to be a considerable health risk among adolescents and is the second leading cause of death among adolescents between the ages of 10 and 24. Middle school-aged adolescents may be at a heightened risk for suicide, as middle school can be rife with intrapersonal and interpersonal stressors. One such stressor may be sexual activity and navigating sexual relationships. Past research has shown that parents can play an important role in helping adolescents cope with stressors at this age, but there is no identified research assessing whether parental conversations about sex are associated with suicidality among adolescents. The current study addressed this gap via secondary data analysis using logistic regression with a sample of 3,568 middle school students (mean age = 12.74; SD = 1.08). Results suggest that parental conversations about sex are a significant protective factor against suicidality, but only among adolescents who report having engaged in sexual activity.

Adolescents in South Korea have been facing physical (physical inactivity) and social-emotional (e.g., bullying and suicide) challenges in the last few decades. To address these issues, the Ministry of Education in South Korea implemented School Sports Club as a part of the school curriculum. This article introduces the overview, the goals and structure, the status quo, and the future directions of the School Sports Club. School Sports Club is offered during the regular school time and a required curriculum. The primary goal of the School Sports Club is to increase physical activity opportunities, strengthen humanistic education, prevent bullying, and ultimately develop a positive attitude in their school life among students. In School Sports Club, teachers are allowed to select the content that would best meet their students' needs and school contexts. While there are some challenges, the students have positive experiences in School Sports Club. In summary, School Sports Club is one way to support students' physical activity engagement and social-emotional learning in school settings.

For this study, we operated with a critical theoretical understanding of schools as sites of (cis)heteronormativity, which led us to question the impact of heteronormative schooling environments. We used data from the 2017 national Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System to examine the self-reported experiences and feelings of high school students with gay or lesbian, bisexual, or questioning identities. Additionally, we used a quantitative intersectional approach to juxtapose the lived experiences of queer youth in the data with our own counternarratives. Our findings indicate that queer students experienced sadness and/or hopelessness, which was predicted by unsafe schooling experiences and signs of mental health trauma and exacerbated by intersecting marginal identities (i.e., race, ethnicity, gender). Our counternarratives suggest that LGBTQIAA+ youth may experience dissonance among their sense of belonging, home, and identity that is caused by the oppressive cis-heteronormative structures of their schooling systems, which may negatively impact their mental health. Although this dissonance is ever-present, we argue that queer and trans students resist these cis-heteronormative structures through homing, which allows these students to create a more equitable environment for themselves and others.

Suicidal thoughts and behaviors and nonsuicidal self-injury are more common in autistic adolescents than non-autistic adolescents, per parent- and self-report. Clinician-rated measures of suicide risk (e.g. Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale) have not been investigated with autistic youth despite high parent-child rating discrepancies. In the present study, the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale was employed to assess suicidal thoughts and behaviors and nonsuicidal self-injury in 239 early adolescents (10:0-13:9 years old) without intellectual disability, of whom 138 youth were autistic. Analyses tested diagnostic- and sex-based differences in suicidal thoughts and behaviors and nonsuicidal self-injury, and youth consistency in reporting across self- and clinician-rated measures. A greater proportion of autistic youth reported lifetime suicidal ideation (33 of 138, 23.9%) and nonsuicidal self-injury (12 of 138, 8.7%) than non-autistic youth (7 of 101, 6.9% suicidal ideation; 2 of 101, 2.0% nonsuicidal self-injury); however, there were no sex-based differences. Non-autistic youth were consistent in reporting suicidal thoughts across measures, but nearly one in five autistic youth disclosed suicidal thoughts on a self-report measure, but not on the clinician-rated Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. Findings suggest that autism diagnostic status, but not sex, confers significant risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors and nonsuicidal self-injury in early adolescents and that the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale may be a useful measure of suicide risk for some autistic youth, but it may not detect all autistic youth experiencing suicidal thoughts.

