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School poverty and the risk of attempted suicide among adolescents

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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Existing theory and empirical work suggest that impoverished school contexts may increase the risk of mental health problems such as suicide. This study tests this hypothesis by investigating the longitudinal association between school income and attempted suicide among American adolescents.

Methods

Logistic regression models were used to estimate the association between school income and suicidal attempts among all adolescents and among those with suicidal thoughts, respectively. Data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative sample of American adolescents across 132 middle and high schools (N = 12,920).

Results

Among all adolescents, the prevalence of attempted suicide was higher in low-income schools compared to middle-income schools for boys but not girls. Among those with suicidal thoughts, the prevalence of attempted suicide was also higher in low-income schools compared to middle- and high-income schools for boys only. Differences between middle- and high-income schools were not observed, suggesting that school income may only impact attempted suicide when high levels of deprivation are present. These significant associations persisted after adjusting for established risk factors such as prior suicidal attempts.

Conclusion

Highly impoverished school contexts may increase the risk of attempted suicide for boys. Future research exploring the mechanisms underlying this association may help inform the development of more effective suicide-prevention interventions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 426 Thompson St., Ann Arbor, MI, 48106, USA

    Michael Fang

Authors
  1. Michael Fang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Fang.

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Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

The author analyzed restricted data from the Add Health under terms of a license between Elizabeth Bruch and the University of North Carolina.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Missing case

See Table 5.

Table 5 Comparison of socio-demographic characteristics between students who were included and excluded from analytic sample
Full size table

Appendix 2: Variable details

See Table 6.

Table 6 Detailed description of variables used in study
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Appendix 3: Interactive models

See Table 7.

Table 7 Odds ratios (with 95% CIs) from logistic regression models predicting the association between school income and attempted suicide among US adolescents, interactive models: the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, 1996
Full size table

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Fang, M. School poverty and the risk of attempted suicide among adolescents. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 53, 955–967 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-018-1544-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-018-1544-8

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