Evidence suggests increased mortality rates among autistic individuals. However, risks of mortality, including natural-cause, suicide, and accident mortalities, among autistic individuals remain unclear. Among the entire Taiwanese population (N = 29,253,529), between 2003 and 2017, 45,398 autistic individuals were identified and 1:4 matched to 181,592 non-autistic individuals based on birth year and sex. All-cause mortality, including natural-cause, accident, and suicide mortalities, was assessed from 2003 to 2017 between the two cohorts. Cox regression models were used to investigate the mortality risk between autistic and non-autistic individuals. Autistic individuals had increased likelihoods (hazard ratio, 95% confidence interval) of all-cause mortality (3.43, 3.00-3.92), natural-cause mortality (4.73, 3.99-5.60), and suicide mortality (3.67, 2.37-5.68) compared with non-autistic individuals. In particular, autistic males were more likely to die by suicide (hazard ratio: 3.81, 95% confidence interval: 2.37-6.13), and autistic females were more likely to die of accident (hazard ratio: 5.07, 95% confidence interval: 2.54-10.13) compared with non-autistic individuals. Appropriate and effective medical and mental health care is recommended for autistic individuals.

Gun violence is a significant public health issue. The U.S. has more than one mass shooting a day in which four or more people are injured or killed. However, mass shootings are only the tip of the iceberg of gun violence. Among developed nations, the U.S. is an outlier in both gun possession and gun deaths. Gun deaths affect not only the victim but also have significant short and long term emotional and economic consequences on family, friends, the community and the psyche of the nation. Nationally, gun violence prevention remains elusive. History on many contentious issues, including smoking and automobile safety, suggest meaningful change can occur. Often these changes are associated with a triad of factors. These include sustained advocacy and education efforts, often over many years, incremental changes along the way using an upstream-downstream approach, accompanied by public education and supportive public opinion. Finally, and importantly, it suggests what health educators and citizens can do to address the gun violence problem.

In 2017 the University of Utah experienced a tragedy which catalyzed already active changes in the department. In the aftermath, admissions to the graduate program was paused while new policies were developed and implemented. This article outlines this change process through the perspectives and accounts of those involved. Through in-depth interviews with students, staff, faculty, and administrators the process of change was found to be a complex path that involved robust practices of gathering input. This input was considered by a centralized group (the executive committee) advising the department chair and administrators. Findings indicated that the collective desire to reopen the program inspired most faculty to work together to find solutions, while some stakeholders did not fully buy in to large-scale programmatic changes. Further, interviews revealed the persistence of deep cultural challenges after the development and implementation of new policies. A new metaphor for this change is suggested to be a bonfire, as a tragedy sparked the fire of change structures which had already been built, and continual fuel is needed to sustain these changes. Moving forward the department is extending their graduate reform into undergraduate initiatives and normalizing evidence-based teaching practices. Content warning: This paper discusses the death by suicide of a graduate student.

Minority gay, bisexual and queer (GBQ) men face not only stigma from the general population based on their sexual orientation, but stigma as well based on their race, body type and their gender identity. Results of this study were derived from baseline data of the Pink Carpet Y Cohort Study in Singapore comprising a sample of 570 GBQ men aged 18 to 25 years old. Controlling for key demographic variables, being non-Chinese was associated with depression severity (aPR = 1.21, 95%CI [1.01,1.45]), experienced homophobia (aPR = 1.13, 95%CI [1.05,1.22]) and a past suicide attempt (aPR = 1.77, 95%CI [1.08,2.92]); being non-cisgender male was associated with depression severity (aPR = 1.27, 95%CI [1.05,1.55]) and experienced homophobia (aPR = 1.20, 95%CI [1.09,1.32]); reporting a BMI of 25 or more was associated with depression severity (aPR = 1.20, 95%CI [1.00,1.44]). Reporting one minority status was associated with depression severity (aPR = 1.23, 95%CI [1.05,1.45]) experienced homophobia (aPR = 1.08, 95%CI [1.01,1.15]), and a past suicide attempt (aPR = 1.61, 95%CI [1.01,2.56]), while reporting at least two minority statuses was associated with depression severity (aPR = 1.47, 95%CI [1.17,1.83]), experienced homophobia (aPR = 1.26, 95%CI [1.14,1.40]), and past suicide ideation (aPR = 1.28, 95%CI [1.01,1.62]), compared to participants in the general sample. Interventions are needed to buffer the effects of stigma in this vulnerable group of individuals.

Objective: This study used a multi-faceted methodological approach to examine if peer perceptions of stereotyped student groups' mental health needs varied by target race and student-athlete status. Participants: In Study 1, 502 university students completed an online experiment. Study 2 data were drawn from the American College Health Association (ACHA)-National College Health Assessment (N = 65,167) and Healthy Minds Study (N = 43,487). Methods: Study 1 participants rated the severity of various mental health concerns for Black non-student-athletes, White non-student-athletes, Black student-athletes, or White student-athletes. Study 2 conceptualized peer perceptions vis-à-vis mental health patterns in national data. Results: Study 1 generally revealed lower perceived severity of mental health concerns for Black non-student-athletes. In contrast, Study 2 patterns revealed more variations across student status groups, including that Black non-student-athletes exhibited relatively high prevalence rates of numerous mental health concerns. Conclusions: Results may suggest mental health under-/over-pathologizing, with implications for training and peer-to-peer mental health interventions.

Objective: Fear of negative evaluation (FNE) is a key trait of social anxiety and has been linked to isolation and low self-esteem. Impulsivity has been shown to amplify the risk of socially anxious individuals engaging in risky behaviors such as suicidal behaviors; yet little research has examined associations between FNE and suicidality or the relationship between FNE and impulsivity. Participants/ Methods: This study tested whether FNE was associated with suicidal ideation in a sample of 1,816 college students from 10 universities. Analyses also examined whether impulsivity-like traits moderated the relationship between FNE and suicidal ideation. Results: Results showed that FNE was significantly associated with suicidal ideation and the positive association between FNE and suicidal ideation was strongest among individuals with higher negative urgency and lower perseverance. Conclusions: These findings highlight FNE as an important risk factor of suicidal ideation in college students and illuminates potential influence of impulsivity on this relationship. [This article was written with the Protective Strategies Study Team.]

Objective: Food-restricted alcohol consumption (FRAC) is a growing concern among college students. We investigated demographic and lifestyle characteristics and psychiatric symptoms associated with FRAC. Participants: College students (n = 561) at a large southeastern university in the United States. Methods: Participants completed online self-reported questionnaires assessing past-year FRAC, demographic and lifestyle characteristics, and psychiatric symptoms. Results: The past-year prevalence of FRAC was 23.89%. In the bivariate analyses, students engaging in FRAC had higher mean scores of multiple psychiatric symptoms, reported more harmful or hazardous drinking and suicidality, and were more likely to report a history of an eating disorder than their peers without FRAC. In a hierarchical regression model, binge eating, cognitive restraint, self-reported history of an eating disorder, and harmful or hazardous drinking were significantly associated with FRAC (ps < 0.05) after other psychiatric symptoms were included in the model. Conclusion: Our findings stress the importance of heightened awareness of FRAC in college.

Suicide is a major public health issue in the United States and schools of social work have an important role to play in educating future social workers in suicide prevention. This article describes the results of a survey of BSW and MSW practice instructors (N = 259) exploring the strategies used to teach suicide content, including resources used to support their teaching and assignments to evaluate student competency with suicide prevention knowledge and skills. Most instructors (74.1%) use written resources such as practice textbooks and journal articles to support their teaching, although there are some differences between the practices of BSW versus MSW instructors. Fewer (34.0%) used an assessment of student competency working with clients with suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Implications for social work practice instructors are described, including the need to stay current on best practices in suicide assessment and intervention, expand the use of written resources for diverse groups, the use of culture in suicide assessment, maintaining up-to-date, current resources for students, and developing assignments which can effectively evaluate student competency and skill working with clients with suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Black boys have been dying by suicide at an increasing rate. Although the reasons for this increase are unknown, suicide in Black boys is likely influenced by multiple, intersecting risk factors, including historical and ongoing trauma. Schools can serve as an important mechanism of support for Black boys; however, without intentional antiracist frameworks that acknowledge how intersecting identities can exacerbate risk for suicide, schools can overlook opportunities for care and perpetuate a cycle of racism that compromises the mental health of Black youth. By recognizing their own implicit biases, modeling antiracist practices, listening to and recognizing the strengths and diversity of Black youth, and fostering school-family-community partnerships, school psychologists can help transform the school environment to be a safe and culturally affirming place for Black youth. This paper outlines how school psychologists can apply a trauma- and Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI)-informed approach to suicide prevention in order to more holistically support Black boys, disrupt patterns of aggressive disciplinary procedures, and improve school-based suicide prevention programs. By applying this lens across a multitiered systems of support (MTSS) framework, school psychologists can help to prevent the deaths of Black boys and begin to prioritize the lives of Black boys.

Substantial efforts have been dedicated to understanding, assessing, and managing suicide risk in youth broadly. However, little attention has been focused specifically on autistic youth and youth with intellectual disability. Because emergency departments are an essential point of suicide-related care, we used the National Emergency Department Sample databases to explore differences in prevalence of U.S. emergency department visits with a suicidal ideation or intentional self-inflicted injury ICD-9 diagnostic code by autistic youth, youth with intellectual disability, and youth without these diagnoses (i.e. the comparison group). Emergency department visits with a suicidal ideation or intentional self-inflicted injury diagnosis were more prevalent in autistic youth (5.1%) and youth with intellectual disability (6.6%) than in the comparison group (1.2%). Similar results were found when examining visits with a suicidal ideation diagnosis and with an intentional self-inflicted injury diagnosis separately. Prevalence of these emergency department visits increased more from 2006 to 2014 in autistic youth and in youth with intellectual disability than in the comparison group and were correlated with common and distinct sociodemographic and clinical factors across groups. Results suggest autistic youth and youth with intellectual disability may be uniquely vulnerable to suicide risk, highlighting the urgency of addressing suicidality and self-harm in these groups, particularly within emergency department settings.

Emerging research suggests overrepresentation of gender diversity among autistic youth. Previous gender diversity research with autistic children has relied on parent-report based on a single question. The "Gender Diversity Screening Questionnaire--Self-Report and Parent-Report" assessed gender diversity experiences from 244 children (140 autism spectrum disorder and 104 typically developing), between 10 and 13 years, and their parents. Parent-report "Child Behavior Checklist" Item-110, "Wishes to be the opposite sex," was also collected. Autistic children endorsed higher Gender Diversity Screening Questionnaire--Self-Report Binary Gender Diversity, t(223.21) = -2.83, adjusted p = 0.02, d = -0.35, and Nonbinary Gender Diversity, t(191.15) = -3.79, adjusted p = 0.001, d = -0.46, than typically developing children. Similarly, for Gender Diversity Screening Questionnaire--Parent-Report, there was a significant gender-body incongruence difference between the groups, t(189.59) = -2.28, adjusted p = 0.05, d = -0.30. Within-group analyses revealed that parents of autistic females-assigned-at-birth reported significantly more gender-body incongruence than males-assigned-at-birth, t(32.91) = -3.78, p < 0.001, d = -1.11. Moreover, distinct within-group profiles of gender experiences and internalizing symptoms were revealed, showing associations between gender profiles and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and suicidality. Results extend reports showing increased rates of gender diversity in autistic children based on both self-report and parent-report, underscoring the need to better understand and support the unique and complex needs of autistic children who experience gender diversity.